Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews — Restaurant in Slidell

I wish I could give negative stars. We were excited to try Red Robin. The menu has so many wonderful choices. Our server starts off apologizing for the long wait because she was running behind. Then it goes down from there. A young couple were seated behind us. The girl was obviously angry with her companion. She was talking so loud that everyone around her was forced to hear her conversation. She said the "F" word more times in a 5 minute conversation than I have said my entire lifetime. We asked our server if she could move us. She was very accommodating. She told us to leave everything that she would get us new settings at the other table. Our food arrives and my husband notices his fries are wrong. I also ask for a fork because our server has NOT provided the new settings as promised. My fries were also wrong but I decided to just keep what I had. The server brings my husband a correct order of fries but still no fork. She looks at me confused because she knew she was supposed to bring me something but could not remember. "A fork" I replied. She goes into the kitchen and returns with the plactic "to go" utensils that are wrapped in plactic. She gives it to me and says "I couldn't find any metal forks that I thought you would be happy with". What the heck was that comment about. I was extremely insulted. She made me feel as if I was being a pain when in fact she dropped the ball by not giving us utensils when she moved us. But apparently forgot that she had already brought my husband his fries so she gave him another order. Another server passed our table and asked how we were doing. "Not good" we replied and told her what happened. She went into the kitchen and came out with a metal fork in less than a minute. Needless to say my food was cold and i was no longer hungry. We paid full price for cold inedible food. The second server also mentioned that she had heard the young couple fighting by our 1st table. This is a huge problem. Two servers were aware of this. Why were these two disrespectful people still there? There were two tables with children within earshot of them. Did the servers notify the manager? Did the manager do anything? I think it's clear the type of clientele they want. It's apparently not respectful ones. We will not return. This was a huge...

We were shown to our table and placed our order for all of our drinks and our kids' meals, but my wife and I were undecided. We asked if we could place our orders when they brought out food for the kids. We do this pretty frequently because it also helps to get the kids situated before we get our food. They had kitchen runners bring food out instead of the wait staff, so the kids had had all of their food and my wife and I hadn't even ordered yet. The tables were spaced out for social distancing and there were only two other tables in the area with guests. But, this was apparently too much for the waitress and her trainee to keep up with. They checked on the other two tables at least 5 or 6 times and never came by ours, even after I told the runner that I still needed to order. The waitress and trainee also somehow managed to keep their backs turned where they couldn't see my multiple attempts to get their attention. We finally got to order, but the girls were finished and had to wait for my wife's and my food to come out and me to eat before we could go. We then asked for some extra ketchup and some napkins. The napkins took 15 minutes and they forgot the ketchup. The ketchup took another 10. We were hesitant to ask for a to go box for the leftovers because we were there for almost an hour and 45 minutes already. Thankfully, we could pay at the tabletop kiosk or we might still be there waiting for my card back.

I understand that there was a trainee involved, so there was some teaching going on and sometimes it shows down the process. But the waitstaff was completely full, with only 3 or 4 tables each. Our waitress seemed perfectly capable of tending to the 2 other tables multiple times...literally checking on the same table 4 times in a row within a 15 minute time frame. I could tell that she had experience in food service and she didn't seem like she was overwhelmed at all. She just seemed inattentive and nonchalant...

UPDATED 2/24/2022 - Things seem to be doing pretty well, despite the tough hiring times. Burgers and wraps were done perfectly, waitress was really on the ball, and refills and unlimited fries flowed like someone knew they were being reviewed. Ran out of wings though and that to me seems like a useless excuse. Does their manager know someone could run over to Walmart and buy all the wings they could ever want??? Well, good news is that everything else was hot and flavorful, and pretty quick to the table!! YUMMM!!!!!

Update April 16,2019: Added a star because the last two visits have been much better. That's not to say they don't still need improving, they do especially the waitstaff, but I haven't had to send any food back and I do really like that Whisky River BBQ burger. I generally try to be pretty straightforward about my reviews and when a place has made improvements, they deserve credit for that. Back on my list of good places to get a good burger in Slidell!

Original post - 2017: Generally a pretty good burger place but last visit took 3 tries to get it right and when the kitchen manager delivered the last one, she did not even say a word of apology, or anything else, just placed it on the table and left. You would have thought by that time, it would have been comped, but neither the waitress nor the manager made a single effort in that regard. Can't say that really pleased me, so my guess is our normal 4 to 5 times a month visit there will probably get moved back to Times Grill or one of the other burger places in Slidell. Service and attention to detail really does count, and unfortunately you guys really fell...