Hangry Solution — Restaurant in Lebanon

As I can’t respond to the business’s comment, I am leaving a follow-up here:

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my review. I appreciate that a refund was issued for the side salad, but I would like to address the tone and some assumptions made in your response, as I found them both disappointing and dismissive of our experience. First, I want to be clear: I did not request a refund of the tip. Our server was kind and handled a difficult situation as best she could. Removing her tip sends the wrong message, and I hope that decision is reconsidered on your end. Regarding the timing of the meal: we received the salad almost immediately after ordering at 5:52, and the rest of the food didn’t arrive until significantly later. We ate quickly because our child was hungry and upset, not because the service was prompt. We chose to decline the other options, because she has had the grilled cheese before and didn’t like it and the other option is chicken and she can’t have that. Saying we "cashed out at 6:40" doesn’t negate the fact that we waited a long time for incomplete food, and this wasn’t addressed with much accountability. As for the salad, it’s not just about being overcharged. It’s that a $9 charge (by your own breakdown: $7 total with $2 "dine-in/salad bar" fee) for a very small child’s salad made up of browning lettuce and white, dried-out carrots is unreasonable and reflects poorly on your food quality and pricing structure. Concerning the popcorn chicken, I am again confused. The menu stated $10 popcorn chicken plus $3 to make it a basket – not an additional $6, as you mentioned. I received 10 very small pieces of chicken, which makes the $13 basket charge hard to justify, especially considering how many tots were added to make the plate appear fuller. I was asked by the server what sauce I wanted and requested gravy specifically for the chicken, so I’m unclear how the kitchen was unaware of its intended use. If gravy isn’t standard with chicken, that’s understandable, but in that case, the portion and $4 upcharge felt excessive and poorly communicated. We came hoping to support the changes and left frustrated. The food quality, pricing, and communication were all issues, but what’s worse is the tone of your response, which seemed more focused on defending your business than taking real ownership of what happened. I’m sharing this follow-up not to pile on, but because I feel the need to clarify and advocate for a better customer experience going forward.

My family came in excited to try the newly updated menu, but sadly left feeling more frustrated than satisfied. We ordered a popcorn chicken basket, a kid’s hamburger meal with a side salad, and a burger with tots. After waiting over 30 minutes, we were told the food was ready, except, inexplicably, the chef had completely forgotten the child’s hamburger. The solution offered? Wait another 20 minutes. With a young child already hungry and waiting, we chose to cancel the burger and share our food instead. I assumed we’d be charged a small amount for the side salad she had already received and eaten 30 minutes earlier. Instead, we were charged $7 for a small, single child’s salad from a salad bar where the lettuce and carrots looked withered and well past their prime. That alone was disappointing. As for my popcorn chicken basket, $10 plus $3 to add tots. What arrived was a pile of tots and maybe 10 tiny pieces of chicken, not nearly enough to warrant the $4 extra we were charged for a bowl of gravy that barely got used. When there’s hardly any chicken, what’s a large bowl of gravy even for? To top it off, we were charged a $2 dine-in fee, which felt like salt in the wound after the rest of the experience. We really wanted to like this place and support the new changes, but between the forgotten order, the questionable quality of the food, and the surprising upcharges, it’s hard to justify coming...

We went on a Saturday around 1130. We were seated right away. Very clean, bathrooms clean! We were given some time to look at the menu. The menu had lunch items that just said served 11-something. The last page had breakfast which said 9-2 on Saturdays. I wanted a sandwich. We order and are told it's ONLY the breakfast menu. I was set on my sandwich and breakfast did not sound appetizing, but I was on the verge of hanger so ordered a choose your own omelet. Food came. The hashbrowns are made with fresh potatoes! Great! Also, they weren't really browned or crispy. They were cooked, but soggy and bland. My dining companion did eventually ask for my hashbrowns to be cooked more crispy and they made me a new order of hashbrowns, which were better, but still not quite hashbrowns of which I expect to be holdren brown and crispy. The explanation was it was because they're fresh potatoes. I just know their hashbrowns are not for me. Omelet was good but came with an ingredient added that I didn't order. It was fine and a nice surprise(olives), but it wasn't what I ordered.

We witnessed many people come in, be seated then told they were only serving breakfast and leave. Also overheard another table being told they also had eggs Benedict, but it wasn't on the menu. My dining companion would have ordered that- but we didn't know it was even an option.

The food was fine, mine was unseasoned, but I added salt and pepper.

My dining companion had the chicken fried steak and eggs and hashbrowns. Hashbrowns also not cooked as expected, but the rest was okay. Gravy had good flavor but a bit salty for my taste.

The waitress was friendly. The restaurant very clean.

Suggestion: Only breakfast menu should be handed out if that's all being served or the menu better labeled and explained at the door to everyone. Some signage would be great too. I didn't see anything about only breakfast on saturdays until 2. If it was there, I didn't see it.

Will I give it another try? Maybe cuz the stacker sandwich sounded amazing. Will i seek it out on purpose,...

My family and I decided to have breakfast here as it’s been heavily advertised and we were sadly disappointed. We were seated immediately and we were actually quite pleased by the service. The staff were quite attentive and pleasant. Sadly that’s where the positivity ends. Our food arrived and we found ourselves dejected by overcooked eggs and over seasoned gravy over our biscuits. Italian style herb gravy found its way into our biscuits that took all of us off guard. Fennel sadly has no place in country style biscuits and gravy. Besides the over seasoned gravy, we found the rest of our food to be devoid of flavor and our “over-easy” eggs to be fried completely through and yolks broken while frying. The food was sustenance, but far from delicious. Priced at $52 to feed breakfast to 3 we sadly will not be returning.

Edit; before the owner lectures our review, I should remind the owner that in our culture it’s generally rude to criticize food in the presence of the preparer. The purpose of reviews is simply to inform potential customers of the sort of experience they might have. Negative reviews shouldn’t be influenced by the opportunity to refund the meal nor did I wish to have it refunded. I would much rather inform hungry people about the quality of food and service they might experience. A business who tries to influence reviews is trying to skew the truth of their food and hospitality quality (not to say the hospitality was poor, as it was not). The integrity of reviews I would hope remains regardless of refund offers or satisfaction level.

Edit Edit; it seems we received a lecture anyways. Admittedly we found ourselves uncomfortable with telling our server of the poor food as our culture puts taboo on criticizing food prepared for you. That said, it doesn’t change our review nor would we want a refund as we still chose to eat there. The review is not for the restaurant’s benefit, but for potential customers.

I may return to try lunch or dinner soon and I have hopes for redemption. Editing this review...