Denny's — Restaurant in Maryland

Had an absolutely outlandish experience at the Waldorf, MD location. They should be ashamed of themselves. The 2 staff I encountered are an embarrassment to the industry, heck I felt embarrassed for the entire city. Normally I'd say more training, but frankly maybe customer service is just not for them. It's STUNNING that they will lie and cheat you. Denny's, you can do better than this. This is of course not to say anything of all staff, just the 2 in particular who were working Mon 27 Oct 2025 at 7pm.

I was in the area with my sister and stopped in to use my birthday reward. Once seated, I told the waitress, Isabella, I was there to use my birthday slam reward and showed her my phone, making sure she saw the reward was active. She nodded and said okay, and asked what I'd like with it. I read the options off my phone and chose French toast, scrambled eggs and turkey bacon. The meal came out with 2pcs turkey bacon as well as 2pcs sausage. I made a face and Isabella asked if it was okay. I said I only ordered turkey bacon, and was confused because I thought the birthday meal only came with 2 pieces of meat, she said no it comes with 4. I asked her if she was sure it would not cost extra and she said it wouldn't. When she brought the receipt, it said "BYO slam" - now I've never eaten here before, I just signed up for the birthday reward to try Denny's out. So when I reminded her I'd ordered the birthday slam reward, she said, "Oh, I put it in wrong. He can fix it up there!" We tipped her and went to pay.

Well, he, a supervisor named Andres, said he couldn't fix it and LAUGHED that I thought I'd get the meal for free. When I showed him the reward, he said I'd obviously ordered the wrong thing, a "build your own" and had to pay for it. When I said I'd told Isabella I was there for the birthday slam and had shown her the reward on my phone, she began frantically denying it, saying I'd ordered a "BYO." When I said I've never even heard of that item as I've never eaten at Denny's before, they didn't believe me; Andres was very mocking and unkind. He called me a liar, saying he knows me and had seen me there before. I don't even live anywhere near here, it was my first time in this restaurant, or at a Denny's at all! But he insisted I was a liar. Isabella repeated herself, adding that she never saw my phone (she's "not qualified to look at it"), and claimed she'd never said he could fix it. I asked them to bring up security footage to prove what I'd ordered and what she'd said, and they wouldn't.

Isabella added that she hadn't worked there long enough to know what a birthday reward even is; in which case this poor girl doesn't know how to ask someone a question. Andres also claimed French toast is not an option on the birthday reward, and wouldn't look at the reward T&C I brought up, which state it's an option. But he was insistent I was mistaken and refused to look. He said he couldn't comp the meal, keeping on that I was lying and even asking if I can read. So, thank you for that, Denny's. At that, I finally shrugged and said, know what, regardless, I ordered a birthday slam and nothing more, and I'm not paying for more, you'll have to ban me from the restaurant- which is fine because, again, I've never been before and won't be back. My sister felt the same way (she already hates Denny's, but I'd convinced her to try it with me). She paid for her meal, of course. They didn't give her a receipt until she went back and asked for one. I suggested she have a copy because they are obviously untrustworthy. It was altogether the most bizarre, offensive, inflammatory, and inciting behavior I've ever seen in a restaurant.

FWIW the food was alright. The french toast looked good, tho I didn't try it (gave to my sister) as I have a lot of food allergies, hence why I don't eat out much to begin with. My sister said the smokehouse skillet was good but wouldn't get it again. No shame to the cook, he...

So my coworker made a rather big order. 5 different entrees all laid out clearly over the phone. When I went there to pick it up things were extremely busy as you'd expect on Memorial Day.

I go through the whole order with the Cashier after waiting a while for someone to show up. I picked up everything and got back to work. Turns out, there were no utensils or syrup. How is there no syrup for 3 orders of pancakes? On top of that, the person who ordered the food, her order is flat out missing. I run back to the store with the receipt.

I return and things seem even more hectic. Apparently the current manager is not handling things correctly according to the other staff. I walk in and explain my issue and the new cashier tells me it will be a while. I sit and wait around. I end up talking to the manager and she tells me "Your order was actually all ready, but someone forgot to bag it. Give me one moment." She walks up to the to go counter, opens a box, then frantically runs to the back. She flat out lied to my face!

She comes back and I tell her that my coworker would like a full refund, it has been an entire hour and a half wait since the order was fully placed, and I'm getting pissed off since my own food is getting cold at this point. I should also add that there are other customers around me having issues with service times and cold food or forgotten orders like me.

The manager offers me a "50%" coupon for the next visit written on the back of the DMs card. It wasn't until I got back to work that I noticed that she wrote "15%" instead of "50%".

I love the renovation, but the management needs to be replaced. Every time I go here I seem to have a problem with getting my food on some sort of time. This is the third incident I've had with the manager somehow involved whether she is cooking and things are coming out cold or whole menu items are not available because the ingredients were not ordered. I've gone here when it is stark empty and busy rush hours, same situation every time. it just isn't good service for the price.

EDIT: They gave me cream cheese instead of butter....

EDIT 2: The fruit cup they gave my coworker had rotten grapes. It just keeps...

Don't go to this place. Not only was the server not the best but the manager was even worse. The server was good at first but then he disappeared and we had to keep getting someone else that worked there to keep getting him back to our table. The food did come out in a good amount of time so that was a plus. Some of the food was ok. Half of it was good and tasty, the other half not so much. My biggest complaint was our cheeseburger. It came out and didn't even look good. We ordered a salad and ate part of that before we eat the burger but when we did start eating it, it was terrible. It had no taste and just wasn't good. It should have been hotter than it was. When we complained about it the manager did absolutely nothing. In fact he sounded like he was from New York. He had that smug New York City type of attitude. Clearly they don't care about customer service there. I've always liked Denny's and enjoyed their food but I will not go back to this particular location. I would have been satisfied if they had cut the bill in half but he didn't even offer that. He just said it came right off of the grill and it was nothing wrong with it and didn't even listen to us. Then on top of it when it was time for us to get our bill we had to ask somebody totally different again and that person had to bring this up because our server was nowhere to be found. And he had already brought us a box for rest of our salad and a piece of chicken to take home. So he knew we were ready to leave. Again I will not be returning. I worked in customer service most of my life and I can tell you right now this place is not good and this guy clearly doesn't care. Heck the manager didn't even offer to remake the burger. The server did mention that at first but then when the manager came he did not. In fact when he came to our table he said "What's up" and rather rudely. I didn't even know who he was.

Don't go here. Go to the Bob Evans right down the street from here. It's a much better experience with better staff and better...