Culver’s — Restaurant in Florida

This wasn't my first visit to the Arcadia Culver's but it was my worst and very well might be my last. It was just after 1pm. Culver's is no Chik Fil A and this company from Wisconsin could take a lesson in sharing their Midwest hospitality with the staff in Arcadia, Florida.

I have definitely seen it busier at this location catering to the after church crowd but things seemed off while I was standing in line waiting to order (there weren't any customers waiting for to go orders and only one customer in line in front of me and the lobby wasn't even half full of seated patrons).

I saw some familiar friendly faces behind the counter (Brad and Jasmin) as well as some newer ones.

While I was waiting briefly to order, a customer came to the counter to inquire about her order because she had been waiting patiently for quite some time. She was pleasant and respectful when she presented her inquiry. However, when the inquiry was related from the staff member to Rosalin (who was running the food window and placing all the food orders on the trays) what I saw and heard next left me in shock.

Rosalin's response was rude, disrespectful and borderline belligerent. Her response was presented with a nasty tone and quite loudly something similar to "this is our lunch rush so you're just going to have to be patient...we're working on it".

I placed my order and headed over to the condiment/drink station where ice was overflowing from the drain tray, the napkins were in disarray and several frustrated customers were attempting to get ketchup to no avail (no ketchup would come out of any of the 3 dispensers).

So, I went over to the counter and let Brad know about the ketchup. He acknowledged me and then proceeded to take an order.

Since they were so busy during their relatively non existent lunch rush, and because I have over 15 years of experience working in restaurants from cashier through maintenance to food and Beverage director in addition to a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management and a Master's Degree in Business Administration, I decided to inspect the ketchup dispensers to see if I could help improve the situation for the staff and the customers. It's a very simple setup, there's a bag of ketchup that hooks up to a bubble siphon. If the bag gets twisted the ketchup can't come out when it's pumped. It's a very simple training issue. However, I was approached by a staff member in an unsettling manner to stop what I was doing immediately (as if I had stepped behind the counter to take my own order, make my own concrete mixer or cook my own food). I reassured her I knew what I was doing and that it should be okay and that the food she had was more important to be delivered to whomever was waiting for it than worrying about the ketchup.

The next thing I knew, Rosalin was standing next to me while I was successfully pumping ketchup cups for myself and the other frustrated customers in need of ketchup. She said something to me with clenched teeth like "next time sir, do not take it upon yourself to get ketchup and let a staff member know it needs attention". I responded "I came to the counter and let Brad know" which was rebutted with a "then you should have waited for it to be taken care of".

Well, I didn't do it because I was impatient or trying to be disrespectful. I did it because I was trying to be HELPFUL and was disrespected in the process.

I wanted to go to the counter to request a refund at that moment but it wasn't up to me as I wasn't dining alone so we stayed for the duration.

If we ever make it back, it will be a...

Service was absolutely horrible. After we placed our order in drive thru we waited more than 45 minutes and our food never came. Cars behind us came and went but our order never came. I called, spoke to the shift manager who said they couldn't find our ticket but would prepare our meals now. I told her no, to bring us our money back, we weren't waiting any longer. No apology from her, I asked her when she came to the car with our refund "do you not see the problem?" She said I don't know what happened to the ticket, it must have been given to someone else. She had absolutely no concern at all. I live in Arcadia but will continue to drive to Port Charlotte if I want anything...

A very horrible experience at the drive-thru window. Apparently the menu in the total of my bill for a value basket butterburger was $24. I kept asking that person why it was that much money and she was telling me it wasn't. But then apparently when I got to the window it was because it was possibly a Frozen screen. Well all they needed to do was say that to me before I drove up and I wouldn't have had the issues that I had. And the woman, a rather large African American woman was very sarcastic and insinuating that I was snatching things out of her hand. Mention that to her. She'll know exactly who I am. She was rude and she was...