Kickback Jack's Southern Pines — Restaurant in Southern Pines

I came to the Aberdeen NC kick back jacks on November 2020 to celebrate a family members birthday and was treated unjustly without reasonable excuse! First I called and asked about a space for a group and was told that they could not hold but I could call and let them know th a party size and time so they could prepare. We called in 2 hours before time arrived at that time and it took an hour to be seated. Once we were lead to the table by the host there were crumbs on the table and we asked the host would she clean the table and were told the tables were already cleaned. We pointed to her the crumbs that were there and she with a very unpleasant attitude rolled her eyes and hesitantly went to get something to wipe the table. After being seated we waited at least 20 minutes before we even knew who was going to serve us and get our drink orders. Once that waitress identified herself after 20 minutes she said “I’ll be your waitress give me a minute and I’ll be in to get your drink orders. It took her about an additional 10 minutes to come to the table. She introduces herself and a trainee who was shadowing her(mind you she was only shadowing not assisting the waitress for a party of 15 people). The waitress began taking drink orders and dinner orders at the same time because it took so long for someone to come and we wanted to get our orders in. Once the orders were taken with two appetizers as well. The drinks took an additional 10-15 minutes to get to us. Mind you no one at this point even complained about the emormant amount of time everything was taken or about 1 waitress to serve 15 people by herself. When the drinks came she dispersed them and left. We waited till she came around again and two of the people in our party asked for another tea because they did not like and wanted to see if they could try again(regular practice for someone who wants to change a drink). When she brought it back out,the tea was still not to their liking so she asked for a totally different drink than tea,then another party asked for another drink as well (because she had tea as well and wanted to change). Also in the midst of this only one appetizer was brought out. We are sitting waiting on change of drinks and our food orders and continue to wait another 15-30 minutes)please capture all this time passed with no manager being called,no getting up to find a waitress that is supposed to check in with the party periodically). Then we see the manager coming through and we are like,oh maybe he is coming to apologize for the wait we are experiencing and letting us know the food status! Oh no! The manager asked who was in charge of the party and I stated I am. He proceeds to say “I’m sorry we are not going to be able to serve you and you will need to leave”. At this point we are absolutely in shock and totally caught of guard by this statement. We asked what brought about this and he states “your party was disrespectful to my staff and when they come crying then I have to step in and handle it”. We then asked what are your referring to and he states “I’m sorry ,we don’t have anyone that will serve you so you have to leave”. We asked again what accusations were given and why are you not asking us about them as a manager if this is the case instead of telling us you are not serving us and asking us to leave. The manager continued to dance around our questions,finally he stated the waitress stated she had to bring out 5-10 drinks and their were comments made to her(of which we were not privy to after asking), he stated other staff heard and saw us being rude (mind you we were in a closed off space and the only party there and it was one waitress and the trainee), he stated his staff was crying and no one wanted to serve us! The manager/partner of this Southern Pines Nc restaurant then told us I’m sorry and “thank you for the money and support you’ve given our restaurant, I’m a managing partner and I get some of that money,and I’m sorry”. This was poor service,poor management and staff and totally uncalled for and will...

The following is a letter I wrote to corporate and to their facebook page. I have not heard a reply yet. I would never suggest going to this restaurant.

Yesterday, my partner, my father and I went to the Kickback Jack's in Southern Pines to watch some football. The meal itself wasn't great. My father didn't make any comments on his pizza and salad, but my partner and I shared the shrimp and ribs which were awful. The ribs were dry, the fries were dehydrated and the shrimp were most certainly frozen. Regardless, we thought the food would have been a fluke since we enjoyed the nachos and chicken wings when we went there before. Your front of house also have a tendency to gather where the hostess is and chat. When we enter, it seems as if we're bothering some conversation going on and that we're a nuisance. Your outside area where you put the louder families is utterly cold. Why you don't have the heating on is beyond me. It's extremely uncomfortable. Your servers also hover at tables so much that it gets really annoying. I wanted to tell her to go away since she kept asking how we were. We're fine, we want to watch the game, eat our food, have our own conversation and not have someone keep coming up to us every 2 minutes. It's distracting and irritating. Asking how we are constantly, isn't a sign of good service, it's a pathetic show in order to try to get a higher tip. Have your servers be considerate, gauge the situation to see appropriate times to ask, have them make conversation other than, "Can I take your order?" and "What would you like for drinks?"

These aren't the main complaints.

Your manager, whom I believe his name to be Patrick, followed us out into the parking lot to ask us why we didn't tip much. (Our meal cost $29.42 and I just added a $30 in the total, since it was a good round number and within our budget.) He said, "We normally suggest 15 - 18% tip. It is your right not to tip, and if you're against tipping, I would suggest you choose another restaurant. We like to take care of our team. They only make $2.13 an hour." I replied back, "Fine, we will find somewhere else." My partner and I are from the UK. We're not used to tipping because the servers are paid a wage that they can live off of. I'm aware that it's completely legal to pay $2.13 per hour to your employees, but honestly, it's sickening. No one can assume people get tipped since it's supposed to be optional! Just because this is how it's done in North Carolina, doesn't mean it's how it should be. People should tip when there is outstanding service. Our server brought our food and drinks. That's part of her job. She would get a tip if she went above and beyond her job. Also, I tip 20% at Michelin starred restaurants, and I don't think your restaurant is anywhere near that level. There's no law saying we have to tip a certain amount at all. If you want to show your customers the cost of business, raise the prices on the menu so that you can pay your workers without chasing down people into the parking lot for not paying enough. Am I supposed to guess at how much it costs for you to run your business? How am I supposed to do that!? My family will most certainly never go back to another Kickback Jack's since it appears we have been kicked out of your restaurant by your manager. Also, him making statements such as, "We take care of our team." is an utter lie. You can't say you take care of your team while you pay your workers significantly less than the standard minimum wage for most other jobs in North Carolina, which is $7.25 an hour as of January 1st, 2012, by the way. My advice, as someone who has studied hospitality, is raise the prices on your menu to reflect true cost of business, pay your servers and your back of house a fair wage, and don't have managers run out into parking lots telling your customers that they shouldn't come back. Hope you...

Wait staff really needs classes on how to treat their customers and learn about ADA ( American With Disability Act). Saw the wait staff harass a customer about their "pet". Customer even explained that yes the dog was a real service animal and even tried to explain what the dog was trained to do, which they did not have to do by law, but they still harassed her because the dog did not fit their idea what a service dog should look like. Guess they though a service dog should be a large dog instead of a medium size dog. Again customer tried to explain what the dogs job was and the waitress insisted that it was a pet and she was getting management. Management came out and said the dog was on the chair, customer said yes maybe a total of 5 seconds so the dog could get under the table and the customer could get in a chair to sit because of the close seating outside, once she was able to sit down the dog went under the table and did not move as the dog is trained to do. I observed this dog working and it was constantly checking on their person, this was a working animal. The waitstaff especially the snob of a waitress ought to be made to go to a class on attitude and ADA. All I will say is if they are gonna allow their employees to treat people with special needs in the way I saw yesterday, I won't be going to their restaurant, an we didn't stay, my large party left when we saw how they treated this customer. We were already put off because we had the same waitress and I guess since we were sitting outside enjoying the weather she wasn't gonna get as good tip since we won't drinking. Also the customer said she understood that due to not real service animals being used that was why they were sitting outside cause they didn't want anyone to be uncomfortable or be harassed cause she had a real service animal. What they did and how the customer was treated was wrong and...