Denny's — Restaurant in Town of Herkimer

I just experienced one of the worst dining experiences ever! We were seated, 2 adults and a child, and the waitress asked if we needed a children's menu (yes). She brought 2 adult menus (we never received the children's menu) and said that she would take our drink orders one she found her book. I can't tell you what our server's name was because she never mentioned her name. That should have been my heads up for what was next.....

15 minutes later she finally came back with her order pad and we gave our drink orders as well as our food orders. 5-10 minutes after that she brought the nacho appetizer. We finished the appetizer and still didn't have any drinks! That was the point where I went up to the front counter and spoke with the manager George (who was absolutely wonderful, by the way). I told him that we didn't have any drinks and had time to finish our appetizer before getting drinks. The server then came out with the drinks and apologized for her bad service. She said she just got on duty and it was very busy (I noticed 2 other servers in the dining room being very attentive to their tables). Eventually our food came...... One of the burgers was supposed to be no tomato (there was tomato on it, simple fix, we just removed the tomatoes) and the pancakes for the kid were supposed to have chocolate chips. When we asked about the chocolate chips, the server said it was George, the manager's fault, for the lack of chocolate chips. She took the plate of plain pancakes and said she would get chocolate chip pancakes for us. About 10 minutes later the server brought us our check (which had an extra drink on it that we didn't order!). I asked if we were going to get the chocolate chip pancakes since the kid still hasn't eaten at this point. She said she forgot but would go get them. The server comes back a few minutes later, rudely put the plate down without saying anything and walked away! I asked if there was some sort of problem? She didn't acknowledge me and just kept walking. THAT WAS THE LAST STRAW! I went back up front and talked to George the manager. I asked him where the TV cameras were because clearly this was some sort of prank TV show or something. I told him there is no way the service could be that bad! He assured me it wasn't a prank and apologized for not assigning me a different server.

George came out to our table with a discounted check and apologized. He said that our experience was unacceptable and he wanted us to come back again. He indicated that he was a manager there for 23 years. I told him it wasn't his fault that our experience was so bad, it was the server. I suggested that if she was having a bad day (in the future) that she should have the bad day out back and keep it back there. No customer should ever have this sort of experience. That's when the booth behind us got George's attention and said he was also having a bad experience with that server. The table in the center (who had a good server) overheard us and said that George is the best manager and that they had our server in the past and also had a bad experience with her.

While I realize that with the job market how it is, that good help may be hard to find, but I'd rather deal with a short staff/longer wait time with a pleasant staff then to EVER go through a dining experience like this again! I am thankful that George the manager has the proper demeanor to do his best under these circumstances. If only our server would learn to be...

My family and I went here for breakfast on Sunday, April 25th and almost got up and walked out because of the terrible service.

We were greeted and seated right away which was great! However, we sat there for 30 minutes and our server still had not even made it by to take our drink order for coffee and water.

We were seated in Hope's section and we overheard multiple employee's telling her that we were still waiting and her response was "yeah, I know...I will get there". She never even bothered to stop to say hello, welcome or apologize for the delayed service.

While the restaurant was busy, all of the tables around us were being serviced, including tables that were seated after we were.

We were preparing to leave when a young man named Gio stopped to take our drink order. He apologized for the delayed service and explained that he was a Greeter and not a Server but he wanted to at least get us our drinks while we waited on our server.

After returning with our drinks, he pulled out a notepad and said he had never taken an order before, but he was going to take ours. He was GREAT!! He repeated our order back to us and clarified any questions he had then went to submit our order.

Throughout our meal, he continued to stop and check on us to ensure we didn't need anything.

If not for Gio, we would have walked out and posted a much different review. We attempted to speak to Darlene who was the Manager on duty, however she was helping out in the kitchen so we opted not to interrupt her as they were much busier by the time we were ready to leave.

Gio handled the situation professionally. It is very clear that this young man will go far in his life and career because of his ability to adapt and manage situations that have the potential to be difficult and stressful. He took a negative situation and managed to turn it in to a positive...

I wish I could give this Denny's a negative star rating. We stopped to eat after the yard sale event at The Herkimer Fairgrounds. With quite a few open tables we got stuffed in a corner not 2 feet away to our right. Mildly inconvenient but whatever. We stayed in our little corner for almost 20 minutes and watched as several other people were being seated, waited on and served drinks. People that came in AFTER us. Then it was finally our turn. 2nd whatever, now mildly annoyed. After she took our drink order another 15 minutes. Finally our drinks and she took our order. We watched as still more people were seated served. But now 30 minutes later people who came in after we ordered were now being served their food. I tried asking for our waitress and asking others but they simply looked over, held up a finger and ignored us. People ate and left, that came in after we did. We finally got our food a little over 45-50 minutes. My double cheeseburger was a laughing stock. The bottom bun was super saturated like a fresh sponge from a filled sink. The grease had solidified on my plate. The fries were hard and cold. And the appetizer I had ordered was never made. I canceled my appetizer and handed the plate back to the waitress. Refused to pay for it and I surely didn't want another after my experience up to that point. The chips and salsa had also turned in to a soggy mess, how long does food sit for a hard chip to turn in to a sheet of flexible slop? My wife's salad had done the same. $38 dollars for literal pig slop. I will never and I surely hope you never, NEVER set foot in this Denny's. Please save yourself from this establishment and please make the drive up the road to either the Utica or Rome Denny's, Both of those are great Diners and have had wonderful meals there with great, friendly, hard working people. Please tip...