Denny's — Restaurant in Virginia

About a month ago, I went in at about 4:45 for breakfast before catching a 5:45 bus. Bus station a five minute drive away, plenty of time to at least get to-go boxes, right? Wrong.

Instant we walked in, everything was awful. No one was there to greet us, we waited until a server met us who instructed us to seat ourselves - okay, fine, we're adults, we can do this.

We all went to the bathroom, came back and seated ourselves in a booth. I grabbed us menus to save us all some time. Our server came out a few minutes later, offered us drinks. The boyfriend and I ordered coffee and the girlfriend ordered water. She brought us our drinks in a timely manner but neglected to mention there was no cream until she brought it out. I drink mine black, but he doesn't. Whatever, what can we do.

We're ready to order, we let her know we're in a bit of a rush, give her the time, she assures us it's doable. Okay great! Boyfriend and I both order combos. Mine is the pecan pancake one, his I forget the name but he asked for the pancakes to be subbed with waffles. We both want our eggs over easy, according to the menu we get two. Girlfriend orders a quesadilla and nachos. She takes the orders to the kitchen.

While she's in there, I realize it's impossible to make pancakes without milk, so even if there's no creamer, we can use milk, so I flag a waitress for some milk who kindly brings it to us.

Our waitress comes out to tell us there are no pecans, sorry she forgot to mention it, they've been super busy with one cook (though with four tables that doesn't seem busy to me) and it slipped her mind. I say it's fine, just want it quick. She also tells the boyfriend that they can't substitute the pancakes, he also says it's fine, just do what you can.

Time is creeping by, we finally get our food at 5:42. No point in trying to get to the bus now, after we pay it'll definitely be late and I'll have to buy another $20 ticket home.

We end up sitting to eat. Food is mediocre at best and for the temperature it seems it could have been sent out at least ten minutes earlier. I only have one egg. The boyfriend's eggs are scrambled.

The absolute breaking point came when we paid. We split the bill, me and boyfriend on one, girlfriend on the other. Hers is about $13 and ours is $26. We give our cards and specify which one pays for which one. She says it's no problem and then charges both to hers. What should have been $13 for her became $39.

We ask her to refund hers and charge mine. After speaking to the manager, she says the only way she can do that is by paying out of her own pocket. To me, her mistake is her problem, especially with me still being willing to pay my share. The girlfriend is just done by then she says to forget it. We leave, very disappointed with what is usually a great experience.

This isn't the Denny's we...

I will never go back again! We went to the Denny's at 5:15am thinking there would not be any wait and service should be fast, we were wrong. We had to wait for the server to check the table to see if it was sanitized, there was only 3 men sitting at a table so all the other tables were clean and ready So after a few minute wait we were seated we got an overnight menu and not the breakfast menu and the server didn't even take our drink order, we had to wait for the server finally came over to take order After ordering we finally got our drinks. I can't believe that they charge $3.25 per drink anyway after a bit of a wait (surprised because there was no one but us in the entire place) we got our orders my husbands breakfast came correct mine on the other hand was not, I ordered plain pancakes and got pancakes with crystals of pumpkin spice in them. I ask for a new plate of pancakes without the crystals in them. I was told that because they make all the pancakes on the same griddle as others you can get that crossover. I was then told that the griddle would have to be cleaned to get all the sugar off of it.... shouldn't the griddle be clean of all this stuff after each order.... I opted to cancel my order and they finally took the pancakes off the bill. I spoke with the manager who got defensive about how clean the kitchen is and that I can look at it, then she says that all the pancakes are made in the same place and sometimes you can get some crossover between orders. That does not give me confidence because there shouldn't be crossover if the griddle is clean. As you can see the experience we had was awful and the push back we got from the manager about how the food is made should not have happened. Needless to say I don't recommend anyone go to Denny's if you're looking for something to eat early in the morning go to waffle house your order has a better chance of being correct, and the...

Last night about 10:10 pm I brought my family here for a late night dinner. A very nice gentleman who introduced himself as Billy took our order then proceeded to the kitchen to start cooking it. This was when I new something was off.He was literally the only employee there. There were several other parties there and a line of people waiting on takeout orders. I knew he was very stressed but he was trying not to show it and when he came back to our table I asked to speak to the manager. He really didn't know how to answer this but he was honest and said that the manager had left without telling him and that he had no way of getting into the computer system. He was writing orders down on paper then going and cooking them.This is absolutely unacceptable.I was chatting with another table and they were also shocked about how we would be able to pay. Luckily about 10:50 another employee showed up that could actually print me a check. What was I to do sit there and wait or leave without paying.We had a cranky one year old to tend to. Denny's,you need to get your act together. Leaving one person to run a whole store by himself with no way into your system is so unprofessional and frankly wrong. Someone needs to acknowledge the great job Billy did under that kind of obvious pressure. Our food was actually very well cooked. He done everything in his power to keep us all happy and we honestly felt bad for the guy. I've never been to a restaurant where the server cooks the food,unreal. I don't know if I'll ever come back here ever again and that's a shame because we love Denny's. I can see by the other reviews that this is an ongoing problem. Thank you Billy for your genuine service. And to management,what are you thinking? Certainly not your guest or employees!...