Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews — Restaurant in Eau Claire

This sadly was the worst experience I've had in a restaurant in a very LONG ...LONG time. First off even if the food isn't great a good server can make the experience better and kinda smooth things over.... Our server was not this person unfortunately. Our drinks sat empty. Typically if a drink becomes empty I will set it on the edge of the table as a reminder or almost a red flag... but we had to ask for refills even after coming to the table with our food and seeing the empty cups. Our dishes from the appetizer the table the entire meal along with you at empty cups. Normally if it's busy it really doesn't bother me, I get it. (It really wasn't busy, there was more empty tables then occupied it was around 8pm) However it was a pretty decent sized and I moved it like 3 times. It was just kinda annoying... So far neither of these two things would really be a big deal I am pretty understanding. The food. When I ordered my burger I ordered it with no pink. I can not deal with much pink ... A little is ok but I stress little. When the food came it looked good. The fries where not fresh, I had had differebt trykes of fries and more tiny broken chunks of fries then actual full fries. I was alittle sad that i had to eat them all to get more. But I tried at this point the server had come to the table to make sure everything was okay, it had been about 60 seconds from the time she brought the food and it seemed ok .. though I was disappointed in my fries and this huge bowl next to me and the 2 empty glasses... I still had a good looking burger to sink my teeth into !!! I cut the burger in half I normally would look at the inside since the pink issue is a real thing ... For some reason I didn't turn the burger I just grabbed half and started eating it. It wasn't until about half way through that first half (center) that I noticed how pink it was ... I was havong a hecl There d a time finishing the first half because there was also a strange taste almost burnt taste. But I did finish the first half at that point my husband looks at my burger and says "wow honey that's really pink" At this point I actually look.. my burger was extreamly under cooked and tasted burnt at the same time. We decided to tell the server. By the time she came back I had finished most of my fries, I told her I really didn't want another burger. It was kinda ruined in my mind ... But she did offer more fries which I gladly accepted, I was still hungry. When she returned with the fresh fries she had a coupon for $5. Off an appetizer or dessert. I was expecting to talk to a manager knowing we had a situation and giving the server the coupon.

• The long and short of it, the service wasn't great. The food was not great. And I ended paying $13 for a burger that was really not good. My coupon is for a future visit. However I don't plan on ever going back to this restaurant. Sadly this Red Robin was far from...

I have to give Red Robin only one star. If I could give 0 I would. First it took like 25 minutes(were not busy) just for the waiter who seemed clueless to begin with. Then when we finally ordered, we ordered the Royal Red Robin burger and I ordered sweet potato fries and my mother in law ordered steak fries. We both ordered coffee and I asked for a glass of water as well. I never got my glass of water. Then, the food was horrible I received my food cold, my egg was half burned half raw, and my sweet potatoes were cold like they were pulled out of a fridge and thrown into a fryer and pulled out right away just absolutely shriveled and gross. My mother in law received her order of steak fries but there was only about 7 in the basket, without further explanation. It took another 25 minutes or so just to get our food in the first place. They took my plate and brought me back a fresh order of sweet potatoes that were hot, but when my hamburger was brought back my mother in law's fries were on my plate. She needed her egg cooked over hard. When I got my burger back it was like someone hawked a loogie on my hamburger. I felt utterly sick. I had to ask for a refill for my coffee. Our waiter was never anywhere to be seen. My mother in law asked why I hadn't been brought water yet. I finally got it at the end of the horrible meal. Then when it was time to check out it was another 15-20 minutes. I walked to the front counter where I asked if I could pay. Our virtually non existent waiter came up and said he did not know I was finished HE TOOK MY PLATE AWAY. He charged my card (we were both charged full price). I advised the hostess we were very unhappy and we had the worst experience ever and we would not be back. Our waiter by this time was hovering over us listening to everything we were saying. We left. We were seriously not happy at all. I called to talk to the manager and was put on hold and I seemed to have been forgotten because no one ever came back on the line. I called back and advised the hostess I wanted to speak with the manager, that I previously called and was forgotten. I was transferred to the manager Austin. I told him everything that happened. He remembered us. My mother in law was reimbursed her full price back to her credit card. Her order came to $20. My order was $16.64. I could not have a reimbursement put on my cash card, Austin gave me a $25.00 gift card. He did everything he could to make things right. I would say with a little more training for the cook and the wait staff and it might not be that...

Wow. First time at a Red Robin and it was amazing. Service by Sam was absolutely top notch: friendly, helpful, CHEERFUL (look everyone knows it's not possible to love your job every minute of the day, but if you're gonna work with the public, you gotta learn how to fake it convincingly for their sake, which requires some degree of self-sacrifice and no small amount of mental energy sometimes). I commend Sam on her dedication to customer service and thank her for making my visit pretty darn swell.

For example, I was worried that I wouldn't like the garlic parm broccoli (one of the bottomless sides) and she reassured me that I could totally get something else if I didn't like it or wanted to switch. Turns out the garlic parm broccoli was DELISH, but it was such a stress-reliever to have that little reassurance that I wouldn't have to suffer with food i didn't like. (I know, I know, weird little worries I have, don't judge.)

They have two ways to cook a burger apparently "well done" or "with some pink". I ordered mine "medium rare" and I'll say it came out perfect. Flavorful, juicy, looking gorgeous on the plate. Kudos to the cook! I wish I'd gotten their name because they deserve commendation for the yums they sent to my table.

The "atmosphere" is a bit incongruous with the cost of the menu items. Burgers and entrees were $16-20+, but decor was sort of a lower-end family restaurant, nothing soft, everything looking easy to just hose down, almost like a Dennys but with a bar inside. It was kinda weird, but whatever.

(That's just a general comment about Red Robin, I'm sure this particular one had zero say in the decor. It was, however, quite clean, which is something they DO have control over.)

10/10 recommend. Also, Sam is clearly management material. She needs a raise and hopefully a job promotion to accompany it (NOT the other...