Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews — Restaurant in Kentwood

Being pregnant, I've been craving the campfire sauce. My husband and I took our children here, and while the food was not bad, the service was absolutely horrendous. Our waitress took 10 minutes to get to us, after walking past us several times to her two other tables. She then asked us what we wanted to drink, after telling her our drinks I mentioned I had a free appetizer. She walked away, and didn't even acknowledge what I had said to her. She then came back with drinks and did not even ask about the appetizer or our food and walked away. It was more than five minutes later she finally came back and goes, "Is everything going good?" Uh, no. You walked away without taking our order even. We ordered our food and our appetizer, I asked for campfire sauce with the app as that's what I've been craving. When our appetizer came, 15-20 minutes later, still no campfire sauce. The waitress came back, and asked how the appetizer was, and such. We asked if we could have some fries at least while we wait, as we had been there for well over half an hour at this point, the kids were starving. (Not even including our 20-30 minute wait.) We got two things of fries, prior to our food getting to the table. When the guy dropped the fries off, we asked again for sauce, and he said he would get it. When our food was dropped off at the table, the lady dropping it off asked if we needed anything else, and again asked for sauce and napkins. Our waitress finally reappeared, and asked if we needed anything. At this point, I was ready to leave. We asked for sauce and she came back with some and napkins. At this point, we also had to point out that we were out of drinks as well. She walked past us several times to her other tables and never once looked our way during the time we were there as we were in the corner. By the time she came back again, we asked for boxes because even the kids were done. I've worked in hospitality, and have waitressed. This was the absolute worst service we have ever had. We are the type to leave a 25%-30% tip, we left nothing. She was absolutely horrible. If it wasn't for the craving, we would have left at drinks and should have. We will never come to this location...

Whoever the owner of this franchise is really needs to put some focus into the staffing. During our visit, which we waited 45 minutes for a table (not terrible for a Saturday night for the area), we were called for a party of 2... we had 5. Told they needed to speak to the manager about accommodations because, even though we clearly stated 5, they put us in the wait pool for 2. After not accepting to be put back on the wait list, we got a table. The waitress was awesome for being over worked (hence the 4 stars for service). My wife and I witnessed 5 workers socializing for the better part of 30 minutes. My wife's margarita was straight tequila and simple syrup. I noted where salt was missing from the brim when she asked that it be remade. The drink was returned in the same glass. My assumption was they dumped some out and added mix to it. Now to the food, for a restaurant focused on burgers and fries, they need to do better. The bun on all of our burgers was stale, dry and the crust was separated a good 1/4 inch from breading to prove this. The meat was over cooked and dry. My sweet potato fries were way over cooked. To give credit, the steak fries were done well. I'm not trying to put down the bar tender or the cooks, this is clearly a management/ownership issue. Put some time into your staff, take those 5 employees not doing a damn thing and teach them how to cook, bartend or wait tables. Take some of the stress off your employees who are making you money. Maybe actually show your face at your business and do a little quality control on your ingredients and prep. We chose this over Cheesecake Factory and On the Border because of the wait time. I'm starting to see that other people already knew what we found out...

years ago, I reviewed this place as 4 stars, kind of lazily because I thought it was alright. Well, now I've eaten there more often, and I also came here frequently because of an esophagus issue I have. To figure out that issue, I had to start an elimination diet, removing 8 common foods. There was almost nothing I could eat, but Red Robin came highly recommended as a place that is careful about allergies to help out. I came here, and they were great. I felt kind of embarrassed that I had to be so picky, but the staff were kind and even joked with me to help me feel more comfortable. It takes skill to tell jokes like that to a stranger and know that it won't backfire, but they were pretty clever about it. Due to the nature of the allergy, I wouldn't have known if they messed up and I had something I was allergic to. I couldn't know if they got it right until I had another endoscopy to check that the elimination worked. I was delighted to find out, that I had successfully removed all the foods I struggled with. I know now that it's totally safe for me to eat at Red Robin even with a whole bunch of allergies. In addition to the wonderful wait staff, the food is pretty good. I wouldn't say it's my outright favourite, but that's just personal preference. I will definitely say that it was a relief to be able to eat out occasionally even during that draconian diet. Thanks to Red Robin for a big quality of life...