My wife and I went to the Red Robin in Webster, NY tonight to celebrate her birthday. They weren’t too busy, and we got a table without a wait. We did have to wait a little before the waitress came to help us, but not too long. My wife ordered, and then I ordered my usual Bonzai Burger. What I have had on every visit for over 20 years. The waitress informed me that they were out of pineapple. Excuse me? Why are they out of pineapple? Pineapple is a main ingredient of two of their signature sandwiches: the Bonzai Burger and the Teriyaki Chicken Burger. Why are they out of pineapple. I told the waitress to go away while I figured out what I wanted instead. I was debating between the Royal Red Robin Burger and a Red Robin Bacon Cheeseburger. I was not really happy at that point. The waitress came back and asked if I would like to talk to the manager. The manager came and told me that they were able to make a Bonzai Burger using pineapple from the bar. I appreciated them improvising and making a Bonzai Burger the way they did. But as a stockholder in the company, I don’t like the fact that someone in management didn’t order enough pineapple to begin with. Then why didn’t they send someone down to the local grocery store (directly across the street) to buy some pineapple. The customers shouldn’t have even been aware that there was problem.
I emailed a tweaked version of the above post to Red Robin, and I got an appolgetic reply:
Hi Rob,
Thank you for stopping by our website and taking time to comment. We appreciate your feedback. At Red Robin we try to exceed every guest’s expectations by providing a great dining experience and unfortunately, it looks like we very much let you down.
We will do whatever it takes to make your experience right and we will learn from our mistakes… Your email has been forwarded to the General Manager of this Red Robin restaurant and he or she should be contacting you shortly.
If for some reason, you do not hear back from them, please contact me by e-mail at XXXXX@redrobin.com
Thank you for being a Red Robin Guest!
XXXXX
Interestingly, she CC’d in over a dozen other people on the email. So it looks like they take it seriously. Good! Red Robin is a great restaurant. I love their food, and generally their service is great. Otherwise I wouldn’t have invested money in it.
Comment by Rob — December 19, 2005 @ 2:56 pm