Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews — Restaurant in Columbus

Edit Update: Immediately following this incident, I was called personally by the managing partner of the restaurant, Mr. Andrew Orton. He did everything within his power to apologize and make things right. Tonight, my family and I returned to this location because we believe everyone deserves a second chance. Mr. Orton personally visited our table, shook my hand, and apologized to not only me, but my family as well. He offered to pay for our meal but we refused because that was not what this issue was about. This is a man who knows the meaning of customer service. As a result, we will continue to frequent this location knowing that Mr. Orton is a man of his word and is trying to make things right with his customers. My family and I thank you!

My family has been going to this location for years. So much, in fact, that a few servers know us by name and we always have such great service and a fun time. However, after last night’s fiasco with assistant manager Mark Phelps, we will NOT be returning! After paying our $90 bill along with a $20 tip for our server(because we always tip at least 20% because we know how tough it can be to work with the public, especially on a busy night) with the kiosk, our server came over and asked if we had paid. We informed her we did pay, but was just hanging around talking since my sister was in from out of town and it was the end of the night with no one waiting. She informed us that the system had showed we had not paid. I had my wife check our account because I’ve been known to handle technology wrong before. Sure enough, the money was shown as pending in our account. She took this information to Mr. Phelps(keep in mind the server was friendly and gracious, believed us after showing proof, and stated she hates the kiosks). Mr. Phelps comes out from the kitchen, slams the receipt on the table, and proceeds to berate us for not paying, even after seeing proof that we did in fact pay and that his system was being slow or malfunctioning. He tells us to pay again and asks for my name and number so he can let me know if the money “dropped”. I refused to give him any additional information so he yells, “Enjoy your free meal!”, for the entire restaurant to hear. After several minutes of speaking to our server(who is still being more professional than this so called “manager in a leadership position”), he storms out again and accuses our server of giving us the wrong tab, slams another receipt down, and expects us to pay this tab. This tab had alcoholic drinks on it and we did not have any alcoholic drinks last night. He then slams cancelled receipts down and says he cancelled our tab, returning our money back to our account(this would have been fine had it been an apology cancellation but it was done thinking we would pay the other bill). He then stormed off once again after I proceeded to tell him how offended we were and that we would not be dining there again. All he could keep repeating was “thank you” with a condescending tone and no remorse whatsoever. We still sat and chatted with family. I say this to show Mr. Phelps we had no intention of not paying and leaving(we in fact still gave the server $20 in cash as a tip as to not take it out on her for Mr. Phelps unprofessional manner). We would have left much sooner had that been our intention. It was not my master plan I’ve been concocting after 10 years of dining there to dine and dash on this night. This “leader” has no business leading. He acted childish, narcissistic, and accusatory the entire time. No apologies for his system not working, no “I’ll cancel the first tab and when it shows as returned in your account could you kindly pay again,” and no sense of how to speak to customers in a professional manner. We will miss our favorite servers who our children adore but refuse to be treated in this manner by Mr....

Firsr time visiting this location since I moved to Columbus and I was pretty disappointed in my experience. I love Red Robin as a whole but this experience at this restaurant really put a bad taste in my mouth with the lack of hospitality and possible racial undertones that I hate to mention in the first place but feel like I have to

My wife and I came here for her birthday weekend and from the get go I felt like there was issues with the waitress. She seemed to have issues with us with the way her tone was towards us. She never asked us for refills on the bottomless sides until we said something about it (she seemed annoyed when we asked) and at prior locations the server was always very quick to ask if we wanted more sides (even before we were done with our current side)

We noticed at other tables she was definitely more friendly with them and seemed happier talking to them. She was direct with us and even when we left she never said to have a good night nor to have a happy holidays like she did with the other tables. All she said was thanks without even giving us any eye contact after she confirmed that I paid for the bill with my gift card. I gave her a normal tip as well which I’m starting to regret. When we were walking out she just said have a good day while looking down and with no enthusiasm. It just felt like we had a target on our back

It just really left a bitter taste in my mouth even though the food was good. My wife and I are visibly Muslim, especially my wife as she wears the hijab and I’m sorry but that was my first thought as to why she was cold with us and seemed like she was forcing herself to be professional. I’m not the type to bring in race or religion but it’s hard not to feel like this with the way our experience went. My wife ordered the fries and I ordered the side salad. I will admit that my wife and I shared a little bit of each others sides but not a lot, I’ve seen a lot of other people do it as well and I’ve never seen Red Robin say anything about it so if it has something to do with that then I wish she would have told us instead of just clearly acting uncomfortable around us. So who knows if it’s that or she just doesn’t like Middle Easterns/Muslims.

I really hope she was just having a bad day and I’m overthinking this, but either way we will never go to this location again with how uncomfortable we felt being there....

This place would have gotten 1 star if the food wasn't good. We went to the bar and each ordered a beer and a burger, she got the black & bleu, and I got the southern charm. As something we do with almost every burger place we go to, we get the burgers split, and share.

The food came out quickly, albeit overcooked (why does no one know what medium actually means), while the bartender had yet to bring cutlery, napkins, or the water that was asked for. We did get our beers before the food though. However, my burger came with only lettuce and cheese. Nothing about it said southern charm. After bringing it to the bartender's attention, she grabbed the manager, who asked if it was fine to put the bacon, BBQ sauce, and onions on the already made burger they were bringing back into the kitchen. I agreed with it, even though it made me think of the movie Waiting...

During our time at the bar, we were blessed with listening to Phyllis complain about almost every aspect of her job - being too busy; being too dead; always answering the phone; making shakes; having too much dirty glassware; previous jobs; school taking too much of her time... You get the picture. Talk about great conversation..

We finished our meal, with my burger corrected and assuming no Waiting shenanigans occurred in the kitchen; which was very tasty, as well as enjoying a second helping of the endless fries, I presented Phyllis with an online coupon for buy one, get one half off (picture attached notice 'gourmet'). She proceeded to tell me it only works for specific burgers with specific words in their name "gourmet". I then looked at the menu, and the burgers we ordered had THAT WORD on the page (other pictures attached notice 'gourmet') . She argued for a minute, then once I mentioned my burger initially coming as a plain cheeseburger and I didn't ask for it to be remade completely, she spoke with the manager.

It wasn't the end goal, but we got the lesser of the two burgers comped. We left with a sour taste in our mouths, and it wasn't the delicious burgers or fries. The bartender was horrible in more ways than one. The manager was accommodating, and I wonder how often he has to do that with her.

Would I eat at Red Robin again? Yes, but not with this bartender, or possibly this location, because both of those burgers were good, even with being overcooked, and dealing with Phyllis...