Bad Experience at The Spare Rib in Commack

I had not gone to The Spare Rib in a while.  It used to be one of my favorite restuarants but I just never seem to get there lately. 

I recently started a new job pretty close to The Spare Rib so I decided to go there one night for dinner with a friend last week. I put myself on the call ahead list to make sure we wouldn't be standing around for too long waiting for a table.  We arrived at about 6:50 and there was no wait anyway.  No need for the call ahead list. 

When we were seated, we were given the corner booth upstairs. Usually I like a table like this.  I call it "The Captain's Table".  I can look out and see everyone, which is just how I like it.

It took a few minutes to see any sign of the waitress.  When she finally came, we gave her our orders and had a feeling something just was not right about her.  She had kind of crazy eyes and an odd delivery.  Maybe medication, maybe just tired, maybe a little nutty.  Whatever...

My friend ordered some salmon dish with barbecued potatoes and I ordered the chicken and ribs with barbecued potatoes.  We both got water with lemon.  Gotta keep the bill low.  Besides, who needs the poisons of soda?  I eat enough crap all day. 

Our bread and salads came out in a reasonable time.  It was the usual stale Spare Rib bread and bitter salad.  The water came out with no lemon and no straws.  I asked her to bring both.  She only bought the lemon.  Oh well.

My friend and I sat talking about our usual nonsense while we waited for the food to come.  After about 15 minutes we started to mention among ourselves that it was taking a while that night and there was no sign of the waitress.  She finally emerged a couple of minutes later.  She did not have our food, but instead came to take the order for another table.  She did not acknowledge us, bring refills, nothing.  We were invisible.

Another 10 minutes goes by and I told my friend that I am ready to walk out whenever he is.  He was going to be embarassed by this and told me to wait a couple more minutes.  I waited around another 5 minutes.  By now it was about 7:45 and I had to get going.  By this point, we were so disgusted that we didn't even want the food.  We just wanted to leave.  So we did just that.

Most people blame the waitress when the kitchen is slow.  I don't blame HER, but it is HER JOB to at least check on us, tell us the kitchen is a little slow that day, refill our drinks, etc.  She was nowhere to be found.  I also coluldn't find anyone to complain to since we were sitted in the loser zone.  Besides, I try to usually NOT complain too much at a restaurant.  You never know who is handling your food and what they may do to it.

It will probably be another long while before I pay The Spare Rib another visit.  Shame too, since they are so close to my new job.    And their ribs are really hard to beat.  When they actually come, that is.