Restaurant Trouble

Last night my hubby took me out on a date for Valentine's Day.  We decided to head to Cedar Hill, and hope for the best.  The evening of Valentine's restaurants are notorious for having long waits, and we knew that.  We decided on Bailey's Grille 2-a restaurant we had seen many times, but never stopped at.  It looked elegant, and the people going inside were always dressed very nice.  When we first stepped inside, that reputation held true-I could see black linen table cloths and napkins on the tables, the wait staff dressed nicer than I do to go to work, and there were all the other typical "nice restaurant" qualities you expect to see.  I was a little nervous when I saw the advertised "Valentine's Special" of $40 a person for a Four Course meal-I know Valentine's is a special occasion, but that seemed a little pricey.  When we spoke to the hostess we were informed there would be a 35 minute wait-not as bad as I would have expected on this particular night.  We waited less than that-maybe 25 minutes before being seated.


From there, the service went downhill.  The menu was typical bar food-not what we expected here.  Catfish, Cajun Chicken Pasta, Meatloaf, Cheesesteaks, Chicken Tenders, Burgers, and even Chili Dogs.  Pricing wasn't bad-about $8-12 per entree.  It took about 5 minutes before the waitress showed up.  When she finally arrived we ordered our drinks, we had already chosen our entrees, so we ordered those as well (catfish and Cajun chicken pasta).  She brought our drinks and told us our bread would be right out.  Fifteen minutes later our bread arrived-it was piping hot and delicious.

After that, I finished off my glass of tea, and sat it on the edge of the table for the waitress to notice when she walked past.  It sat at least 5 minutes before I saw her again, and she walked past without noticing.  A while later she came back by, and noticed my empty glass so she refilled it then.  After quite literally one full hour of sitting at our table, and the food still not arriving (in fact, we only saw 2 tables near us receiving food the entire time we were there), we decided to leave.  We asked the waitress for our check to pay for our drinks (iced tea and Diet Coke), and were a little surprised that she actually brought us the check-we kind of expected the restaurant to comp our drinks after a wait that long.  When the man at the table next to us heard us saying we were leaving, he turned around and said, "I'll see you at Whataburger next!"  I doubt we will be back any time soon.


Since we had already waited so long, we were incredibly hungry, so we decided to go to Bamboo Palace-a Chinese buffet that we have been to several times and have always had good service.  We figured that there would not be a wait to get in, and the food would be ready when we arrived.  There was a short wait (maybe 2 minutes) to be seated, and we got our food in no time.  And, since there were lots of people at the restaurant that night, all the food was piping hot and fresh.  It was a good choice, and I was glad to have an evening out with my hubby!