Yard House — Restaurant in Riverside

So... I'm usually good about giving an honest opinion and not complaining but tonight... I need to complain! Tonight's service was probably one of the top 3 in the terrible category with the end of the night topping it off! We had a party of 12 which included two birthdays, split amongst two tables. My (grown) kids had Amanda as their server and we had Santos. The first people in our party arrived at about 4:45 pm and we personally arrived at 5:15 pm. The other people at the table where my kids sat had already gotten their food and eaten. There were appetizers on the table I was at. I sat at out table for a good 20 minutes before even having my drink order taken. The evening went on and Santos came over to introduce our "temporary" server that will be helping while he goes on his "lunch break!" While they were both at our table, we let them know we had not yet had our food order taken... the "temp" server immediately returned with our bill and asked if we needed boxes (for the appetizers on the table!) I started laughing and told her "our order was never taken for food!" She got our order and put it in. Santos returned from his lunch break and we still did not have food. We finally got our food @ 6:55 pm and my friend's steak was very-well cooked when he ordered "rare!" My kale salad was good... I have no complaints there (besides only having 2 pieces of brussel sprouts in it!) I had let both server's know we had two birthdays with us (my son's birthday is literally today- the 20th!) and neither was acknowledged.  Someone brought me my check to close out with myself and my kids on it, as Amanda's table got closed out. My son and niece both ordered pizzas and both had 1/2 each left so they asked for "to go" boxes and left the boxes on the table along with everyone's drinks. Two of the girls came to our table (a table over) to visit, my son went to the restroom while the others stepped outside to smoke. When my son came back from the restroom the table was cleared off and re-set for another party. My other son (the birthday boy) walked in and both his and my niece's pizza's were thrown out. My son approached Amanda and asked where their food and drinks were. She immediately got defensive and VERY RUDELY replied "you guys got up and left!" I immediately jumped in to let her know two people were at our table visiting (because our party was split into two tables), one was in the restroom and the others stepped outside, returning to find their food thrown away. She was very rude and simply said "well sorry!" I explained that the service was terrible and I would be submitting a complaint. We left simply because we no longer had enough seating for our party... the rest of the party continued visiting and drinking for about another hour (while waiting for their check!) I honestly feel that I will not be returning to this location... the service honestly was awful... from...

This was our first visit to this particular location, and very likely our last. Our visit was during the COVID-19 pandemic on New Year's Eve.

I placed my order online around 1:00 for pick up at 6:00. It was not a complicated order, 1 burger, 3 sandwiches, and 20 wings. At 5:45 I got a text saying our food was almost ready, and we arrived at 6:00, checked in online, and waited in our car.

After about 20 minutes and seeing several people come and go with their food, we decided to go in and see what was going on. We were told they were still working on a couple things for our order and said they would bring our order to our car when ready.

After another 20 minutes in our car (now 40 minutes after our order was supposed to be ready) we went back in again. When we asked about our order, we were told it still wasn't ready. We asked what was going on since it's now 40 minutes late, and were rather rudely told "It's only me up here and I only have 3 cooks." A very poor excuse in my opinion since our order was put in 4-5 hours ahead of time, and they just didn't plan things appropriately.

At this point we decided to wait in the lobby for our food. They stopped running food to people's cars at this point because it was just 1 person up front taking orders on the phone and trying to deliver orders to people in the lobby. So the lobby really started to get crowded because no food was going out to cars anymore, and there was a lot of food ready just sitting on the table, but for some reason, most of it didn't seem to be for the people waiting.

After another 30 minutes waiting in the lobby, we FINALLY got our food, an hour and 10 minutes after it was supposed to be ready. For our trouble we got a half-hearted sorry and thanks for your patience.

There were a lot of other angry people in that lobby. One woman asked for a refund after waiting about 20 minutes, only to find out that her food had been sitting there the whole time getting cold. She left but then returned 5 minutes later because they didn't give her the calamari she ordered. They were out of calamari and the person up front knew this, but everything was so disorganized that they forgot to credit her when she picked up her order.

We are trying to support some sit down restaurants during the pandemic, but experiences like this for $100 worth of food and drinks really are ridiculous. Part of the cost for food in these types of restaurants is for the ambiance and experience. With that not an option due to COVID, these places need to step up their game and offer great service to make up for the lost experience to justify the $13 they charge for a chicken sandwich and fries. We prepaid gratuity, and really regret...

Had the WORST EXPERIENCE ON valentine’s day with the host (wavy/curly hair in a ponytail and glasses). I came in around 10pm (party of two) put my name and number down. She typed it in so fast so I should have asked her to repeat the phone number just to make sure it was correct. SEVERAL parties came in after me and added their name and number to the waiting list and waited next to us. One by one the other parties were called and taken to their table. After 3-4 parties I went back up to the desk and politely asked a different host if they text us letting us know that we’re in the queue or if they text us only when our table is ready, she said only when your table is ready. So I said “OK no problem” and went and sat back down thinking that the people who were called in after me or maybe just waiting in their cars beforehand.

More parties came in put their name down same thing happened. My partner went up the third time and asked where we were at in the queue because we were tired and hungry. The same host (curly hair with glasses) aggressively asked what the phone number was and told me that she had texted my phone. I showed her my phone and showed her that I never received a text And I sat next to her stand the whole time to make sure that I could hear her call my name. She gave me a snarky attitude and told me “well that’s the number we have in the system and that’s the number I texted” I tried telling her that maybe she accidentally typed it in wrong because I hadn’t received a text. She was incredibly rude in her response and tried to gaslight me. Instead of owning up to something so small, she decided to lie and be a jerk. In the end, she said with a sarcastic smile “we’ll call you up when we’re ready, okay thanks” I turned around to sit back down and wait longer and as soon as I sat down, she said “OK my friend will take you back” while she was smiling at the other host. I set the menu down next to her and walked away. I won’t be returning to this location and am a little surprised she would be the one to greet people when that’s the way that she carries herself and responds. I wasn’t rude or upset and you can see that in the video….. she would be best suited away from guest, taking out...