We went for a evening dinner, my wife, daughter and son (He is in the Army, visiting from his station in Alaska, have not seem him in a couple of years, his last night in town). We had a good experience with another Tripps restaurant in Durham, so we figured the same good experience here. How wrong can you get??? Follow me...
We arrived at around 8:00pm, were seated promptly, nice friendly staff...Everything went well until the food arrived (chatted, drinks served promptly, salad was good, heck, even my coffee was good, not burnt or watered down like most places these days.)
My son and wife ordered the same meal, Lobster, baked potato and steak ( medium rare for the Mrs, well done for my son). Now normally, in my experience anyway, cooking a steak less takes more skill to get right than cooking a steak more, at least before before burning it...So, our food arrives, all good except my son's steak, which instead of well done was more of the medium rare, very pink inside, red juice on the plate, to include under the baked potato. So, run number 1...waitress comes over, how is everything, Ok, except for my sons steak, not cooked enough..So, steak (and Lobster, which was ok, and baked potato get taken back.)..we wait a few then decide to go ahead and start eating, expecting that his food will back in a few minutes..10-15 minutes pass, Run number 2, manager brings food back out, manager leaves, NEW steak, same lobster and baked potato....Son cuts steak, steak is barely past medium, still not well done, same lobster, same baked potato...Waitress comes back out, how is everything, Son>> steak still not done enough (originally said to waitress, NO PINK PLEASE, WELL DONE PLEASE...)So, Manager comes over, sees steak is still not done, Rumber 3, takes steak and baked potato back, leaves original Lobster....we are still eating slowly, 10-15,20 minutes pass, I had to go find the manager to ask her to please check on the food...few minutes later, manager brings it back out, steak is finally done (and so are the rest of us, with our food), steak is finally cooked well done, baked potato is still same potato, lobster already eaten..So, we sit and chat while my son eats his now well deserved steak, he pretty much ignores the baked Potato at this point, which is soaked at the bottom with red steak juice and honestly looks pretty unappetizing...
So, after about 10 minutes the manager comes up, ask how everything is, apologizes for the problems with the meal and tells me there will be no charge for any of the meals we have ordered/eaten...
Now, while I think that was a very nice gesture on her part, what I/we really all wanted was to enjoy a nice, relaxed, leasurely, tasty meal with my family on our sons last evening in town.....
My observation: Pass this place up if you are wanting what we did not get, unless you are a bar fly or are willing to accept whatever is placed in front of you...
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