Katz's — Restaurant in Shenandoah

We've been dining here for the past four years. It's usually a treat for us because we live 30 minutes away, so when we do visit, it's intentional.

Usually, it's a five-star experience, but our most recent visit last weekend was not.

I acknowledge that they were busy, but the misses were fundamental.

I had ordered chips and queso for an appetizer; my husband caught my mistake and said that we actually wanted the loaded chips, which was true. We corrected ourselves, but our server didn't seem to be listening.

When the appetizer came out, we received both chips and queso and the loaded chips.

The server who dropped them off was not our server (no problem there, in fact, kudos for teamwork!).

We explained that we only intended to order the loaded chips, and the server who brought our appetizer(s) said that she understood, would let our server know, and that she would leave the chips and queso on our table.

That's the right thing to do in that situation: The house made a mistake, so they let the guests have the extra item.

I ate a few chips with the queso before our server stopped by. She said they'd take it off the bill, which, again, is the right thing to do. No problem there.

But then she took the chips and queso away from us.

That was a weird move, and it felt like being punished for the house's mistake. And what else was going to happen to that dish besides dumping it in the trash?

To be fair, we wouldn't have eaten all of them, but as someone who has decades of experience in the restaurant industry, it was an inhospitable move.

When the entrées came, they delivered everything except my husband's potato pancakes, which he ordered as his side.

To their credit, our server acknowledged this and said they'd be out in a minute. Okay, cool. Not an issue.

But more than 10 minutes passed, and they still hadn't been brought to the table.

When I could finally make eye contact with our server (she had passed by our a table a few times, but I couldn't politely get her attention), I asked about the potato pancakes.

She looked confused for a moment, then snapped to and let us know they'd be out quickly, which they were. But it seemed like they'd been sitting in the window for a while.

One of the many things we love about this place is the complimentary pickles and slaw they serve when you sit down.

By the time we received our entrées, we still hadn't received the pickles and slaw, so we had to ask our server for them. She did bring them out right away, but that's not something we should've had to request.

I had the smoked salmon sandwich. I love their rye bread, and it was just as delicious this time.

However, I have almost no tolerance for fishy flavors in seafood. I have eaten enough smoked salmon to know that it should have zero fishy flavors, but unfortunately, my sandwich had enough of a fishy tang that I literally gagged.

I was able to eat most of the sandwich, but there were a few untenable bites in there.

At the end of our meal, I fully intended to order a dessert to-go.

Unfortunately, our server just presented us with the check and didn't ask if we wanted to order more.

At this point, considering all the other issues, I just let it go and didn't order anything additional.

Also, a note to management: How are guests supposed to feel comfortable filling out the survey on the handheld check processor with a server standing over their shoulder? I left the survey blank, but I did leave a tip.

Typically, these are all issues that I would've discussed with a manager in person, but no manager ever stopped by to check on us. And I'm pretty sure that's the first time that's happened.

We will be back, but our expectations will be adjusted down a notch or two.

This is usually a great place to dine, but this weekend's experience left us feeling...

We went to Katz's for breakfast, and the service that we got was legitimately the worst service I have ever experienced. The place was not busy and had less than 10 tables going. We stood at the hostess both for several minutes before we were even greeted, and by that time, the host just walked up and left with menus to hand to the other host. We finally got seated and was told who our server would be. We sat at the table for 5 minutes+ before someone even came to greet us and take our drink order. Meanwhile, the couple behind us were getting assistance by 3 servers every so often while we just sat there. Waiting and never spoken to. We finally got a waitress over, Mariah, and she was rude from the second she walked up to us. She was rushing us to order, barely got a greeting. When we were ordering, she kept talking over us and making decisions for us instead of actually talking to us like adults but treated like children instead. After another long wait, she brought out one coffee and water when two coffees were ordered, but not water. She was helping the table behind us and as she tried to run past our table, I simply asked for my coffee since it seemed like she forgot or didn't hear which happens when you don't actively listen to people ordering and talk over them. She had such a bad attitude about a simple question and went off on me telling that she's busy. Busy with what? When we walked in, all the wait staff were standing in the back talking. The majority of the place is empty, and there's obviously enough staff since the people behind us had 5 different people assist them since we sat down. She could obviously bring two drinks, so she forgot and took that out on us for whatever reason. If anything, she could have just apologized and said that she was waiting for more coffee to brew instead of being rude about how she has ZERO customer service skills. When she finally came back after another long wait, we had decided that we just wanted the check and to cancel our order. Let me tell you how quick this person ran to cancel the order and bring us our check like we were an inconvenience to her. It was like watching a kid run to a free toy store. When she came back, she kept repeating very rudley that she hoped our day would get better. We told her that her attitude not being around us would make our day better.

A manager came because she saw everything and wanted to know how our visit was and if we needed help. I told her that this was the worst service we have ever had anywhere. I let her know what happened from the moment we walked in, but how she spoke to us was like her trying to help a lost child, which was rude in it's own right. "Oh, no!" "Oh, I can see why you're upset.." like ma'am, I'm too old to be treated like that. The only solution she offered? To give us a gift card so we can come back, not even to offer the coffee that we didn't drink on the house and still had to pay for, but, we could get a gift card for this horrible establishment and enjoy rude service a second time. 8 dollars for two black coffees, which is absurd, and to top it off, our server was still having an attitude while handling our check in front of the manager, but nothing was done but she still kept offering a...

This place is for people who like bland dry food and paying way to much for small portions that don't come with a full combo like a drink and a side, 2 of my burgers did come with a side of stuffed baked potatoe, it was supposed to be good, the idea was nice, but it was disgusting and flavorless and had some chalky tasting, not fried, crust on the outside.

I included the receipt so people can get an idea of pricing:

I paid $9.99 for a regular sized 3 cheese grilled cheese. It comes with some cabbage and a pickle🤔😂😂😂.

I paid $9.99 for a Philly cheesesteak which could be considered reasonably priced but idk. I'm from Cali I'm used to my Philly being so massive it falls apart and it coming with fries and a tasty blueberry lemonade for about $12-14 bucks. Instead once again I got a pickle and some cabbage.

I paid $9.98 for 2 medium sized floats???? At the ice cream truck I pay less and get more. They put a little dollop of ice cream in there like they used a baby scooper and I'm like what the heck!!! so I essentially paid $4.99 for 2 cream sodas 🤷🏾‍♀️. They tasted good tho.

The burgers 1 specialty $12.99, 1 plain $10.79 were disgusting. They don't put any type of sauce on the regular burger. No mayo, ketchup, just a lettuce, tomatoes, and a dry tiny baby patty.

The specialty burger "The Carnegie Hall Burger," they put something called noch sauce in a very tiny portion (it was not good as a stand alone sauce, it tasted like jelly) and a small slice of cheddar cheese, that I couldn't taste, with jalapeno cream cheese poppers, lettuce and tomatoes and a dry baby patty. How this burger managed to be gross with Jalapeno poppers on it is beyond me. And all of this came with more pickles and cabbage on the side. My daughter was mad she had to cut up the pickle and put it on the burger. She's like, "Why isn't this ALREADY ON THE BURGER???" 🤷🏾‍♀️

I do however have GREAT NEWS!!! THE CARAMEL FUDGE CHEESECAKE was so good. I don't like cheesecake and I don't like chocolate but I love caramel. I just cut the chocolate bottom off gave it to my daughter and we were good. I asked for extra caramel on the side 😘 delish!

Oh and WHAT THE HECK!!! You guys see where they added on $3.17 in gratuity, WITHOUT ASKING IF I WANTED TO TIP!!! which I did not. This place is awful and I'm going to get my tip and some more cheesecake before I never...