Three friends and I decided to have dinner at Pizza Man Thursday, Feb. 9.

Talk about bad decisions.

Only one person in our group of four received the correct entree. That person, Abby, did say, however, her entree was “awesome.”

The evening began with the server politely approaching the table. With a smile she asked what we wanted to drink. Two in our group ordered Cherry Coke and two decided to drink water.

The server brought three Cherry Cokes in tubs and ignored our empty water glasses.

After five minutes, we asked for a carafe of water so we could maintain our liquid levels.

The server then took our order. Karl ordered pasta a la pescatora with scallops, conch, shrimp and Cajun sauce; Abby ordered the blackened orange roughy and Chris ordered artichoke ravioli. I also ordered pasta a la pescatora, but with scallops, crab and clams.

All of the entrees come with a salad. Three of us asked for parmesan peppercorn ranch, one for Italian vinaigrette. To start, we ordered the onion ring loaf.

The server didn’t write the order down. This made me nervous and I expressed my doubt to my dining companions that our entrees would arrive how we had ordered them.

When the appetizer arrived, we asked for parmesan peppercorn ranch to enjoy with the onion rings. When the ranch finally arrived we had finished the appetizer.

“I’m sorry,” the server said, “I had to run downstairs.”

No problem, we didn’t ask for the sauce up front. It was our mistake.

Our salads came, all with parmesan peppercorn ranch. My companion asked if he could have Italian vinaigrette instead. The server apologized and brought the correct dressing.

After serving our salads, the server asked two people in the group what they had.

Talk about a red flag. It was at that point Chris, who ordered the artichoke chicken, joked that our entrees will have a 50 percent success rate. He was wrong — it was only 25 percent.

Chris was served the chicken a la pasta.

After pulling the server aside to inform her that we had received the wrong entree, she said that it made sense because another table received the wrong entree — Chris’ entree — as well. She apologized again.

We asked for two more Cherry Cokes.

After taking Chris’ entree, I noticed that my entree was missing the scallops and crab that I ordered. I looked at Karl, who was also enjoying the pasta a la pescatora, and saw he had clams when he ordered shrimp.

The server walked by our table numerous times without stopping to see how the remaining entrees were. After sitting for 23 minutes without anything in front of him, the entree Chris had ordered arrived. The server quickly set it down, apologized and ran away as quick as she had come.

Now we had to become an obnoxious table. We began calling for her, “Miss!”

I understand the last place you want to be is at a table where very little has gone right. However, running away and not confronting the mistakes that were made only adds fuel to the fire.

When we finally got her attention, I explained the mistakes in our entrees.

“The kitchen is so far behind,” she said. “Our computer won’t allow me to put special orders in. So I told him and I even asked if I should write it down but he said he had it.”

Apparently “he” was one of the cooks. It’s odd that a computer system for entering orders won’t allow for keying-in special requests or changes. Why offer the option of substituting clam and crab for conch and shrimp on the pasta a la pescatora if you can’t communicate that on the order? And why am I being given so many excuses as to what went wrong? Can you please just fix the problems?

I was frustrated at this point but politely handed her my entree.

“I could order you another pasta a la pescatora but the kitchen is …” Her voice trailed off.

“That’s OK,” I said. “I really don’t want to wait. Thanks though.”

At this point we reminded her we ordered two more Cherry Cokes. This time the drinks came in larger soda glasses.

The server explained that Chris’ and my entrees were removed from the bill and apologized for the mistakes.

The manager finally stopped by our table. After we explained everything that had gone wrong, he did something right. He offered to buy us a round of drinks. We thanked him, but declined. Instead, he brought two $15 gift certificates and invited us to come back.

I asked if it was an unusually busy night. The manager explained that it wasn’t unusually busy, but every diner seemed to have come at once causing everyone’s timing to be off.

Despite all the mistakes, I will be back to Pizza Man. The manager actively sought to make sure we weren’t upset. The server removed from the bill two of the entrees that were prepared incorrectly.

The server’s parting words to us?

“Please come back when the kitchen is not hung over.”

I will. I just hope that next time I get what I order and the service is better.

> Comments