Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews — Restaurant in Salem

I am a Server and Bartender myself so let me preface this with that. At my job I'm the ONLY server, hostess, busser, food runner AND bartender. I do it all myself. No problems. We unfortunately came for my birthday dinner tonight and we were given the option to sit in the bar. Thought maybe it would be better but I was oh so wrong. We were sat, not given any menus. Dirty tables all around. (Mind you they were still covered in old food and drinks 2 hours later when we left.....). Sat for at least 15 minutes before we were asked what we wanted to drink (I had to Google the menu since we aren't mind readers and drove 3 hrs round trip just to come here). Didnt bring menus until she brought drinks probably about 25-30 mins after being seated. Weren't asked about appetizers, had to order them on the computer that's at our table. An order of onion rings took 15 mins (mind you it really wasn't busy. TONS of open seats and one of only 2 tables in the bar who were eating, the other 3 tables were finishing when we got there. It took the bartender about 15+ minutes to take our food order. Drink she made was disgusting but she was nowhere to be found to order a different one. Finally we got onion rings, no napkins, no utensils and brought by someone else who wasn't our server. Food finally comes about an hour after we arrived, food runner brought it and asked if could get us anything else. When I asked for the ranch we ordered she acted like we were a bother, rolled her eyes, sighed, checked receipt and got ranches like we asked for her firstborn. We attempted to enjoy our food but I was not happy. Onion rings were the only good thing about our experience........ My husband's burger was over cooked and shriveled. Not acceptable for a $18 burger and fries. My go to I always order and have for 20+ years, the whiskey river chicken was dry as could be and was so tough I couldn't even eat it. Food took so long by the time it came I just wanted this awful birthday meal to be over with. Took another 15 mins to flag down someone for boxes so I could at least have my fries since this was the only meal I ate today. Took another 15 to flag her down to try to pay since apparently they aren't cash friendly which is actually illegal. Tried to pay with cash but as per the usual the bartender was nowhere to be found, expected me to pay with card. I reluctantly pulled out my card to pay and apparently there's an auto gratuity they don't mention for only two people?! Total was $44, they charged my card $46 and then said I owed them another $10 and declined my card presumably due to the auto added gratuity/tip. Tried to speak with manager who acted like I was a bother and blamed my card and saying it auto tipped. Hope she enjoyed the forced $12 tip that I can ASSURE was not in any way earned. Absolutely the worst experience I've ever had at a restaurant and totally unexcusable. I've only been serving and bartending since June and would have rocked that whole section no problem but I guess 2 tables was just too much for the bartender to handle. Used to be my favorite place to go but will never be returning after my experience today. Not sure how you guys stay open after moving from by target but quality and service has gone 1110% down...

UPDATE: Shortly after Red Robin responded to this review, I contacted customer service as instructed in their response. I was told someone would call me. No one has called. That was really upsetting, almost as if they'd replied on this review just for show. I wish I could delete it, but this is the best I can do. Diners beware, especially if you have anyone with disabilities in your party.

I've been frequenting this Red Robin with my extended family since I moved to Salem (just over a year). The service is poor overall and they consistently don't have items listed on their menu. The burgers seem to be much lower quality than I remember. We've also had issues with their "rewards" program malfunctioning when it comes time to pay the bill. It's really upsetting to think you're getting a meal at a discount, just to find out after you've already eaten that you're not. If their system is malfunctioning, they won't honor the "rewards," even if they can literally see that you have them available. Then there was tonight. Tonight we went with a group of 7 for a birthday dinner, and they told us that if ANYONE at the table ordered a promo item (they have a $10 burger deal right now), my sister wouldn't be allowed to use her free "birthday burger" reward, even though there were 3 separate checks at the table. The waiter told us it's always been this way, but we told him we've done this before, multiple times. We come here often for birthdays with groups of 7 or 8, split between 3 or 4 checks and we've never been prevented from using a promo because someone on a separate check wanted to use their rewards. The birthday burger was the whole reason my sister chose Red Robin for her birthday. As we discussed this with the waiter, he became impatient and condescending, saying "Let me explain it to you, AGAIN" in an exasperated tone. He treated her like an idiot, and she was just sitting there with a deer-in-the-headlights look because if she chose to use her "reward," it meant everyone else wouldn't get to take advantage of the promo they'd already planned their meal around. She started to cry as he continued to speak to her that way and we chose to leave. It was just SO heartbreaking to watch this interaction. It also doesn't make sense that customers are penalized for sitting together in a group at a table. Had we come in as 3 separate groups, occupying 3 separate tables, this wouldn't have...

We went into Red Robin on Sunday evening for dinner at around 9pm. It was really slow considering it was a Sunday evening with an hour til closing. Despite that, service was super slow. It took over half an hour to get our food only to realize multiple bites in that our burgers were dang near raw 😬 my fiance had eaten quite a bit of his before I pointed out how ..."rare" his was. I cut into mine to realize mine was also raw. They didn't ask about how we would like them cooked, but serving ground beef that undercooked is a pretty big health risk we didn't sign up for, and I don't think a restaurant would willingly serve a burger that rare even if you did ask.

We're not the type to complain or ever ask for food to be remade. We've both worked service industry jobs and know how people are. But those were inedible, so we sent them back. It took almost another half an hour for our remade food to come back out, at which point we just asked for them to be bagged to go since we knew they closed soon to not be rude. The bartender working was pretty apologetic, but I'm not sure what on earth the kitchen was doing, as she seemed to have to tell them exactly how to do their jobs. Not sure if we just got unlucky or there are some new staff in the kitchen (that don't know how to use a food thermometer), but at the end of the night we had waited over an hour for our food and left having to eat at home anyway. Considering we could have gotten pretty sick from eating raw ground beef I would have thought they would comp one meal or give us a bogo for next time or something, but they didn't. Seems like the least that could have been done 😬

Don't think we'll be giving Red Robin another...