Village Inn — Restaurant in Phoenix

Arrived around 7:10pm on a Wednesday night. The line to pay was so long that they had to step away just to let us get to the hostess stand. That should have been our first clue to turn around. Mind you, we've been here before without any memorable issues. As we sat, you could tell something wrong was going on, and that wasn't just the person behind us coughing loudly and not covering up throughout their stay (nor is it the restaurant to blame). We go ahead and order. Few minutes later and the server came by to ask if we ordered a cheeseburger (no). Brings out the wife's salad. Few minutes later she almost put eggs Benedict in front of me, but I corrected her and she served me the turkey dinner I ordered (which wasn't hot off the grill, and very salty). Comes back a few minutes later to say the rest is nearly ready. Ten minutes later and server brings mother-in-law's patty melt, which she thought was OK but not as good as she hoped. Few more minutes and server said wife's meal behind because they needed to make fresh mashed potatoes. I nearly finished my meal by the time wife got her top sirloin, which was supposed to be well done, but was bloody, and the fresh mashed potatoes had crunchy parts in it. Manager did take $10 off but still had to pay $5 for a meal she couldn't eat. And the bill had extra items on it that we had to have removed. On top of that, the menu has been reduced, as have the pie options. Just very disappointing, but don't think it's an all the time thing. We'll probably will eventually go back for a breakfast, but not for some time. Too many other places work through their problems...

This place used to have the best French toast but I sent it back twice before giving up finally and requesting to see a manager, "Bob" who claimed he was too busy to speak to me after the extremely stressed out and rude waitress, Wendy, loudly expressed her irritation with the fact that I sent back a total of 4 totally raw in the center pieces of French toast the first time, then once cooked fully tasted strongly like onion. She was very clearly exasperated by any changes(we asked for a similar dish to the French toast combo and she skipped over the cheaper $5.99 triple threat special and suggested the $10 strawberry banana French Toast and was visually and verbally expressive of her annoyance when we noticed the card displaying the special and switched our order just as she was placing it in the kitchen. They hadn't even heard our full order yet so it's not like we changed our minds after they made it. She huffed and puffed and rolled her eyes a lot. It was sad to me that such small things upset her so deeply and were so outwardly obvious and that after all the years in the restaurant business (she claimed she grew up in it) she hadn't figures out to better earn the 20% tip she received out of pity. Bob the manager never called me and I don't expect he will. I used to eat here 3x a week a few years ago. I will not likely return. Not even for free...

TRINDA MADE MINE & MY BOYS DAY!!! She went above & beyond to be sure that we were taken care of, & my youngest (almost 3yrs) absolutely adored her. When she sweetly presented him his smiley face pancakes his eyes lit up with his hands on his cheeks and said "ohh thank you much for my pancase." He doesn't typically take to strangers, but then Trinda certainly didn't treat us as such, & they acted like they'd known each other for sometime lol it was really cool. We've fallen on hard times & life hasn't been easy nor shown much of a glimmer of hope, but Trinda made all 3 of us smile, & my oldest couldn't wait to tell his dad how much we enjoyed our meal & time there. Trinda if you should happen to read this I really want you to know that we thank you so much for your kindness & patience today. It was really nice talking with you, & you gave us a moment of normalcy that we haven't had for a while. I'm not well as you know, & I only told you the tip of the iceberg because my oldest was listening, but you helped me not feel all I'm going through. I hope Village Inn knows they have a gem and again thank you for...