Hello hello! How’s the weekend treating y’all? I know for me it’s just been way too short!
We started our Saturday by eating breakfast in Downtown Denver at Dixons Downtown Grill:
We always complain about how we never go into Denver enough and therefore aren’t very familiar with it at all, so we were pretty excited to be there for breakfast. Everything started out well with a cup of coffee:
And lots of water:
And from there on we had a horrible experience. Our waitress was pretty short (verbally, not stature) from the beginning, and we ran out of water and coffee for about 15 minutes as we watched her serve every other table several times, not once stopping to check on us. Then the table behind us ordered and got their food within 5 minutes of them ordering while we had yet to see ours at all (AND they ordered the same thing as us). THEN I finally stopped the waitress and asked if we’d be getting our food anytime soon, to which she responded with a horrible fake smile and a ton of sarcasm. Apparently they were busy inside the restaurant, and then she walked away so quickly that I couldn’t point out the other table received their food in a timely manner. Fast forward 20 minutes…we get our food, only to find out that she wrote down something completely different for Nate than what he actually ordered. When we told her this, she argued and said that she knew he ordered what was put in front of him…seriously, as someone in the service industry, it’s just a plate of food…don’t argue with the customer about it! He decided to go ahead and eat it, but I can honestly say that if it had been my food, I would have sent it back and found a manager immediately. All of this is a shame because I will never recommend Dixon’s, even though the food was good. I had the Greek scramble, which was feta, olives, tomatoes, and basil scrambled in eggs with hashbrowns and a biscuit:
The waitress ended up comping Nate’s meal, but I was (and still am) just furious at the treatment we received. I’m planning on writing an email to Dixon’s today about it.
The rest of our time in Denver was spent at pro photo stores inquiring about lighting rentals for some upcoming portraits and stocking up on bulk items at CostCo. When we got home I started working on pulling weeds, which required a lot of heavy lifting to get them out by the roots. I also repaired some of the landscaping that I messed up last year, which was crazy hard! Then, since we knew we were having Robbie & Stef over for movie night, I spent some quality cleaning time inside (but made sure to listen to Mamma Mia! radio on Pandora :)).
A couple weeks ago, NuNaturals contacted me about sampling some of their Stevia products, an opportunity that I just JUMPED at! They also sent me a TON of stuff, which I haven’t really been able to use until just recently:
I’ve been using the packets in my green monsters and coffee for a while though and have been extremely impressed. Yesterday I decided to make Julie’s Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies, but I decided to pull out the NuNaturals baking blend for them. I also added about 1/2 cup of toffee bits:
I have to say I’m even more impressed with NuNaturals after that little baking experiment…the cookies were still ooey, gooey, and soft. The flavor was spot-on, and we didn’t feel bad about eating them! I would highly recommend checking out their website for even more fabulous products! The movie du jour was Avatar:
And now I’m stuck wondering why I’m not a Navi or at least an Avatar. I LOVED this movie and was so glad we finally got to see it! We also made a recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks: BBQ Jalapeno Poppers!
Drool. DROOLDROOLDROOLDROOL. These were so amazing, and Ree’s right when she says you should make 3 times the amount you think you need! There were only 4 of us, but we blew through these things like they were nothing. You should go make them. Like, yesterday. 🙂
So, how’s your weekend been? Have you ever had a bad restaurant experience like the one I talked about above? I have to say, I’ve been a busy waitress before, so I know what it feels like to be overwhelmed, but I can also honestly say that I’ve never let someone else’s experience go sour because of my attitude either. Luckily this is the only bad restaurant experience I can think of! I normally email companies to praise the service I’ve received, and this is a first that I’m not excited about. I think Nate put it perfectly when he said we would go back, but under no circumstances would we want that same server!
Avatar is amazing!!!!!!
Yea my husband and I have been there done that with bad food service. We went to Olive Garden one night with a group of friends and my husband ordered the endless pasta bowl. When the waiter came with his second bowl he completely dumped it in his lap and all over my shoes and then acted like it was no big deal and walked off. We then saw a manager in which he asked if he could buy my husband some new shorts! We were like, um…no thanks. We thought that our meal would be free but it wasn’t. So later that night my husband emailed the company to complain and then they sent us a gift card, which was nice. Then, on a 180 note, we went to Olive Garden a few months later, had excellent service, received our meal in about 15 min. and the waitress came out and said our meal was free because she said we had to wait too long for our food. Talk about a change from the previous situation!
That is so annoying…I hate bad service. My husband is a lot more forgiving than I am about it. He always says that we don’t know what is going on behind the scenes. Which is true but I still think that you should fake it! 🙂
Bad service is the worst. I’m a waitress myself so I have a empathetic heart anytime I hear a story of awful server. But my husband always reminds me that I’m the worst critic (of everything) when we eat out, go figure!
I just picked up some NuStevia to try in my tea. Good to know I can bake with it too.
Had a horrible experience at Ruby Tuesday. Too bad because it is kind of a fun place, but after an hour and a half wait for food… after waiting an hour just for drinks… and the restaurant was not even full… every single order was wrong and the staff were jerks. Not fun. We go out to eat to relax, not to be stressed out!
my weekend was way too short too! I am pulling for the three day weekend every week idea…
Sorry about the rough dining experience. Unfortunately I have had more than my fare share of them, so I pretty much prefer to cook up my own food now.
That sucks! I don’t think I’ve ever had service that was THAT blatantly bad. Those cookies with the stEvia 😉 sound yummmmy!! Loved Avatar!
yummm i love how your cookies look like bars. i bet the toffee bits made them even more delicious!
what a bitch! i’ve been a server, and know quite well how much it sucks, but everyone knows that you you talk shit about customers behind the scenes, not at their table. clearly she was having a difficult day. she was messing with the wrong woman (and her blog).
on a brighter note, your creations look so good!
Heather, you are not alone in bad service @ Dixon’s. It has happened to quite a few people I know, as well as myself. I also think the food isn’t anything special.
I despise places where you get treated like you are lucky to be eating in their establishment, not cool in the least bit.
If you want to do a brunch in Denver again, perhaps try the following: Snooze, Root Down, DUO, The Denver Biscut Company, WaterCourse or Pete’s Kitchen….
I HATE horrible service. If I’m PAYING to eat out, I want the experience and the food to be worth it. I have no problem with telling the restaurant in person, or email (or YELP) if the service is horrible.
Oh wow, I would be SO MAD too!!! That’s crazy. No matter how busy a restaurant is, they can manage to treat you better than that!
I hate bad service when you’re trying to have an enjoyable experience. 🙁
I’ve recently discovered NuNaturals NuStevia and I like it a lot, especially in lemonade.
Jenn
I hate when bad service ruins a dining experience. I know I have had that happen to me before and it is extremely frustrating. Actually a restaurant in Daytona Beach really pissed me off…but we still go because it is my G-Pa’s favorite and since he pays for all our dinners while we’re there, he gets to pick where we eat. Boo. Although I will say the Negative Nancy waitress was apparently fired b/c last year we went she was nowhere to be seen and when we asked about her (she was always our waitress) they said she was gone for good. Now maybe I can start liking it again.
Awwww, BOO!!! I hate it when you look forward to a restaurant like that only to be let down by awful service. I always think that I’ll say something, but the truth is that I’m a wimp and I never do. I do give a lot of huffy glances towards the waitstaff though, lol.
Bad service once, we go back. Bad service twice…they have just lost a customer. I used to waitress too, so I know the “customer is always right”.
We have been busy this weekend…had cement rings put around two trees in the backyard (which we had done), but then we had to dig out all the dirt, level, put down weed mat and put 10 bags of pebble rock in there. It looks great, but was hot, hot, hot with 100 degree weather.
Wow, what horrible service. Service can make or break a restaurant. That waitress is tainting the restaurant’s reputation. I used to be a server…it is a pretty hard job, but you never, ever argue with a customer. Mistakes are okay, but the customer is always rght.
UGH! what a sucky experience. I’ve had a few bad experiences, I always WANT to say something but never do…I’d love to know what happens if you say something.
The Applebees in Denton is terrible with service. My coworkers and I always have a problem..finally stopped going. Orders wrong, tables getting food before us when we’ve been sitting and been waiting before they even got there. It’s bad and were pretty tired of the same old mgr coming to apalogize. lol