Did Anyone ‘WOW’ You Today?

When one has a bad morning at the office, like getting trapped in an elevator, a good relief is to find a cheap restaurant to have lunch at. An executive lunch, as many refer to them as, can be very cleansing to the soul and giving back some much needed energy to finish the day. That is unless the interactions at the restaurant are anything but a reprieve from the cubicle imbeciles of office life.

Today was one of those days for a co-worker (click on the link above) so I thought we should get out of the office for lunch. The cheapest thing to us is a Swiss Chalet so off we went unaware of the disaster that awaited us. Everything was fine until we were seated. The following is part of a customer survey and should paint a picture of the adventure we had. Keep in mind that chicken is their business.

Please tell us how we could have improved the quality and taste of your meal:

Using fresh ingredients would be a good start; hiring people who know how to cook the food properly wouldn't hurt either but I guess some people like to eat shoe leather.

Please describe the problem with the speed of service in more detail and let us know how we can improve:

We waited five minutes from the time we were settled at our tables before a server even acknowledged us. Once we finally ordered, my 15 minute meal ended up taking 30 mins to make and I almost had to ask twice for a drink refill since the server was too busy cleaning tables to get refills. My companion ordered an item not on the 15 min meal list and she got her food a good two minutes before mine arrived. Ensure the staff realizes that the customers are the reason they are working and happy customers lead to bigger tips.

Did one of our employees "WOW" you during your experience? If so, please provide us with additional details and the employee's name or description (not a required field):

I have visited this restaurant several times in the past few years and I have never been 'WOW'ed by the service.

Please share any final comments or suggestions that you would like to make to Swiss Chalet:

This was one of my worst dining experiences I have ever had. The service was slow and not very eager to please us and the food was greatly over cooked. The chicken in the ceaser salad was charred on one side and cooked to the perfection of shoe leather while the bun that accompanied the quarter chicken meal was hard enough that I used pieces as toothpicks at the end of the meal. I have been displeased with Swiss Chalet in the past and have blacklisted it for years (at least 3 years from 2000 to 2003) and some shorter periods since 2003. I cannot say when my next visit to Swiss Chalet will be but I doubt it will be anytime soon.