Waffle House — Restaurant in Virginia

We went to Waffle House in Dumfries, VA for breakfast for my husband's birthday. My husband, our eight year old son, and our three year old daughter. We get there and there were three empty tables that had not yet been bussed. We waited ten minutes and the waitress cleaned one off. Another booth was closed due to a leak from the ceiling. We order our food and drinks. Ten minutes passed. I ordered steak and eggs. Fried eggs over medium. They were well done. I told the waitress and she huffed and shook her head and took them back. We still didn't have our drinks. I asked for them. She brought the teas and they had white particles floating in them. I asked her to take them back. They brought the same tea from the same pitcher. She then brought me the same eggs cooked wrong again, exactly as they were cooked the first time. I asked for a manager. He came over, I told him all that transpired and asked him to comp my meal. Not the whole check but my meal and to bring me a box. He said "no, you're not getting free food. You can leave but you don't get the food". Not only was this not addressed, he refused to rectify the situation in any manner at all and all but told us if we didn't like it to leave. Most egregious thing ever. After all that just transpired he should comp the ENTIRE check and give me a gift certificate (and that would only begin to make all this right) and you can't even comp my meal? Then you threaten to call the cops based on my normal reaction to such an insane, unprofessional, unsanitary environment. This was something you'd see in a movie. I have the end of this on video. As you can tell from the open and unclean booths, the restaurant was NOT busy, there were two waitresses that I saw, a cook , and this "manager". There was absolutely NO excuse for this. We traveled all the way from Fairfax, Virginia to come here - fifteen miles for this inhumane and filthy service and he acted as if I was looking for some sort of handout by asking him to correct and rectify this awful situation. I drove all this way on my husband's birthday for this. A situation that went from bad to worst in having the manager involved. Waffle House provides a service and if that is not provided, you don't get paid for it. The most unbelievable experience I have ever had in any restaurant. I had to grab my children up from the waffles and food they were looking forward to on my...

Trust, but verify. The reviews were bad, but I needed to see if this was truly the case.

Date of visit to this establishment: Around 3pm June 28, 2015

In my travels, I've ate at 3 other Waffle Houses around the US and the experience has been alright. No complaints with those visits. I've lived in this area for about 5 years, but I never went in because of the bad reviews. I was having a crummy day and I just wanted some tasty greasy carbs. Upon entry no tables were bused, so I sat at the counter. There were at least 7 employees behind the counter just talking. 5 cars in the parking lot(including mine). Family of 3 at one booth. 4 at the counter and a couple at a small 2 seat booth.

I waited at least 5 minutes(could have been more) before anybody acknowledged my presence and offered a beverage, not a good start to this experience. I'd be willing to accept that IF they were busy, 9 patrons already eating while 7 employees stand around talking doesn't equal busy.

I ordered an orange Juice, waffle, bacon, and hash browns. Before the waitress took my order the family of 3 complained that their kid still had not received the pancake order. Apparently it was cook one item at a time day because my food was served one item at a time. Waffle came out first and it was a tasty waffle. 5 minutes later came the bacon.

The bacon was burned. Blackened and devoid of any moisture whatsoever type of burned. Might as well have served pork flavored charcoal. 10 minutes later the order of hash browns came up. Hash browns were good.

Meanwhile I observed a woman come in and order a sandwich. The cook was very flustered and each time loudly asked the waitress to repeat the order and ask what all goes on the sandwich several times. The look on the woman's face was that of great concern every time her order was brought up. As I was paying the bill, the cook dropped what looked like scrambled egg in the grill and the waitress scolded the cook that this woman had been waiting for her food for a really long time.

Look...Waffle House's reputation proceeds itself, but this was a really really badly disorganized mess of a restaurant staffed with people who seem to have no desire to be there and devoid of...

Hi Kellie, I genuinely hope your cancer hasn’t crushed you completely. Still doesn’t excuse you for being the absolute WORST manager I’ve ever met in my life. This restaurant is absolutely infested with cockroaches to the point that employees have to throw away whole buckets of waffle batter cuz the roaches kept falling in to them. Cooks throw their gloves and other trash on the ground until the floor is so filled with garbage it would only take a sneeze to blow a used mask into your food. Employees sit outside drinking, gambling, and smoking as if they’re working out of a trap house instead of a restaurant where families are supposed to eat. Kellie is such a terrible manager that they had to completely get rid of night shift and ruin Waffle House’s reputation for “never shutting down for ANY reason”. At first you feel bad for Kellie. She IS running one of the highest volume Waffle House’s in the state of Virginia. Until you’re there to witness this horrible human dock peoples pay because they won’t cover a shift and become Kellie’s personal slave. Or better yet, she holds promotions over your head and makes empty promises that get the employees to break their back for her….only for Kellie to come up with ANY excuse in the book to not pay her employees the deserved rate. They’re severely understaffed not because people don’t want to work, but because Kellie won’t hire “certain” people. I’ve watched this woman interview 3 people back to back, only for her to get up and throw their applications in the trash and say “they weren’t a good fit”. Stay far away from this restaurant. It deserves to be shut down and gutted, not just cuz of horrible management, but because of how unsanitary and just absolutely disgusting the...