NORMS Restaurant — Restaurant in Rialto

We went out for a late dinner, after 9:00pm late. We had to wait 30 minutes for a table; I'm assuming it was the post movie crowd from the theater across the parking lot. Not a big deal. They were out of kids menus so I had to look up options for my little guy online. Again, no big deal. We ordered the sampler while deciding what we wanted to eat. After waiting a bit it came out barely warm. Before we even finished our first choice off of the plate everything else was COLD. Ok. The waitress came to take our order. I requested that our food not be lukewarm when it came out & she seemed surprised that I had said our sampler was not hot.

First disappointment was my son's hot chocolate. Norms used to have excellent hot chocolate made with milk. This is no longer the case, it is now absolutely watery and not very flavorful. My son wasn't upset seeing as he is 4, but man, my sip was disappointing. My mom ordered their crispy chicken and cheese sandwich (not 100% on the name) and she said it was good. My son had the Mac and cheese with French fries. The Mac and cheese looked dry, but he ate it. The French fries were good. I asked about the meatloaf dinner and was informed while my waitress had never tried it because she is vegetarian that a lot of people order it and they finish it. Sounds promising, right? It came with salad & soup. I was told if I wasn't interested in the soup of the day I could sub out for fruit, which I did. Well, the "salad" is just lettuce with a few cabbage and carrot shreds drenched in dressing. (On the plus side, they have excellent ranch.) However, there were no tomatoes, no cucumbers, no croutons, nothing, not sure why they have they audacity to call it a salad. The fruit never came out. Now, the meatloaf dinner, it looked promising. A mound of what looked like seasoned mashed potatoes, a healthy helping of meatloaf both drizzled with gravy, sprinkled with sauted mushrooms and - for some inexplicable reason - two whole bacon strips, accompanied by zucchini and yellow squash. Unfortunately, the overcooked vegetables were the best thing about it. Y'all ever smelled canned cat food? That is exactly what the food tasted like. I thought it was just the potatoes so I figured I'd skip them and just have the meatloaf. The crumbly, obviously overcooked, dry textured meatloaf that somehow still felt moist? Did they reheat it via boiling? I don't know, but I did not eat that disaster.

Now, service. Our waitress was on it to take our orders and that was appreciated. However, once our food was brought out she checked on us once toward the end of the meal. At first I chalked it up to staffing issues because it's 2022, but no. I saw every other wait person check on their tables near us multiple times. A different person refilled our waters and my mom had to flag down a different waitress who had been refilling her table's coffees to ask for a refill. Not sure what was going on, but our waitress wasn't very present. Thankfully she did remove the meatloaf disaster when I told her I would not be eating it and that it tasted like cat food.

I would possibly try this location again, but would stick to sandwiches and fries. Definitely don't try the meatloaf y'all. That was a HUGE mistake. This will probably be a last resort choice...

Today, I went in for breakfast and ordered the SoCal Breakfast with eggs, sausage, hash browns, and pancakes. When our food arrived, I took a bite of the hash browns and immediately noticed something was off—they were blackened and crispy on top but completely undercooked underneath. My husband tried them as well and agreed they weren’t properly cooked.

I called our waitress over and politely asked if they could be replaced. She was very accommodating and quickly brought out a new order. However, when the replacement hash browns arrived, they were completely burnt—so much so that I couldn’t even cut through them. At this point, I called the waitress back and asked to speak with the cook, as it felt like someone in the kitchen was playing games with our food. She mentioned there were multiple cooks in the back but offered to bring the kitchen manager instead, which I agreed to.

When the kitchen manager arrived, I showed him both plates—one undercooked, the other burnt—and explained my frustration. I again asked to speak with the cook responsible, but he assured me he would handle the situation. He offered to replace the hash browns again, but by that point, I had lost confidence and instead requested a refund, which he agreed to.

Our waitress was very apologetic, and I appreciate her effort, but if the cooks in the back are deliberately messing with food, they should be the ones facing the customers—not the waitstaff, who are just trying to...

When I go to dine at any restaurant our hosts usually greet us with friendliness and welcome us in ! Except that wasn't what happened tonight I did in fact order to go at norms tonight but it's because the food is good and the rest of the staff gives the right customer service and I do in fact like the French toast here's the start of my night with norms I arrive 9:34 pm sign in with hosts 30-45 min wait I proceed to wait inside and a few more party's arrive I continue waiting it's and hr times wait I notice the party that arrived right after me get seated so I go ask what's the estimate time to get seated they inform me 2 more party's I call them out on seating people with larger groups that arrived way after I know this because I spoke to one of the guest of the party who did in fact arrive around 9:40ish and they are clue less and start mentioning Maybe they signed in earlier than me I inform them that I don't think they did as I had witnessed them barely signing in I had waited the whole time inside the restaurant so as iam already hopeless to get seated I continue to wait outside I tell my party we still have a long times wait and we decide the get my kids something to eat as they are already fuzzy and hungry so my story here is just to vent about my experience with norms tonight norms please train your hosts better tonight I was suppose to be dining inside with my family as I have before numerous times sincerly...