Denny's — Restaurant in San Jose

Yesterday, as an early birthday gift, I was taken to lunch. It was a good day to dine outside, actually. Though the air was cool, the sun was warm and actually allowed me to shed my sweater!

We arrived and had to wait, though the wait wasn't TOO long, which is nice. Because the place was busy, we had to dine in the makeshift dining room located under a tent in the parking lot. One would expect to be placed out so far from the restaurant would mean that service would be bad. However, the service was VERY good. The wait staff was efficient and attentive. In fact, my iced tea wasn't allowed to get too far past the halfway point before our waitress (I apologize because I forgot to get her name 😔) was there to ask if I wanted another!

Being farther from the kitchen, you'd expect not only shoddy service but cold (or cool) food, but, again, this wasn't the case. I had the nachos plate (which is huge and requires a take-home box), and it was HOT! (Actually, I prefer Denny's nachos over most any place because the cheese they use isn't the typical yucky Velveeta but queso fresco (I think), which is very good, warm and gooey.)

During COVID, it's nice to be able to get out once in a while to dine, even though it has to be outside. My heartfelt appreciation goes out to all those who run the risk of getting sick by serving others, and this certainly includes those in the hospitality industry. It's risky for these people to work just as much as it is for those in the medical profession, so I'm thankful to each one. I know they have to earn a living, but to do so in this weird time means they put their own health on the line just to make or bring me a meal, and that's truly exemplary. But there at Denny's, they really do a very good job of limiting opportunities of transmission. So, please, if you're stir crazy and NEED to get out for a change, and if you're hungry, stop by this Denny's and have a meal. You'll probably have to wait, but you'll have a good dining experience once you're at your table. And don't forget a nice tip or, at the very least, to thank your wait staff for their service. They've put themselves in harm's way so that you could break the COVID shelter-in-place monotony and get outside for a bite to eat. And if it happens to be extra busy and maybe service is slower because of it, don't take it out on your waitress (or waiter). Cut them some slack. They're doing their best to serve you and everyone else who was just as stir crazy as you!

Update (2/10/22): You’ve been able to dine in for a while now (thank God because it's winter!), and I was there for breakfast this morning. Lettie was our waitress, and she's excellent and very sweet. Actually, all the waiters are very good. And there aren't that many people in the mornings, so you don't have to worry about a...

I woke up early to go have breakfast with my GF. Out of all the choices we had we decided to go and have a sit-down breakfast. The place: Denny's it is. Now, I can say this was a good morning because we both agreed on breakfast. So here we go, outside lot was pretty clean. As we get to the doors of Denny's and I open the door the first thing that hit the nostrils was the smell of some fresh scent floor cleaner. Cleared the sinuses a bit, but I prefer to smell that than question the smell. The place was really clean everything seemed in order. We walked over to the cash register and soon enough was greeted by someone. The typical question of "how many?" right after "Good morning!" We were seated and the place was not full. Then again it was early morning on a weekday. I have heard and seen the saying "Grand opening ready" and for sure they have met maybe even exceeded the term. The server was polite and willing to help out. Not overly excited but for sure polite. She did have a mask on as she is following the Covid guidelines.

Now for the food. I was hungry in the morning, so I did not even think of taking pictures before I dug in. I ordered the moons over my hammy. This is where the service fell off a bit. I expect my sandwiches from fast food restaurants to look like the pictures posted. As we know it has become the norm to see squished sandwiches from fast food places. Denny's seems to be following that trend. I would put a picture of what it should look like, but why have to deal with copyright stuff. Do a Google search and check out images. It should give you an Idea of how they used used to be made. The price of course seems to climb, rather than digress like the quality of the sandwich. The hash brown was cooked rather well. Good flavor overall. The one thing that also stands out is the greasiness of the bread. I could have used one of those breads to armor all the interior of my car.

The service overall was fast we did not have to wait long for our food. It was hot, but not where you are burning and killing taste buds. I would be ok waiting a bit longer for presentation of food.

I have heard if you want to see the cleanliness of place check out the bathrooms. Which it is exactly what I did. Sure enough the bathroom was clean. This is my first time visiting this Denny's and unless they recently remodeled it looks very well kept. Kudos on the cleanliness of the place. Honestly, I would go back hopefully someone of from this establishment is reading this and can fix the amount of butter used on the bread. Maybe make the sandwiches a bit thicker like...

I’m so confused, I don’t understand why the servers here feel so comfortable giving me attitude for literally just doing MY JOB.

I work for UberEats, I came here to pick up an order. I told them the name of the order I was picking up, they said it would be 5 min. After some time had passed, a different server approached me. He was short, had curly hair, and pretty intense bags under his eyes. At first, he spoke to me in broken English, he said they had “no order for _.”

I asked for clarification because my phone clearly said the order was there. He gave me a hard time, I agreed to disagree and took it up with UberEats support (so I wouldn’t get in trouble for… receiving attitude from a random server I don’t know?)

Some more time passed, I stayed in the lobby of this restaurant while I called for support to show them I wasn’t joking. After some time had passed AGAIN, the same short, tired, curly headed gentleman re-approached me. His English was perfectly fine this time, and he was asking me for clarification on the order I was picking up. By then, it was already too late. I had already cancelled the order and I believe I saw a different delivery driver pick up the order I had came for.

This was so frustrating, what was the point of giving me a hard time??????? I’m bilingual but my English is more fluent so I speak it as my primary language. Why am I getting a hard time for speaking the language I’m most comfortable speaking?? Was it something else?????? I still don’t know but again, I didn’t get in trouble on my end.

I just hope that curly headed gentleman with the stellar customer service gets what’s coming...