Smiley's Diner — Restaurant in Delaware

We had been frequenting this place lately. Food is great, but we had a really bad experience this last time. I served in restaurants several years in NYC and i can tell i have a lot patience with FOH staff because i know what they endure day by day, but this situation really hit the spot to the point we left. Probably was the date January 1, 2021, probably they were short-staff assuming Covid was going to keep people at home, but the place was busy. When we arrived and were told about the wait, we decided to ask for the food to go, the person in charge, a kid on his 20's, offered us to stay because some tables were leaving, we agreed. We sat 5 mits later and as soon as the server approached the table we placed our order. We literally waited 35 minutes, way too long for 2 omelettes! we asked the guy in charge what was happening, he apologized and said he was going to rush our food. In the meantime we haven't seen our server in like 25 minutes, she approached us 15 minutes after the manager to apologize and promise our food was coming, meanwhile 2 tables that came after us were done eating. Another 10 minutes passed (total of an hour for 2 omelettes) we decided to leave when we saw a gentleman who came 15 minutes ago, leaving with his TO GO order! this totally infuriate us, that could be us, if we took our food to go we probably would be done eating already! we approach the "manager" or guy in charge to pay for our coffee, he offer us to give us our food to go for free, but i'm not "doing a scene to get free food!" . Why he didn't tell the kitchen to fire our order 25 minutes ago when we asked him? 2 omelettes takes 10 minutes tops to be done! did the server lost our order? IT HAPPENS! come back ask what did we order apologize and that's it! why waste our time????!! A tip to the guy in charge, Manage your employees better instead of trying to manage your customers, you could just ask the kitchen to fire the order or ask the server to come back to the table right away instead of promising food that...

I love Smiley,s on marsh road, now called Route 3 diner, so I decided to try the one on 273. We arrived shortly before 2:00 and my daughter ordered waffles, my son-in-law ordered the flounder platter and I ordered the flounder sandwich. I asked if I could get my sandwich on a hoagie roll instead of a hard roll and he said he didn’t know what a hoagie roll was. After explaining to him what it was he asked if it was like a steak roll. I never heard of a steak roll but I thought that’s probably what he calls so I said I think so. He came back about 1/2 hour later and told my daughter she couldn’t get waffles because they stop making them at 2. We told him we got there before then and questioned why it took him 1/2 hour to let us know. He looked like a deer in headlights and said “sorry” then just stood there looking at us. We asked to speak to the manager who told us they turned off the waffle machine. I asked again why we weren’t informed when we put in the order and he said “sorry” and stood just stood there like a mannequin . I asked him to explain why this happened and he said he could turn the machine back on if she still wanted the waffles. She said yes then we waited about another 10 minutes for our fish orders. My son-in-law law got the flounder on a “toasted” hard roll, not the platter he ordered, and I got mine on “toasted”French bread. Then my daughter watched while we ate and she waited for her order. My daughter was drinking tea and asked if she could get more hot water for her tea and he came back with the coffee pot. When we were done we asked for the check and waited some more. Meantime not once did anyone stop by the table to see if we needed anything. I had to get up and walk over to the cashier to as for a box to go. And no, it wasn’t busy at all. Needless to say, we will not...

If could give this experience a 0 star, I absolutely would. I ordered food through DoorDash—a simple waffle with chocolate chips. Shortly after, the dasher to called inform me that the restaurant claimed they “don’t have waffles” after he was already waiting. Having worked in a diner, I know this isn’t true. Waffles are made using batter, slightly different than pancake batter. That should be previously prepared. You shouldn’t tell the dasher it’s being worked on if that’s the case. I asked the dasher to confirm if they could prepare pancakes with chocolate chips and hash browns as a side instead.

The dasher waited nearly an hour, only to be told that one of the staff members “did not give the food order to the cook.” This was particularly frustrating because the app showed the order was being prepared, meaning the restaurant had accepted it and the dasher confirmed with the store as well so they knew the adjustments for the order. On top of that, I had successfully placed an order at this same restaurant just 30 minutes earlier, which included a pancake meal for my boyfriend and a chocolate waffle (in which I did not receive, which is why I reordered it). If they could make other items earlier, why couldn’t they fulfill my order now or have atleast gave me a substitute the first or second time as I paid?

The way my dasher was treated played a large role in this situation. Based on his account, it seemed he was disrespected, possibly due to his race or accent. This treatment is unacceptable, and it reflects poorly on the restaurant.

Overall, the lack of communication, delayed service, and apparent disregard for both the dasher and the customer were completely unacceptable. I ended up going to bed without food, feeling frustrated and disrespected (not only for me but...