We arrived and were seated and everything was nice. We ordered a cheese pizza for the kids and two entrees for ourselves.
The cheese pizza arrived first as per our request. The server carried it and a few plates on a tray. He grabbed a tray jack from the wall, setting the tray upon I, then he began to serve the children the cheese pizza. In horror, we watched as he lifted the first slice with his bare hand! Then used the other bare ungloved hand to separate the cheese that was stringing from the slice to the pan and place it on top of the slice. These were the same hands we had just seem touch numerous things in the dining room. We immediately asked to serve ourselves and disregarded the slice that he had touched. The pizza was room temperature but the children were hungry and they did not seem to mind. If the children had not been hungry we would have walked out then, but because everyone (including adults) was hungry we stayed. Unfortunately that ended up being a huge mistake.
Then the entrees came, one was fine. The other was supposed to be a fettucini alfredo with shrimp. We were served a dish with a very thin sauce that was not even able to coat the noodles. It was just pooled up in the bottom of the bowl with noodles floating on top of this unknown watery substance. The sauce had also begun to separate and some oil could be seen floating on top. Immediately our response was ?I am sorry but I cannot eat this.? The server at The Red Pepper offered to remake it but we asked to see a menu instead. We ordered the Spaghetti Carbonara as a replacement. It also came out cold but at this point we didn?t want to make any more of a fuss. Mistakes do happen. We asked for boxes and the check a few moments later.
. The items on the bill were the cheese pizza, the first entr?e that came out correctly, the sangria, chianti, the fettuccini alfredo and the carbonara? We expected to pay for everything except for the fettuccini. We did not eat any of it and refused it at once. Of course we assumed that the server had just forgotten to take it off the bill. We quietly reminded him that we had sent the fettuccini back. He told us that the owner said we had to pay for it because there was nothing wrong with it.
I am not kidding! I know that this sounds absolutely absurd. I swear to you it happened! What occurs next gets even worse! We explained to the server that we did not eat the fettuccini, it was sent back to the kitchen as soon as we saw it. So we should not have to pay for something that we did not have. There server disagreed, he insisted that we pay for the food that we could not eat because the owner said he thinks it?s good. It didn?t matter that we thought it was a poor quality. We asked for the owner several times. A manger finally came to our table. She walked up to us and didn?t say a word. We explained why we thought we should not be obligated pay for the fettuccini that we did not eat. She made a rude comment about our children being messy. Then she snatched the check off the table and stormed away. As she hurried away she yelled, in a loud voice in front of the entire dining room ?They Stiffed you!?. She was talking to our server who was standing against the wall on the other side of the dining room. It was a mortifying experience. I was in tears. I felt humiliated and about the size of a snow pea. We had not even paid the check yet. Why would she yell that out in front of people? It was by far the most publicly humiliating experience of my life.
We paid out bill, left our To-Go boxes on the table, and the standard 20% tip and left.
I would not recommend The Red Pepper to anyone! When I got home I Googled and saw that just recently closed. This one should be following soon.
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