Red Robin Complaint - Bad Dining Experience

Complaint

Review by Pittsburghmom22 on 2011-03-25

I took my 10 year old daughter for lunch to the Pittsburgh, Robinson Twp loacation on a Saturday since it was her birthday. The food was greasy. I had the red robin burger and the egg was rubbery. The bun was so stale it crumbled in my hands as I was eating it. After I took a 2 bites of my burger I went for my fries and realized there was a small black hair sitting on top of them. I didn't want to upset my daughter's birthday so just pushed the fries away. I then decided to ask for the manager and after about 10 long mintutes Stephanie came over and when I told her about the hair, she asked to see it and acted like I was lying. I couldn't find the small hair and really didn't feel like looking thru the fries to find it. I also told her about the stale bun but she just made exuses and said it was fresh. She said she came over to my table and asked how everything was and I said fine but that was before I even took a bite of my food. My daughter has adhd and this experiece ruined her birthday lunch since it just grossed us out. The cook had an unkempt beard and dreadlocks with no hair nets or beard cover. The manager never offered to replace my food. I emailed guest relations a few days later, and they sent me a letter thanking me for my feedback but did not offer me a small giftcard to replace my meal. I also found a hair on my fries a few months earlier when diing with friends and didn't complain because I didn't want to be embarrasssed or make a scene in front of my friends and co-workers. I am finished with this place. Also there food is overly priced for what you get. Their burgers are not gourmet at all.

Comments (23)

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Comments:

Posted by trmn8r on 2011-03-25:

I agree that dumping them under the bus is the prudent thing to do. If I received a hair in my food twice, I can't imagine returning. I was a RR regular for years, but I can't go back there.

Posted by MDSasquatch on 2011-03-25:

I think the fries at RR are unlimited; you could have just tossed them on the floor under the table and asked for a refill.

Posted by trmn8r on 2011-03-25:

I think the OP may have had no interest in more fries. How many hairs can you deal with in one visit? An unlimited nummber? lol

Posted by Justice-4-All on 2011-03-25:

Trmn8r> Great point! Often times, when you find something like that in your food, you lose your appetite for it. Occasionally, you may lose your appetite for that item for several months or years just over one bad experience that sticks in your brain.

Posted by momsey on 2011-03-25:

LOL, good idea, MDS. But trmn8r has a good point, she probably didn't want any more fries or anything else there that day.

Personally, I usually just ignore hairs in my food as much as I can. I guess I just have a low gross-out level for stuff like that. But of course that doesn't mean that others should tolerate nastiness!

Posted by MDSasquatch on 2011-03-25:

Hair you can see, it's the stuff in the food that you can't see that bothers me.

Posted by azRider on 2011-03-25:

I think its strange the hair was not visible when the manager came over, yet was clear enough to be seen by the OP. kind of makes me wonder. was it really a hair? I know they put pepper on the ones we order here at our RR. but pepper and hair are easy to tell apart. given the customer the doubt, the manager should have offered new ones or a discount. so they are faulted on that. now not getting a gift card when you wrote them has me thinking. why is it when people notice something out of place they want to be rewarded for it? just because you point out an issue that needs to be addressed does not mean you should get something back for it. heck if that is the case, the government owes me a ton of money for the things I've sent letters on to congress and senators about bad issues. you told the main office what was wrong and they were glad to hear it so hopefully they can correct it. what more should you want.

Posted by throwback on 2011-03-25:

I tried one visit at this place. It was not good.

Posted by canucks1 on 2011-03-25:

RED ROBBIN IN HEMET CA IS JUST TERRIBLE AND WE WILL NEVER GO TO ANOTHER AFTER THE WAY WE WERE TREATED.

BOYCOTT THOSE JERKS!!!

Posted by EmeraldAnn on 2011-03-25:

I love our local red robin!!! I have had great cutsomer service there!!! One time we ate there and my burger came out practically mooing when i asked for no pink... i mentioned it to the waiter and he offered to make me another one but I didnt have time, so they took it off my check gave my fiancees burger a discount and gave me a 30 dollar gift card for the next visit! I love our Red Robin!!

Posted by trmn8r on 2011-03-25:

That's not exactly a resounding compliment, EmeraldAnn. They completely botched the cooking of your burger, and you left without eating because you didn't have time for them to correct the error. Sure, they bought you off with a gift card, but what if every time you went there they botched the preparation of your burger?

Posted by Venice09 on 2011-03-26:

If I have one bad experience at a restaurant, it doesn't stop me from going back, and I will gladly accept a gift card. But if the bad experiences are consistent, then all the gift cards in the world couldn't make me go back.

If there are free refills on fries, I don't understand why the manger didn't just bring out another serving. It's never a good idea to argue with a customer or insinuate they are lying.

OP, I hope your daughter enjoyed her meal and that her birthday wasn't truly ruined. I'm with momsey in that I try not to let a hair get the best of me. The food is prepared and served by humans. It's bound to happen. I'm usually okay with just sending it back and getting something else. However, if it happened all the time, I would probably not return.