Darn You Ihop!

Most everyone knows that Im pretty shy and reserved as a person.. Ok so I may talk your head off if I know you pretty well and feel comfortable around you, but for the most part Im calm, quiet and try to keep the peace.

Anyway, Thursday night we had to go to Kohls so we went to dinner at Ihop before. We used to go there a lot b/c we really like the food but havent gone lately because we realized its pretty expensive when you add in drinks and kids meals.. the kids are eating a lot more these days! :P

So we went in, got seated and everything was ok. Took awhile to get a waitress. Finally got our orders in and drinks. Thats when the bad service started. We ended up waiting 40 minutes for food! and it was simple stuff that shouldnt have taken anywhere near that long to prepare. They didnt even bring the kids' food out first.. so they were getting very grumpy and starting to whine and everyone was looking at us. I hate times like that when everyone shoots you the look like "calm down your kid" and you just cant because you've tried everything-- even to the point where your 16 mo old just ate a crayon but you looked the other way because it kept her quiet for 5 minutes (haha, i didnt know she had eaten some until after she did it, but at least its non-toxic!) We finally got our food and realized that we didnt have any silverware. Arnold was also missing his fries b/c they had decided to put onion rings on his plate instead, which he hates, so he wouldnt have taken them anyway! Not to mention Arnold hadnt gotten his drink refilled the whole time we had been seated.


I kept telling Arnold that we needed to say something but he wanted to lay low and "not cause a scene." But i couldnt stand the thought of paying nearly $30 for a meal there after that kind of service. So i went up to the desk, and talked to the manager. I was fired up and angry but of course when i got there to him became nervous and got my famous nervous rash, where i break out in red rashes all over my chest (I hate my rash, btw, it showed up in my wedding pics and i will forever remember how much i was shaking that day! it gets so bad that drs have asked me if i was having an allergic reaction! its not pretty!) Anyway, i talked to him and told him how horrible the service was, and he apologized and went off to talk to our waitress. She came and apologized and we ended up getting $8 off our meal! Not too bad, if i do say so myself. I am proud I didnt just sit there and "take it" when i was so unhappy.


I know a lot of people will think "big deal" over this but hey, its a big deal to me! A year ago i would never have had the nerve to talk to the manager. I guess I am growing up :)