Eating out is still a big deal. We spent several years in a financial squeeze so even the local chain bar food is a splurge in our minds.
I went for "on the way home" easy. O'Charleys.
The girls ordered their usual mac n cheese. I never really get over the fact I could have made an entire box to feed 4 for a quarter of what I paid for one of their meals.
I opted for salad with friend chicken to cure my sinner saint food battle and Dude finally settled on nachos upon my recommendation. He loves all things mexican food.
This was the description and the picture on the website of what we thought we were getting. They're NEW, Good Time Nachos.
This is what arrived to our table. To be "fair" Dude ordered no jalapenos and no green onion.
That my friends is greasy fried nacho chips with a tablespoon of sauce from a can dribbled over the top.
I said to our uber annoying waiter, "Wow, is that it? No meat? Nachos sure aren't what they used to be." To which he replied, "Is anything what it used to be?"
Why no Captain Annoying because there once was a day I enjoyed this restaurant and the perky little waitress that used to wait on us and make us feel good about our choice to dine here. And we received real food on our plates.
I paid $7.99 plus tax for this plate of goop.
Ironically, I had promised a stop at the gas station for some candy to eat with the movie they were going home to watch.
This is what we found at the gas station. If you look closely at the price on the picture on the left. $1.79 for the same crap. In fact, it's better at the gas station because I can serve myself as much "cheese topping" as I'd like. That's a deal!
I'm kicking myself for not asking for my money back. I hadn't seen the picture OCharley's markets on their online picture that I posted above until I got home to write this post. That really ticked me off.
Then I got to thinking about what Captain Annoying said, "Is anything what it used to be?" Why would it be when he gets up every morning with sad disgusting nachos as an acceptable presentation. Have we all lowered our expectations to the point that no one needs to rise up and please a customer?
Think I'll pass this post on to someone at O'Charley's corporate. Only to make myself feel better. Not to think anyone there will give a crap. My guess is somewhere some evil General Manager is laughing an evil laugh about the $3 jump in margins he was able to get by serving me this plate of "nachos" which by the way did absolutely nothing to contribute to a "Good Time" so marketing people, you suck too.
Let me name this dish: Try our NEW, "food costs have got us taking it in the shorts so we're going to give you a tablespoon of crap spooned from a can on top of a plate of bagged chips" nachos.
Here's an idea, if you can't serve it well, take it off the menu. No need to make changes for us. We're not coming back.
