Gunther Toody's Diner — Restaurant in Northglenn

My dining experience tonight was wildly disappointing.

TLDR: My son's food never came and the server (Maria C) claimed I never ordered his food when, in reality, it was ordered twice. I've never heard of a parent "forgetting" to order their child food.

Let's do the good first, which was the food. The hand breaded chicken, as always, was very good, especially for a diner. They hand bread their chicken items and it was certainly tasty. Now the bad. The service tonight left me the most disappointed I've ever been in a restaurant. We had a birthday in our party which came with a BOGO deal and we we're also trying to take advantage of the Wednesday $1 burger deal. As such, we needed to do two separate checks. My father (72, and the birthday boy), my son (8), and I were on one check and my wife and other son (6) were on the other check.

We had initially started ordering them all together, which started with my dad (triple decker club). Then, my son (8) ordered the kids chicken tender basket. After that, my wife began to order the $1 burger deal. The server (Maria C) interjected that we would have to have two separate tickets to take advantage of both deals. So I suggested we put my son's (8) chicken tender basket on the same ticket as my father's order and mine. I ordered to complete ticket one and said that would complete the first ticket. My wife then ordered for ticket two (hers and other son (6)). After a reasonable waiting time, all the food came out with the exception of my son's (8) chicken tender basket. It was very busy and the restaurant was very apparently short handed. We waited about 10 minutes before I notified our server that my son's (8) food hadn't come out yet. She said she would go grab it right away. We waited another 10 minutes before I approached the counter and requested I speak to a manager. When he came, I told him of our experience and when he questioned our server in front of me, she claimed that we never ordered any chicken tender basket. To say I was appalled is an understatement. I know it's standard practice to blame the kitchen (whether true or not) but I've never heard of blaming the customer. The manager said he would take something off our bill as recompense. After that, we were lepers. Our server never came our way, and I had to get up and bring our cups to get refills from the bar. The manager brought refills himself to our table. I had to request a box and the check twice. After several more mintues only one check was printed and no box was given. I got up to get a box for myself as well as another table whom were also waiting a unseasonably long time. I had to go to the manager to have our server print ticket two. Neither ticket included any additional discount, as per the manager. Only after requesting said discount, did they take off the chicken tender basket ($7). I would be shocked if this was the only bad review written tonight. I'm not entirely unempathetic and don't blame the server entirely for being overwhelmed because she had more tables than ANYONE could handle, but to be called a liar instead of admitting fault (an entirely justifiable mistake, given the circumstances) was mind-blowing. The staffing is a problem coming straight from the top and they deserve just as much of the blame. My advice is if it looks busy and there is not enough staff, dine elsewhere. Blackeyed Pea and Texas Roadhouse are a stones throw away. You'll absolutely receive better service at either establishment than I did tonight, even if they are twice as busy.

On a personal note, my wife and I have been tipped employees at different times of our lives. A combined 21 years (15 for me and 6 for her). I know seeing people be frugal/financially savvy can be disheartening, but I am a 30% tipper and always add any and all discounts to the tip (for reasonablly good service, of course). Full disclosure, I don't, and did not announce this in advance so she wouldn't have known. My bar really isn't very high and for some reason Maria C found a way to...

First of all, this review is only for the Gunther Toody’s located on 104th Ave. in Northglenn, CO. Plus, this was only my first time eating here, so I don’t know if every experience will be the same.

Positives -The atmosphere was visually very stimulating. This definitely looks like a 1950s diner, and everything hanging on the walls was authentic to the period. Also, the wait staff was very nice. Finally, considering how much inflation has affected prices lately, I thought the cost of the meal was reasonable, and the portions were more than enough.

My tater tots were delicious, And my friend said her roasted brussels sprouts were very good. I did not ask the other two gentlemen what they thought about their side dishes.

Another positive was the fact that there was no item on the menu for a single scoop of ice cream, but when I asked for it, they accommodated me and set a reasonable price of two dollars.

Negatives - our burgers were really not all that great. We were a party of four. Three of us ordered burgers. One ordered medium, one ordered medium well, and I don’t know what the third person ordered. All three burgers were well done. Also, the burgers were dry. When I mentioned these two facts to my father, he said the burgers were probably cooked in advance and then warmed up before serving. Whether or not that is the case, I could not say; however, I do firmly believe that burgers, especially bacon burgers, especially bacon mushroom cheeseburgers, should have some kind of juices dripping out of the bun. Not only did nothing drip from the bun, but nothing dripped into the bun. The bun was juice free right down to the very last bite. Not only that, but the bun itself was a little bit dry.

The fourth person in our party had the pork chops. She said they tasted OK, but she did have to ask for a sharper knife. In other words, the butter knife was not sufficient, whereas I think a butter knife would have been sufficient on her homemade pork chops or on my homemade pork chops.

Sadly, I did not feel as though I had traveled back in time to an authentic 1950s juke joint. We cannot have an authentic experience from 70 years ago if we’re going to do things, especially cooking, the way we do in the 2020s. Totally fat free is not necessarily healthy for you. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want my food to be dripping in grease, but it should maintain some of its natural juices.

That being said, you can see that there were more positives and negatives. But when you go out to a restaurant, the most important element of enjoying eating out is the taste of the food. I don’t mind paying a little bit more for good quality food. I don’t mind paying a little bit more and getting small portions. What I don’t enjoy is paying a lot for food that would’ve tasted better if I had made it at home.

But I believe in the three strikes system, so perhaps next time I eat at Gunther Toody’s, I will enjoy it and give it a...

We took my mother out to lunch for her 91st birthday because she was craving a good old fashioned hamburger. Gunther Toody's has a reputation for singing "happy birthday" to it's customers who are celebrating their birthday. We asked the waitress if they would do that for my mom's birthday, we were told that they don't sing happy birthday unless they have a full staff on board. We would have gone to Texas Roadhouse instead of here if we knew that they weren't going to help us celebrate her birthday. This was quite disappointing. I know that this is a very small thing in many people's eyes and it sounds like we're whining about a trivial matter, but we did spend a lot of money on lunch here and it seemed like we could have gone to McDonald's for the same experience and spent a lot less. The food was just average and the preparation took a lot longer than one would have expected. Another disappointment was that the menu indicated that if you bought one hamburger, fries and a drink, the second one would be free. When the bill came we were charged full price, we asked about the special and were told that our order didn't qualify because one of the meals was ordered with water instead of with a soda. We felt that when we ordered, we should have been told about that so we could have ordered a soda instead of water so we could take advantage of the special discount. All in all a big let down. We have been to a different Gunther Toody's off of interstate 25 and State highway seven on many different occasions and have been very happy with the service and all around experience. We don't recommend this location due to our dissatisfied experience.-Edit:I was contacted by someone named Jeannie and was told that she would be sending out some gift certificates for the inconvenience of our last visit. That sounded really nice and I was expecting something from her, however it has been five weeks since she promised to send them but she never sent anything. I emailed Jeannie to see if she had forgotten. She said that they would go out later on today and I should be getting them early next week. That was eight days ago. I still haven't received anything from Jeannie. I have given up on the hope of receiving anything from her. I am quite disappointed that she said that she would send me some gift certificates and simply decided not to honor what she had said. What kind of leadership does this restaurant chain have? If you say you are going to do something, then do it. Don't lie to me. Not a very nice way to do business. Way to go, Jeannie, you certainly represent your company...