Denny's — Restaurant in Jacksonville

Ordered take out 10 minutes before arriving at this location. Went in to wait for food...1 waitress running all around. 15 minutes in was told someone would help me in a moment, during my time here, many people waited more then 5 minutes to be greeted some more then 10 to be seated, some groups left before ever getting greeted. A guy was waiting for a pick-up, finally got it, and was missing food. He waited 15 more minutes for the missing item, I know the food was cold after.... 15 minutes more, I was told the kitchen was getting my order together... I watched a lady, tired of waiting take her empty glass to the kitchen to request a refill, another guy had to poke his head in the kitchen to request to go boxes.....15 minutes later I was asked my name and my food and another pickup was handed out. Only went to car in parking lot to eat but food was already cold, clearly was sitting there. Several times, the waitress had asked kitchen staff to assist... I went back in and requested it be remade. They refused to do so. The waitress said I could only request a refund online. I was stuck eating this as my cold dinner. I cannot see what goes on in the kitchen but there seems no reason they can't assist in simply packaging and bagging food to go, furthermore, the management here should have an additional server on a Friday evening. They had 2 security guards they are able to pay to sit there and do nothing but can't afford another server? I had to wait a total of about 50 minutes to get a meal, not even warm, eat it like that, and then I am also supposed to take further time to request a refund?!?! Whatever cook refused to remake the food should be fired. It is completely unacceptable to have your food be cold minutes after being handed to you and have the cook flat out refuse to remake it. If the manager feels that the cook should not be fired, then the owner needs to look into firing the manager as well. Clearly, they are not managing anything. Furthermore, the owner should stop cutting cost just so he can put more money into their own pockets. This was no accident. Accidents can be corrected. This was belligerent neglect based on the show I saw during my 50-minute stay in this hole. I will be...

The food was excellent. It came prepared as ordered and at a reasonable temperature.

And my best advice pertaining to food?

Try a waffle! These aren't your grandpa's waffles at Denny's. There is a new recipe and the waffles are now Denny's hidden gem!

The service was a mixed bag. Our waitress was fabulous! She had our entire section to take care of and she did. Professionally, efficiently and with a great sense of humor.

However, we wait probably 15 minutes to get seated. Not because there were people ahead of us.

It was because whomever was supposed to be on the register and seating people, simply wasn't.

Every once in a while, he would come out of the kitchen with a Door Dash order and see people waiting. Only then did he take action.

With the time we wasted trying to get a table added to the time we wasted trying to check out, our combined wait for this one inept employee lasted longer than it took us to eat.

Atmosphere,

Well, the building is old. The furnishings are old. Some areas looked to be in disrepair but others were fine.

There was a small group of people hanging out by the front door. They were smoking, smelling of strong B. O., talking loudly and making comments about female anatomy when we went in.

They were still there when we left. Several had removed their shirts and were now bare chested. I was thrilled that we were leaving and not going in.

I don't know if the Stinky Loiter Gang are just there to provide "entertainment" on Sunday mornings or if they are around all the time.

I was uncomfortable even though I was with my husband.

I can't imagine an older couple trying to get through that gauntlet or a single woman.

Maybe they were innocuous but they sure didn't act like it to me.

I wish we would have called the cops because it became obvious the management either didn't see as a problem or they just simply didn't care.

In spite of all of the negatives, I would still go back. The food was that good!

P. S.: ...

We came in tonight for dinner and "kids eat free" that is advertised on Jax4Kids. We were seated almost immediately and had our drink orders taken. We got our drinks quickly but were not able to order for about 15 minutes due to shortage of servers. By that time my kids and I are BAKING. It's 90 degrees outside and feels even hotter inside the diner. When the waiter finally came back we ordered but were told they are under new ownership now and no longer do kids eat free on Saturday's, only Tuesdays. So we now have to spend $12 more than we planned or get billed for drinks and leave. I said that's fine but asked about the temperature as well. I was advised that their A/C had been broken for a while now. I still do not understand why it took 25 minutes to find that out as we would have never ordered drinks if that was the case! The server brought out "complimentary" goldfish for the kids to make up for the inconvenience and we figured it'd be quicker to just eat there than try to pay for $10 worth of soda (for 4 people ) and go somewhere else. We proceeded to wait another 40 minutes for our food. The kids meals were brought out first and very hot, which was nice! My food followed about 10 minutes later and everything was cold, as though it had been sitting there longer than the kids meals had. I ordered a grand slam with eggs, sausage and hash browns. Not even the sausage was warm. I tried asking what happened but servers switched shift as soon as we got our food so the new server told me she had no idea...so we ate as quickly as we could and I asked for the check. I then find out the "complimentary" goldfish the first server brought us was made up for by charging us for more expensive drinks than what we actually ordered and received. The new server did not make it right and seemed annoyed at...