Denny's — Restaurant in Santa Fe

If I could I would rate the Santa Fe Dennys with 0 stars. Every experience I've had there has been a BAD one. Let's start with the service...everyone who works there is on drugs. From the mouth of a certain employee himself!!! I work very late nights and at times Dennys is one of my only option7s. When there's hardly anyone in an establishment and you can't even get a glass of water because an employee is high walking around aimlessly that's not a good sign. The waiter spent an uncomfortable amount of time at our table sharing inappropriate things with myself and my other (female) friend. Took us hours to get in and out of Dennys. Also their card machine never works!!! After being sick of their circus I decided I'd use the online ordering as they "do not accept call in orders after 9pm for safety reasons." So I place my order and pay for it online with my card and head all the way to Dennys to pick it up and find that they're closed for a week for maintenance although still accepting online orders???!!!!! So I wait the week they're closed and then politely request my order be fulfilled as I have paid and waited a week. I am equipped with my online receipt! The guy I spoke with was rude and told me online ordering shouldn't have been an option and he can't honor my request and asks I come back the next morning between 7am and 2pm to speak with their manager. At this point I'm frustrated. VERY FRUSTRATED!!! my 2nd trip down with no food or my money back!!! How hard it is to honor a lot roast sandwich and explain later to a manager if you must??? I try calling before I go the next day and have gotten nothing but a busy signal All morning as if their phone is off the hook. This place is run by drug addicts and jerks. I just want my money back at this point. This has gotten ridiculous. I feel robbed and disrespected. They need to have an acting manager at all times as well as a serious corporate review of the establishment! Once I receive my refund I will not be bringing this Dennys Diner my...

We waited thirty minutes to get our beverages (Not exaggerating). Waited another twenty minutes for an appetizer and another ten for the entree. We were already getting annoyed by the wait time, but to add to it, when the food finally got to us, it was evident that it had been sitting for a while.

Take for example the steak skewer and eggs. By the time it got to me, the eggs were cold and the bourbon sauce had settled and was cold. Thee pan did NOT sizzle AT ALL and only the handle felt hot.

We were pretty hungry so we didn't call the server the whole fifteen minutes we were eating.

When we were done eating, we waited another fifteen minutes before we called over another male server (not ours) and told him we would like two takeout boxes and our check. He went behind the counter and said something to our server (presumably what we wanted) and we kept on observing him (we were seated just behind the counter so we could see what all the servers were doing).

For the next five minutes, the male server appeared to be walking back and forth and standing around waiting for food from the kitchen. Our server was just there waiting for food from the kitchen.

While I understand this, the to go boxes were just five feet away from our table and I could not understand how the male server could not just grab two of them and give it to us.

In the end, I got so fed up with trying to get anybody's attention (both the male server and our server were ignoring us staring at them) that I ended up grabbing the boxes myself and walked myself to the checkout counter.

Our server then FINALLY walked over to the podium and tells us immediately what the total was and didn't give us an opportunity to review the items on the check. We were so annoyed at this point that we just paid it. She even asked if we would like to leave a tip on the card. I got quiet for a while but I didn't want to start something right there so I tipped 5 bucks. She did...

I suppose the first red flag would be that the restaurant was nearly empty at a 7 pm on a Friday. The second red flag was certainly the smell of... human effluence in the entryway to the restaurant. A dirty napkin wrapping a utensil on the table should have really been the cue to beat cheeks to another dinner location. Alas, we prevailed and were as exactly as disappointed as I figured we'd be.

Now, I'll say that my special order burger with a chicken breast instead of beef was actually pretty good. It was made right and hot, and the fries were fresh and seasoned well. Everyone else's dinner orders were a bit of a mess. One dining companion got the Chik 'n' Honey sandwich and said it was bland and over saturated with sauce. Diner the third ordered an appetizer sampler got the wrong items on the plate. She was able to get one item subbed out with no issue but the fries that should have been on the platter were still missing.

Drinks were served without straws and the appetizer was missing a dipping sauce. We never get the straws and had to ask twice for the sauce before it finally showed up.

It seems like the kitchen is turning out at least decent food, but the sullen server who had our section seemed he'd rather be anywhere but here. At least the other two working other parts of the dining room seemed to care about their jobs and even checked on us a few times.

Maybe this is par for the course for Denny's, but it seemed like a real bottom of the barrel experience in a town that deserves better, even if it's "just a...