Denny's — Restaurant in City of Batavia

My friends and I went around 10pm and we were seated quickly. We were ordering our drinks (they were out of supplies to make some drinks) which took about 15 minutes… it seemed like there were only 2 servers and 2 chefs? So that might explain why it took a while but it’s alright. We ordered our food (which they also ran out of supplies for like the boneless wings and burger buns). My 2 friends ordered the mac n brisket skillet, then everyone else ordered some type of sandwich or burger. We waited an entire hour, we never heard them cook the brisket until like 40 minutes in… and when all of the food came out, only 1 brisket was presented. We were just then informed— let me mention, after a whole hour— that they only had enough mac and cheese for 1 skillet, so this lady server (which was incredibly understanding) offered a dish on the house to make up for all the inconveniences. He wanted T-bone steak, but they were out so he got the sirloin steak, and we waited another thirty minutes for it to come out. By this time, everyone was already done eating and he was still waiting. We never heard the chef(s) in the back sizzling something (it’s easy to hear what’s going on in the back), so when the sirloin was presented to my friend, he cut into it and it looked boiled or microwaved???? I’m not sure how to explain it, but the meat was practically jiggling and oozing of blood still (he ordered medium rare but it looked the rarest) and when he bit into it, he mentioned that he can still taste the blood. We ended up paying and leaving, and he ended up bringing it home to have his dad cook the sirloin for him. We arrived at 10pm and left Denny’s around 12:30am.

I understand that coming in at a late hour, they might have not had enough supplies… even if it was a 24 hr spot. Nevertheless, we were appreciative of the lady server as she offered us refills of our drinks, and I hope she doesn’t think we were angry at her either. What WAS wasted was our valuable time, but it was just a lesson to never come back to...

Dear Denny’s Corporate Team,

I’m writing to share a firsthand experience I had at your Batavia, NY location that left me deeply concerned and heartbroken for the staff on duty. As a 20-year veteran in the restaurant industry, I know firsthand what it means to work a tough shift but what I witnessed went far beyond that.

On the evening of my visit, 8-1-2025 I watched as this location operated with no official servers on the floor. The only people working were a cook, a dishwasher, and one front-of-house team member, all of whom were doing their absolute best to hold things together. There were minors present who appeared to be trying to help manage capacity overwhelmed, and clearly left to navigate responsibilities they shouldn’t have had to handle.

The situation became so dire that I felt the need to stepp in to help, using my experience to complete many DoorDash orders and all in house guests. The staff welcomed my assistance, and we worked together as a team to keep things running but I cannot express enough how unacceptable it is for any restaurant to be left so desperately short-staffed.

These employees were exhausted but never rude. They were kind, respectful, and communicative. They did not complain but they shouldn’t have had to struggle like that in the first place. No one should. It’s not just unsustainable; it’s unsafe and unfair to both employees and customers.

I implore Denny’s to take a serious look at what’s happening in Batavia. These employees deserve support, structure, and proper staffing. This location is hanging on by the incredible effort of people who clearly care but they are being failed by a system that hasn’t given them the basic tools or backup they need. The cook made every dish and each one came out hot and delicious.

Please consider this an urgent call for change. The heart of a restaurant is its people and they need help. I am sorry but it was...

The food was great and tasty. But the fact that the waitress never came back to check on the table after we got our food, nor did she notice that when she came over to take our order that we didn't have napkins or silverware from the person that sat us at the table, as well as before we even got our food never asked if we had them yet to begin with even before takingour food order. Had to ask about getting them when we got our food, as well as had the kids food order not correct (pancakes, asked to have chocolate chips in them, wasn't done that way). So all in all the experience of tonight was not the greatest we have had in the many years and many times of going. Nor was the place really that clean, the booth we were at had food on the wall that had to of been there for a while and was never cleaned up. So to say that we would want to go back isn't really what I was say but, I would say that I would give it another shot if the people that were working there actually got there acts together and did their jobs the right way, cuz I still don't think that the waitress we had ever told us her name to begin with but, I am nice enough that I wouldn't put her on blast for how this experience went today. But I will give some advice though, If your going to do a job like this then try and make sure that the first few words that you go to say to a table your working at is 1.) Your name 2.) A "how are you doing today?; kinda breaks the ice and can see how the table will be for the duration of the time it is there and 3.) BE AWARE OF YOUR TABLE AND WHAT THEY DONT HAVE ALREADY IN FRONT OF THEM, case in point silverware and napkins. Those three things to me as a customer are big things to set the mood and how the time spent...