Genghis Grill — Restaurant in Arlington

I wanted to share my experience on a recent complaint sent to the corporate office for Genghis Grill in Arlington. I've attached my complaint and their response. Happy readings:)

On April 14th, 2015, I ran across a 'birthday bowl' email sent from Genghis Grill (for my April 12th birthday). Not realizing the offer expired on my birthday (which is odd by the way), I called our closest Genghis Grill restaurant (Arlington Highlands in Arlington, TX) to see if there would be a problem using it. I asked to speak with a manager and 'H' (who I later found out was a host) assured me the birthday bowl coupon would be honored as they're normally good for the entire month of your birthday. So, my husband and I decided we would purchase two bowls (to-go), one for me (the birthday girl) and one for himself. When we arrived at the Arlington Highlands location, we were greeted by H (I did not know he was the gentleman I spoke with earlier over the phone). He instructed us on the 'new policy' for making bowls and told us to check-out at the bar. Once we got our bowls (mine was ready first), I went to the bar area to check-out and was helped by 'G**' (did not know her role or name at the time). I told her that I got an approval to use the birthday bowl coupon from a young man I spoke with earlier (could not recall his name, but mentioned he may have been the manager). I further explained that I would be purchasing a 2nd bowl for my husband. First, she corrected me and said she was the manager and could not honor the birthday coupon because it expired on April 12th, but would give me a "percentage off" the birthday bowl. I told her I wasn't happy with just a 'percentage off' because the whole purpose of my visit was to redeem my free bowl and purchase a 2nd one. And, if there was a problem with using the coupon, that should have been explained to me earlier when I called. She said, "Well, that may have been a host you spoke to. Also, there has been a recent change with the birthday bowls where coupons were valid the entire month, but not anymore; so, I can't honor it." Well, of course, I became upset and said if she couldn't honor the free bowl then I wasn't interested in taking either one home. She said, "Okay", and appeared to be done with our conversation. Before my husband and I left, we expressed to her that we felt it was 'poor judgment' (as a manager) to not honor what one of her employees said to a customer AND to allow money be thrown away (especially on a slow day). You're losing money on not just one bowl, but two.

My husband and I returned to the restaurant a few minutes later. He went back in to get the names of H* and G. H* actually admitted that he spoke with me earlier over the phone and apologized for the misinformation (this confession took place in front of G**), but it changed nothing. Response from Genghis Grill Corporate Office:

It would be my pleasure to assist you! I apologize for all of the confusion that took place in the store! Our Free Birthday Bowl policy has changed as of November of 2014. It is applied to your account on the Monday of your birthday week and expires on that following Sunday. Due to your birthday falling on a Sunday this year, it expired on that day. The management of the store was unable to honor your Free Birthday Bowl on the store level because of the way our POS system is programmed. In order to attach a Free Birthday Bowl to your receipt, they must have a valid Free Birthday Bowl on your account to attach. If there is not a Free Birthday Bowl to attach, there is an error message that appears, stating that the attachment cannot be completed. Unfortunately, we do not have alternative to this redemption within our POS system. We apologize for the inconvenience. I posted my complaint on their facebook page and it was deleted...

First I want to say that the grill side employees were amazing. Not only were they incredibly careful with my food allergy, but they were friendly, fast and helpful.

This is the first time we've eaten in at a Genghis Grill. We usually get it to go. For most of our time there today, there weren't a lot of people. A big group came near the end of our time, but otherwise, there were just a few people. Our drinks stayed empty for quite some time and were never refilled. Which was annoying, but the low stars are for the way my daughter was treated.

She ordered just rice with a bit of teriyaki. When we ordered our bases I let the server know that she only wanted a bowl of rice and to please bring her's out as soon as it was ready so she didn't have to wait for us to eat.

We waited for a few minutes then we were called to go to the grill. We put our bowls together and waited for them to be cooked. Keep in mind two of us had bases of rice so the rice was ready. We returned to the table after about 15 minutes and my daughter still didn't have her food.

I found our server and mentioned that she didn't have her rice yet. "Oh I forgot. I'll grab it right now."

So we started eating because we thought her food would be right out.

Another about 10 minutes passes and still no rice. I tried to wave down the server, who passed on either side of us a few times and also stopped to greet the larger group that came in near the end of our meal.

I finally got up and found the server and said again that my child still didn't have her simple bowl of rice that she'd ordered. Another, "I'm sorry, I completely forgot" and then FINALLY she was given her bowl of rice.

Our empty drink glasses were ignored

I love Genghis Grill and both the Duncanville and Fort Worth locations have phenomenal service. This was our first time at this Arlington location and we will not be back.

The most attention we got was from the grill staff (once again, top notch experience with them) and then of course when it came time to pay, someone (not our server) came over and we got tons of attention then. We were very polite and patient with our server, even when I had to leave my table to hunt down my daughter's order TWICE.

We're from a minority group and to be honest after watching how our server treated everyone else, I'm pretty sure the issue was that. Not sure why anyone would take it out on a child, but her food was the only food the server was responsible for bringing us as the rest of us got our food from the grill staff. We only saw our server when our drinks were delivered and when the rice was brought. Our server checked on other tables around us several times during that time. The difference in our treatment was notable.

Even AFTER having to ask several times for my daughter's bowl of rice and having someone else come to check us out, we still tipped our server well and we were very patient and kind. Working in food service is difficult and both my spouse and I have been there so we were very polite and patient. Still the server didn't even acknowledge us...

Always love this place!!! Have to edit this. I love Genghis Grill, just not this one. Today was no exception. Let me start off with I have been going to Genghis for over 20 years, and I have been to multiple locations, and this location is by far THE WORST!!! Let's start with being seated, we were met by this depressed looking hostess and sat. Then we had to wait, in an almost empty restaurant BTW, for our waitress to finally decide to come to our table and ask us if we wanted anything to drink and if we wanted any appetizers, we ordered Cokes and some pot stickers. We got our bowls fast enough, walked through the nastiest buffet line I have ever seen at a Genghis, no cups for the sauce were even available and after we put our bowls up to be cooked, we come back to the table and had to wait 10 min more for our drinks!! We ate, and dispute being shorted noodles for a large bowl, the food was ok. Remember the beginning of this review? That's right! We never did get our appetizers! When we asked about them, 10 min later we were brought the saddest, nastiest, most tasteless pot stickers you ever dared to want to try, this whole experience was even harder to tolerate because our server thought it was better by the bar, chatting away with the rest of the crew than checking on her tables and giving us refills of our drinks, which only happened because we had to ask the depressed hostess to fetch her for us, because she refused to make eye contact with anyone. The topper to that awful visit, was the stomach problems my son now has from eating that dirty food. All I'm saying is that they have closed better Genghis Grills, it is so sad this place can't improve. I spoke to a manager, to try and point out what was wrong, but I could tell she wasn't interested, all she wanted to do was give me a discount, I payed full price for our food, I wanted to prove a point. Sadly, I'm sure the point was missed, as she was one of the grillers that shorted our noodles, and was also one of the employees in a tight huddle, talking and laughing with her co-workers instead of cleaning the line, or making sure people had drinks, appetizers, or how about making sure other employees were doing thier jobs. So sad. So...