Africa Lounge — Restaurant in SeaTac

As a restaurant and bar manager for many years, I have got to say I am absolutely appalled at the lack of customer service and organization Africa Lounge portrays. I understand SeaTac is a very busy Airport, and the Terminal this establishment is in is one of the busiest. However, lack of training and focus, as well as manners, is what I witnessed and experienced on 3/4/2015. I had a good hour or so to relax before boarding my flight with my husband, and sat in the 'Lounge' area on the left side of the bar. We were swiftly greeted, given menus, and bev naps to signal to the waitress (a beautiful mid 20's tall woman of African descent with long hair) that we need our order taken. We patiently waited, with smiles, as we watched the waitress run around like mad. I made eye contact with her a few times, made an effort to push our empty bev naps closer in sight to make sure the signal is clear. 15 minutes rolled by, and we were ignored time and time again. A couple next to us pays, leaves, the table is bussed, and a new guest (a single woman) is sat. The waitress stands right next to us, greets her, takes her drink order, gets her drink, and then takes the woman's food order, all within 1 minute, without making an effort to turn around and ask for our drink order.

My husband makes a point to get her attention, and before he can say anything, she snapped at him with a finger and an attitude "I'll be with you in just ONE minute!". As soon as I heard the attitude towards him, I immediately grabbed our coats and carry-ons, and stormed out, with my fuming husband chomping at the bit to tear her apart.

Mind you, she didn't know that I am very attentive to service oriented establishments and how their staff operates. She also didn't know that due to my experience in the service industry, I am a BIG tipper, when the proper service is given. Like 30% tipper. She also didn't know that we were probably the easiest people to serve in there, because we aren't demanding, and just wanted to drink a few beers before boarding to cap our week-long honeymoon.

What really irritates me about this situation, is that this waitress gets paid $15 USD an hour, on top of tips. A lot of people don't know that employees in the city of Seattle has a minimum wage of $15/hr. Yes, $15. The highest in the nation. So she could care less about shitty service, as long as she still gets her $15 an hour that she is 'owed', because that's what Seattle service industry folk feel entitled to.

This waitress needs to be either suspended from her job without pay for a week or so, or fired. As a manager myself, I would not tolerate that behavior. There are 500 other people who would kill for a job that pays $15/hr, on top of tips, as well as limited operating hours.

I don't know if she hates men, gay people, or just didn't give 2 shits, but she still has a job to perform.

Don't work in a Airport restaurant if you can't...

Many have commented already that the name of this establishment has nothing to do with the food, but I am not sure anyone has expounded on just how extraordinarily lame this place is. First, you would think that the owners, after having seen these postings and realized that many travelers would like some unique food, would have seized on the opportunity and updated the menu. Second, there is a continent's worth of interesting African food to offer up. Show some creativity here. At a minimum, it would be pretty easy to offer up some Nshima or Piri-piri Chicken or at least some beers from Africa, even if you already have your own named after the place (but not made there). Third, usually when sad sacks like these owners misappropriate a place in their restaurant name, they at least keep the theme going by naming the dishes in the menu after the location, even if they have nothing to do with the location. These losers started down this path (there is the "Congo Burger", which is just a typical hamburger) but they evidently ran out of energy after that one pathetic effort, because everything else just has standard names ("House Salad", "Super Nachos"), or, worse yet, names commemorating pseudo-places far from Africa ("St. Louie Style Ribs"). Sorry to be a bit harsh, but I pass through SeaTac at least weekly and am reduced, each time, to shaking my head at this place, instead of being excited to stop for an interesting...

To preface this: I am traveling on the day before Thanksgiving so the place was packed from noon to close.

I had to swing around 3 time over a 2 hour period to get a seat. I couldn't tell what was available due to not knowing what was an occupied table or just not cleared yet. Once there, no waiter would meet my eye. I only got a menu after the waiter was done taking orders for the table across from me and they pointed me out. I ordered a drink, 20 minuets later the waiter comes back and notices no drink. Heads to the bar and grabs my order after another 3 min, warm with ice tells me it was only just made. I order the nachos with chicken. Got it in 10 so min. Consisted of microwaved grilled chicken slices, jar salsa, jar jalapeno and half melted cheese. Also, it was all clumped to one side or the other. This all cost just over $15.

I want to give the benefit of the doubt, given the holiday and dinner rush. I want to give the floor staff full credit in trying to keep up with the rush. My waiter did offer to talk to the manager and to try and take off the item, but by then I was so done I just wanted out of there and paid the ticket. I dont think I will give it another shot

UPDATE: Vomited up my dinner 30 min after eating. They gave me...