Arooga's — Restaurant in Shippensburg

Look, I REALLY want to be able to give Arooga's a 5-star review, I do, but they keep making the same mistakes time and time again, at every location. Every Arooga's I've been to has a ton of TV's, but barely any of them are actually visible. All of the big projector-TV's are faded and yellowed beyond recognition. The little ones at each table have been out of service for years at some locations, and barely functional at others. In a dining area FULL of TV's, you're lucky if you can actually see quality visuals from more than 3 of them. Unfortunately, the TV's that work best are dedicated to running ads for their in-house trivia competition (which is laughably easy and never gets played) or their "Now Playing" displays for the music.

So, let's say none of that matters to you. You didn't come for the sports or the music, you came to have a good time. Well, good luck. If you're in a group of more than four, there are no booths or tables to accommodate your party. That's not to say they won't seat you, they will, but you'll all be squeezed into a seating arrangement that is not comfortable. Once you've split up your group amicably across two neighboring tables, you'll realize the seats are essentially just a piece of plywood with some fake leather on top. They're impressively uncomfortable.

But damnit, you won't let a rough dining environment ruin this for you, so you look over the menu. There's a LOT of great options on the menu, it's the definition of "something for everyone", and deciding on one meal for the night will be almost as hard as the seat you're on. You may have second thoughts after placing your order, but fear not! You can take comfort in knowing that AROOGA'S HAS NEVER MADE AN ORDER CORRECTLY. I don't say this lightly, nor do I mean this in a nitpicking "they forgot my sauce" or "my burger wasn't quite cooked how I asked" way, I mean regardless of what you ordered, you get to enjoy a random assortment of whatever toppings they felt like throwing on regardless of your request or the menu description itself. And you can forget making changes or special requests to what's listed, they will not remember them.

All of this is based on dozens of meals I've had at plenty of Arooga's locations, and these problems are constant. So what is Arooga's? It's a theoretically perfect bar and restaurant that catastrophically fails to implement anything correctly in practice. I really hope...

Great vegetarian options and good service. (Original 5 star review from Fall 2018...)

Updated review: I just spent $21 on fries and a lemonade ($17 for the food and tipped 24% because I'm nice) because I accidentally left my box on the table. I called as soon as I got home and realized to see if there was a chance that they hadn't cleared it yet. When I was there, the waiter said it was no rush because I barely ate anything when I asked for a box, so he knew I wanted to take it home (it's better reheated). I thought that maybe there was a chance it didn't get tossed, but I'm not driving back to ask that when it could be done in a simple phone conversation.

I got an automated message to press 1 through whatever number and pressed the one for all other inquiries. I called 4 times and each time it eventually hung up because their voicemail was full.

I tipped really well because the food I was planning on bringing home was so good. I ate one of my seven wings, and it's my fault that I forgot them, but if they knew how to answer their phone at least I would have known it was tossed. Now I'll be laying in my bed for hours wondering what happened to my food. It's even worse because I was craving their faux wings today and I never eat out, so it was rare that I decided to go, but I ate my fries first since they would not be good reheated, and now six delicious wings are going in the trash.

Also, these are what my friend's onion rings were burnt almost black in...

My kids would rather go to school than come back here if that tells you anything. It’s not the servers fault, they are great. They should find a new place to work for a manager that appreciates them. The issue is the manager. This guy doesn’t have a clue. He has 2 servers trying to take care of the whole restaurant and he doesn’t help! He just stands at the front door with 2-3 hostesses laughing about the angry customers he created due to his lack of management skills. Here’s $15k worth of advice left in a Google review. These 4 things will turn this poorly run restaurant into a OK restaurant.

Close the dining room right when you walk in. You don’t have the staff to adequately service the whole restaurant.

Don’t seat people just because you have open tables. Only seat the number of tables that you can handle. If you set the expectation of having people wait before they are seated they won’t have to wait 30 minutes to see a waiter and another hour for their food.

Take 2 of the “hostesses” from the front of the restaurant and train them to be servers. It’s called reallocating resources to the current needs of the business.

Finally, Mr. Manager get to work. Standing around is not acceptable when your staff is struggling. Lead by example and gain the respect of your staff. Trust me your business...