Originally Posted by CFrance (Post 1473547)

That's fine, but I felt the other person was responding in a negative manner due to a misinterpretation. The editor in me wanted to clarify.

If halibut didn't like the food, I can understand how 20 minutes wouldn't be worth the wait, in retrospect. I'm married to a Vietnam veteran who will neither stand nor wait to eat. We do lunch or we do reservations.

Originally Posted by Bonny (Post 1473826)

I definitely didn't have any intentions on my response/question being negative. I was only questioning the 20 minutes.

Originally Posted by CFrance (Post 1473402)

I'm sorry. The first paragraph said he arrived at 5 pm and the wait was 20 minutes. Then he went on to say what they ordered. I assumed he meant the wait for the table was 20 minutes, and at the end of it all (next paragraph) the food wasn't worth the wait for the table.

I could be wrong, but I was kind of taking it in chronological order as he related it.:wave:

Originally Posted by Trayderjoe (Post 1474928)

We went to the Metro Diner on Sunday morning for breakfast, apparently beating the church crowd as we did not have a wait. The positives:

1) Polite staff

2) Clean restrooms

3) Good portion size for the money

4) Nice hot coffee



The not so good:

1) I finished my cup of coffee while we were waiting for our food order, and it looked like someone was walking around filling coffee cups. My mistake, turned out the person was filling coffee cups for their tables. Finally our server was going past our table (never looked our way) and I had to call out to get her attention so that I could get a re-fill.



2) My wife's omelet had runny eggs and when served, she indicated that the only aroma she could sense was grease.



3) She ordered the hash browns, and there was a "brick" of hash browns on the bottom of the serving that was rock hard and quite literally dripping grease. Her opinion was that the hash browns may have been started on a grill and then dropped in a deep fryer to finish them off. Our server didn't appear again in what should have been a reasonable time to check on us, nor did anyone else seem interested, so my wife removed the "brick" and sat it on the table where two pools of grease accumulated while she ate what she could. (Note: My wife doesn't like to return food-I know-that is something for another day/post)



4) The western omelet I ordered came with salsa. I thought it an interesting twist, but instead of the salsa being placed over the top of the omelet, or provided in a small side dish for me to use, the salsa was dumped on the side and under the omelet. Not much salsa either.....



5) Our server, who was not very attentive, never asked about the brick even though it was sitting there right in front of her when she did eventually show up. By that time, I had finished my breakfast and my coffee, and at that time she asked if I wanted more coffee. I would have liked another cup before I finished my meal, but apparently that wasn't going to happen unless I got up and chased someone down.



6) The manager never stopped by to see how things were, it was up to me to chase him down. Interestingly enough, there were multiple times we saw 5 or 6 servers standing around in a back area which is quite visible to many diners. I have been in busier restaurants and had the manager stop by to see how things were. I would have thought that the manager would have been soliciting feedback since the diner is pretty new, but as with our service, there seemed to be a general lack of interest in follow-up. Having said that, we wished we had a server that was covering the table next to us. She was visible, checked in on her guests quite a bit, and it did not seem like they were parched from a lack of coffee.....



So, after we were done, I asked to provide constructive feedback. I pointed out that in the diners I have eaten in, someone usually is walking around with pots of regular and decaf coffee chatting and topping off the guests cups regardless of whose table it was. Given the number of servers who had time to stand around while they waited for their orders to be brought up, this should have been a no additional labor cost to the restaurant. I explained that my wife's omelet had runny eggs and I brought up the hash browns and pointed to the pools of grease. I also acknowledged that this feedback was done after the fact and that we did not provide an opportunity to get the misses corrected, but hoped that this could be used to improve things.



I did learn something "interesting" about how they supposedly prepare their hash browns when I brought up the amount of grease. The server indicated that the hash browns are prepared next to the various breakfast meats, that the grease most likely came from the bacon/sausage, etc. and that the hash browns may have been too close which is why the grease was present. I don't know if this is an issue for people from a dietary or religious perspective-is grease from pork products/meats to be avoided? I honestly don't know, nor would I have thought it to be something to ask regarding cross contamination of grease from meats. I know that people with food allergies need to be especially cognizant of what they eat, but I never thought about grease contamination.....



We will most likely not go back for breakfast, at least for a while. My breakfast was ok at best (the coffee was better than the food), although they do provide a large portion for the money. I would rather have been quality and less food, and I am not in anyway suggesting this should be a 5 star restaurant, but a decent breakfast shouldn't be that hard to make.

Originally Posted by Wiotte (Post 1474932)

So, 2 1/2 stars ?? or 2.


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Originally Posted by Trayderjoe (Post 1474939)

I hesitate to give a scale number as the food may be right up someone's alley so to speak. For example, i have seen people rave about Cheng's on Wedgewood Drive for Chinese, but you could not pay me to go back there.



I would say that the restaurant and the restrooms were clean but our server was less than adequate. Maybe others would have a different dining experience, but for us, it would be near the bottom of the various restaurants we have been trying each Sunday mornin. I know this is not what you are looking for in your query, but another poster may rave about breakfast there. What I would say is if you haven't been, try it, but unlike my wife, send the food back if it is not up to par. Of course, be sure to let someone at the restaurant know if your dining experience is less than adequate so they can hopefully implement any needed changes.