AMC DINE-IN Poway 10 — Local services in Poway

We had such high hopes for this theater. We went several months ago just after they reopened and it was great. Then last night service was horrible. We decided dinner at the movies. We dropped nearly $100 on tickets and food for a family of three. Our problems with the theater and it’s staff started nearly immediately. We arrived at 25 minutes before the movie and attempted to order dinner, a burger, hot dog and chicken tenders. The first problem was they had no hot dogs ready. Mind you, the lobby wasn’t that busy, maybe 2 people in line. We agreed to wait for the hotdog since we had to wait for the burger anyways. We went to get drinks, and two of the four machines were down, and the other two had very limited selections, not to mention that the counters were extremely sticky (like no one had bothered to wipe them for hours). I had to go to the bar to get sprite and GoToMeeting resentment for asking for a staple beverage at a theater. We went to our seats and 10 minutes a worker comes in and tells us they forgot to defrost their beef patties, so no hamburgers. (What kind of theater has no hot dogs or hamburgers?) I ask they just simply send chicken tenders instead. I wish that was the end of our saga. We waited and waited, got through previews and still no food (we ordered 40 minutes ago by this point) So just as the movie begins I have to go to the lobby to find a manger to help get our food (missing the first five minutes of the movie) What I got is I assume a line lead, because all she did was say “I am sorry but we are new”. No offer to check on the food, no “How can I make this right because waiting 40 minutes for chicken tenders and a hot dog is horrendous “. After prodding I got her to check on the food, and when she came out, she said another 5-8 minutes (which I took as we forgot about you but the order is now started). Again no offer to find out what would make it right. So I go back to my family and wait another ten minutes. The food finally arrives but they forgot the hot dog! So now in a darkened theater I just have to hope the food looks okay (the reason we arrive early is to be able to visually inspect the food as it arrives). Oh and did I mention that even through our meals came with fries no ketchup comes with the order? I had to venture out into the lobby, missing more of the movie to get ketchup for the hotdog and fries. Of course there is no working ketchup dispenser either (counters were even more sticky and gross by this point) We will be avoiding this theater for the foreseeable future, as I much prefer the Angelika over the service of this place. The only positive I can find about our experience was the seats were comfortable and the movie...

Love the new re-done, remodel of the Poway theater's themselves but everything from the inside out referring to operations, not so much. Obviously, poor management without proper oversight and or leadership. In order for your staff to take pride in their work, there must first be good morale within, which starts from the top down, clearly this is missing!

My pet peeve is cleanliness, staff are friendly which is a big plus but the place is FILTHY! Smudges on everything from the brass elevator doors, to the brass stair rails, glass doors etc. The flooring, carpet was loaded with popcorn droppings to food particles, bits and pieces of trash from one end of the theater to the other, felt like I was walking through the aftermath of an all night after party. Where is the proper staffing in order to keep up with crowd size (especially on a Friday night) with maintaining cleanliness. AMC could do so MUCH BETTER. Being a STUBS-A-lister I wouldn't expect anything less.

During my visit here, I noticed there was a HUGE spill in front of your drink dispenser and your staff did a very poor job of cleaning it up, almost slipped 3 times going to the restroom =(

Come on UPPER AMC MANAGEMENT, re-group and start over with team building and motivating your staff with leadership, training and incentives when it comes to taking pride in what they do ESPECIALLY in such a beautiful, well crafted establishment.

There is just one more thing I would like to point out, and that would be the limited access you have regarding restrooms downstairs. Convert the single ones to multiples. I'm surprised the county didn't slap you with a citation regarding proper access and convenience for your patrons especially the disabled! One misses several minutes of movie time getting to and from the restrooms upstairs, elevator or stairs, doesn't matter. If the single restroom is occupied and by the way, the three times I went during the movie, there was a line of at least 3 people or more waiting to access the single use restroom that is located downstairs.

These are my thoughts, hopefully they will open some eyes in upper management to do better with leadership and oversight with the slight hope of possibly at expanding your restroom size downstairs.

Good luck Poway AMC...

As a resident of northern SD county, this is the closest AMC cinema as I currently reside in Escondido. The neighboring cities consist mostly of Regal chains, which are my personal favorite cinema brand. The reason why I went to this AMC is because I had Black Tickets and $35 worth of gift cards to spend on, so I decided to visit this Dine-In location because why not.

First of all, concession prices are outrageous, as if normal theater concessions are already expensive enough. The gift cards were just enough to purchase a chicken tender meal along with a large drink, for $35! (But at least I got an extra cup simply because I asked for one before they delivered my food and soda, and it looks like the server didn't care about handing a second beverage to me, with was nice for a food service mishap that pleases what I paid for, as this unintentionally gets an additional star).  The food actually tastes decent, but was slightly oversalted.  It's no different than visiting an American restaurant right after you watch a movie.

As for the movie experience, it felt unpleasant. The film I watched here was Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and despite enjoying the movie I hated this particular AMC experience.  Since many complaints told that Spider-verse had bad audio mixing, I decided to request a Closed Captions device to stay on the safe side, in which was a terrible idea since my head was going back-and-forth focusing on the device and the movie simultaneously (hence why I prefer Regal's use of AR glasses for captions), not to mention that a solid 20 minutes before the movie was used to adjust that flimsy thing, only for it to fall out of the cup holder twice!  The projection screen was also inferior for having the AMC brand, as three thin vertical lines can be seen on the silver screen itself. These can be distracting when a movie has tons of brightly lit scenes, but wasn't necessarily a problem for Spider-verse. The recliners were nice and comfy, but the heater gets too hot when set to minimum heat, not to mention that the seat right beside me doesn't have working heat, but at least my brother who came along didn't mind.

Overall, would I revisit an AMC Dine-In? Maybe if I have gift cards again. But would I visit this...