Perkins American Food Co. — Restaurant in Austin

It's been a while since we visited this location, and I thought the food/service was decent (3 stars) but today was just awful!

We arrived just before 1pm, and the place didn't look busy at all (a few booths being used.) The gentleman host asked if I was alone or waiting for people, I replied that I was waiting for people, that we were a party of seven adults and one child. He left and returned a minute later, and two waitresses followed to the front shortly after. The host asked a waitress if she wanted our party of eight, she replied "Oh, no, I don't want to wait on a party that large" and giggled. (mind you, she was about three feet away from me and said it loudly.) The host turned to the other waitress and asked her, and she replied "No, I'm cutting today and want to leave soon."

I waited several more minutes. My party all had arrived and we waited too. I mentioned the waitresses' comments to my party, and we thought about going to Applebee's. The host finally returned and sat us at a table. I waited in the lobby for a member of our party to finish using the restroom. I guess at this time, the host had taken everyone else's drink order. When the guest and myself started heading to the table, we didn't get more than five feet before the host stopped us to ask what we wanted to drink. I thought it was a little rude that we didn't get a chance to sit down and look at the drink selection before being asked.

Our server was less than stellar as well. She seemed like she had other things on her mind besides engaging with us. My sister had eaten at this Perkins all throughout attending college in town, and usually got a salad and grilled chicken a la carte. Our waitress was just confused by her request. All she wanted was a regular, large salad plate/bowl with just lettuce, and then grilled chicken either on it or off to the side. They went back and forth for some time, each time the waitress not understanding the simple request. My sister was given a small, side garden salad loaded with cheese, crotons, etc. She was quite disappointed, and for $6 and change, we felt that was a rip off.

Our waitress was very inattentive during our meal as well. She would walk past, not stopping, and ask us questions, and then leave, whether or not we answered or asked for anything. We got our appetizer without any small plates to share the app. None of our drinks were ever refilled. She forgot a side to one meal, and the pancakes to another. We even grabbed a menu to make sure we should have gotten those, as we thought it was included (which the menu confirmed.)

The food was not great either, just sloppy, poorly made, and not great tasting. None of us finished our meal, and a few guests declined taking their leftovers home. One guest was paying for the meal, as we were out celebrating our sister's graduation from college, and many of us asked her not to tip, due to the horrible service. I'll be hesitant to dine at this Perkins...

I was staying at the Holiday Inn next to this Perkin's and decided to walk over and have dinner. This restaurant appear to be short staffed like many other restaurants in this day and time. Upon arriving it took a couple of minutes for someone to acknowledge and seat me. It took another few minutes for my server to appears and take my drink order. It seemed that my server was responsible for two sections and was doing the best that she could to tend to tables in both sections. Throughout my visit my server remained polite and did her best to put forth a cheerful attitude. When my food arrived I found it to be only luke warm, and was not very well plated. It really wasn't a very appetizing presentation. I really do appreciated my servers efforts, she was doing her best in a very difficult situation. Maybe if this restaurant was adequately staffed it would be more than just...

As I'm usually a pretty frequent customer I enjoy ordering my food and picking it up I'm about 6 months pregnant and have a disabled son we waited in the lobby for 20 minutes while other people came in and got sat down which is totally fine if it wasn't me standing at the cash register for that long as people walked right past me to help other people I'm not one to make an outburst or try to be disrespectful my son was very excited about having his grilled cheese sandwich as I watched it cold literally 10 ft away from me I walked away as my son had a meltdown so I had to carry him to the car. You lost a frequent customer just by ignoring the fact that if somebody standing in your lobby for that long at the cash register as people walk by and not ask if they need help or why they're there I just...