I’ll Come Back When Buffaloes Fly

It’s a damn good thing that they have wings, otherwise I many never come back to my local Buffalo Wild Wing. A wifely whim brought us there this past Monday night. I thought it would be a great place to have a bite and see those “F-in Jets” play on MNF. When we walked in I loved that every seat in the house had a view of at least three TVs. I was able to see the MNF pregame, the Capitols/Senators game and the latest episode of Dancing with the Stars.

It went downhill from there. Our server Kyle introduced himself and I could have sworn he was the kid from Road Trip, the one who’s car they took (played by actor DJ Qualls). He then took our drink order and proceeded to hang on the ledge hovering over our table for at least five minutes before we finally got him to leave. He came back took our orders - a beer, wings (appetizer), and entrees (salad and a sandwich), read our order back to us, including clearly reading our wings as an APPITIZER, and left.

A few moments later he came back to ask me if I wanted my beer as a “regular” or a “tall”. I told him a regular. That shouldn’t be a problem. But he comes back with (his exact words): “Oh well I ordered a tall, are you cool with that?” WHAT?! Am I cool with that? NO, I’m not COOL with that, Kyle. Now go back there and get me a GD Regular! Before I could answer (not in my head), here comes another server with my “tall”.

Fine...I just wanted something to drink and start sipping. Twenty minutes later our wings finally show up. No plates, no silverware, no napkins! As he’s placing the food down, I ask Kyle, “What is missing here?” He looks for a moment, thinks, and says, “Oh yeah, more sauce!” [Insert hand slapping head here in a DOH motion] I told Kyle to bring something to wipe our faces with. When he gets back we get a thin napkin and a paper dish. Have you ever eaten a wing? You need more than one thin napkin! Now it’s time to go to the next level.

I called a manager. Allen came and was very apologetic. He was nice and offered to comp my beer for the difficulties. Fine, he did what he was supposed to and made it right. That was nice.

Just as he left and I was ready to have my first wing, our entrees were brought out. Let’s just put the issue of not grasping the concept of “Appetizer” vs. “Entrée” aside for now. The table is so small that there’s not enough room for all the items there (even if we took off the salt, sugar, assorted sweeteners that would never be used. Now I’m on the borderline of fuming and ask for the manager again and get Rich.

Without going fully into it, he essentially “Oh, sometimes these mistakes happen.” I tell him that if I go to any of the ten other restaurants on that street this wouldn’t happen and we were done. After trying for another few minutes to placate me, I told him to get me a check for the half a beer I had and the one wing my wife ate. He finally left to go get the bill and we waited, and waited, and waited. After 10 min went by, we put down $5 on the table and walked out.

Now it’s 8pm and I’m still hungry. Off to Hard Times Café we go for a proper order of wings. And in a complete shocker, there were plates AND napkins waiting for us at the table, no matter what we ordered. To top it off the waitress actually asked if we were done with our wings before going in the back and getting our main course. GASP!
It’s not like I was with my Sister-in-Law for crying out loud!

UPDATE:
Rich, the manager, called back and he said that the reason it took so long was that he was getting us a gift certificate so they could “earn” our business back. I’ll wait and see if it actually arrives and if we’ll ever go back. If you see the big flying mammals, let us know.