Denny's — Restaurant in Lakeland

Wasn't gonna leave a negative review because our waitress was very sweet.. Yesterday was my sister's birthday so she got her bday grand slam and I got the bacon avocado burger. We also got the Italian sampler as an appetizer, so we'll start with that. Meatballs were bland, garlic bread was soggy and the mozzarella sticks didn't seem like they were cooked long enough. We ate it tho, no reason to make a fuss. My sister got her food and it was fine, but the problem was when they brought out my burger. I noticed when I picked it up, it had an odd smell to it and it was very "juicy". I thought it was the juice from maybe the meat, but it was just because the tomato was soggy and no good. That isn't why I sent it back though. Upon taking a bite, I noticed it tasted funny, like almost sour. So I'm pulling apart this burger, trying to find out what is going on, and I ended up finding out what the smell was. It was the oninons. They were translucent, limp/soggy and had a very sour smell, almost like hot garbage. It's very apparent that they were waaaaay expired but I'm trying to be optimistic so I asked our waitress if maybe they're supposed to be pickled onions or something. She says no and grabs the manager. Manager says same thing. "No, we don't even have pickled onions". So again, I'm trying to give the benefit of the doubt and I'm like can you take this back and make it with no onions and no tomato (as mentioned above, the tomatoes were bad too). They oblige, but when the manager took my plate, it was very clear she smelled the "hot garbage" odor as well judging by the face she made. At this point, we've already been here an hour and a half, so I ask them to make it to go. They fix everything, she assures me its all good and we're all squared away. Now, I did not ask for a discount because while there, they handled everything very professionally. But I personally feel like if you feed someone rotten food, I dunno, maybe give them a discount?? Anyway, I digress. I gets home and put the food in the fridge for my lunch at work the next day (didn't even think to check everything because I was told all was well). I heat up my burger or whatever and then I noticed they forgot the bacon. Its a bacon avocado burger and they forgot the damn bacon. At this point I'm fed up. You serve me spoiled food and then continue to make mistakes after the ordeal without even offering any sort of compensation for the issue. I've been to this Dennys plenty of times and its really a hit or miss. Honestly, will not go back after this. Its ridiculous and they need to figure out what the hell is going on back in...

This restaurant needs to rethink its customer service. We went on a Saturday, just before lunch. They weren't empty but lots of spaces in the parking lot and empty tables inside. There is a sign that says, "See Host To Be Seated" so we waited for over two minutes for a host to come up. If that doesn't sound like a long time, stand in a restaurant for that long, during which time several employees pass by as they did us, including the one that finally came to seat us, but no one ever said they'd be with us shortly or even acknowldeged we were standing there. We were finally shown to a booth as we requested and the server, Meagan, was there almost immediately. She was polite and attentive. The only thing I would suggest to her is, knowing that the restaurant doesn't include spoons in their rolled silverware napkins, she should pay more attention to what she is bringing to the table for which a spoon might be needed. My wife ordered tea. When it was brought, the mug brought to her was chipped around the rim and the server walked away before we discovered there was no spoon. So we had to wait until she came back to ask for one so my wife could stir the tea or remove the teabag. We ordered breakfast which, for me, included grits. Again, the food was brought and the thought of no spoon didn't occur to Meagan. It is difficult to eat grits out of a bowl with a fork. I had to wait for her to return to ask for a spoon. The food was not bad but nothing especially notable. The salt shaker on the table was clogged with moist salt. And it could not be used. We went to leave and you have to pay at the front desk. The only person at the front desk was on the phone taking a phone order. In the more than five minutes we stood there waiting for her to get off the phone, no one else came to help and two groups of people were standing at the host podium waiting to be seated. Eventually, the first group, two men, just left. A man in the second group mentioned it seemed a long time to wait. I mentioned there was a Bob Evans next door. I suspect next time, we would go...

(Health Warning) (No face covering/mask) Don't be confused with a Denny's family pack for 4. Let me tell you what happened to me. First of all when we called up they couldn't find my name and delayed us. When the nice lady came out she wasn't wearing a face mask or anything. When I asked about the drinks that you can see clearly from the picture in the app. (The app is misleading) They said it didn't come with drinks. She asked the manager. The manager came out without any face mask as well. Told me that drinks were not included and he asked his boss and it was not included the boss would not do anything about it. When I told him that most restaurants would just give you the drinks and explained that the ad shows a drink therefore I expected it to come with drinks. (A normal response to the situation would be to offer water). He repeated about how he asked his manager. He left the car window. I started eating the sandwich and fries, got very thirsty, then looked up into Denny's through the window and I saw that same manager talking to somebody else with a couple other employees walking around and no one had a mask on. How would that make you feel, knowing that we're dealing with a pandemic and no one inside including the managers had a mask on. If Lakeland becomes a hotspot they may be able to track it back to this Denny's. And besides the point of mask, normally in restaurants if you don't order a drink they offer water. Here after expecting a drink, asking for a drink they did not even consider offering water. Truth be told that it was not about the money. I just didn't want to go into that silly app just to order drinks when McDonald's is about a hundred feet away and they sell them for a dollar each. Also after seeing the people that would handle the drinks in the fact that they we're not wearing any sort of face covering, I did not feel safe receiving drinks from them anyways. It's outright dangerous. DON'T GO...