I grew up going to diners every weekend, having both bad and good experiences and food. Unfortunately my trip to the Palace Diner tonight rates as my worst trip ever, and unfortunately it has very little to do with the food.

We arrived at the diner at 9:45 PM, and were promptly seated. Our first sign that something was amiss was when our waiter took our orders, but when repeating it back to us, had mistakes with details on almost each of our orders. We each corrected him and he seemed to write them down - we chalked this up to him possibly being new. 5 min later, he returned to tell us that one of the items was unavailable - by just pointing to it on the menu and saying “we don’t have it.”

Then we waited for a full 45 min at least. Our waiter never checked in with us. For reference, we ordered an omelet, a grilled cheese, a quesadilla, and an appetizer sampler - arguably some of the quickest items on the menu. We had to flag down another waitress who told us that there was a rush of online orders and they were backed up. We asked how much longer and our waiter just said “everything is ready, it’s the appetizer holding you up.” Another 10 min pass and all the tables around us get food. Finally, the appetizer sampler, sides of fries, and quesadillas arrive but now it’s the omelet and grilled cheese that are delayed.

We wait another 10 min and eventually the sandwich and eggs arrive. I had ordered a spinach , American cheese, and bacon omelet with white toast - but I only received an omelet with only spinach. I told the waiter that my order was incorrect and he went back to the kitchen without asking any questions and came back with just a side of bacon. He said “the kitchen messed up and they said sorry.” I said that I appreciate it but while I wanted the omelet I ordered (he did not offer to have it remade), I didn’t want to wait another hour for it and would prefer to send my order back since I hadn’t taken a bite. He then said “well if you send it back, I have to pay for it. And it’s not my fault.” My friend then stood up for me and said “I don’t think it’s fair to guilt trip her for not wanting to pay for what she didn’t order.” He took the plate and walked away.

At this time, everyone else was eating and made note that every order was incorrect - the BBQ chicken quesadilla had no BBQ sauce, the arugula on the grilled cheese that we requested be left off was on it, and there was no marinara sauce for the appetizer sampler. Unfortunately from this point forward, our waiter avoided our table, so we just tried to eat quickly to then leave. The waitress from earlier came over to apologize and ask if there was anything she could do, which I appreciated, but I just explained that we wanted to finish, pay, and leave. Eventually, she saw that our waiter never returned to our table and asked if we needed the check - when we said yes, we heard her say to our waiter “when their food is so late, you at least have to keep an eye on them afterwards.”

I was just going to chalk it up to being a rough night and let it go, but as we were waiting at the front to pay, now wearing masks because we were up from the table, our waiter passed by, clearly talking about me to another person and in said “and she said ‘well if it doesn’t have bacon I don’t want it!’” He put on a whiny voice when he was misquoting me.

Now listen, I know in a world of Karen’s it could be easy to say I was being too tough on the waiter. But to be clear, we still tipped 20%, we only asked for the omelet I did not touch to be taken off the bill, and we paid for everything else. We didn’t make a scene. But to hear that walking out was disrespectful and ridiculous. My friends and I will not be back.