If I could give a negative star, I would.
I am not a complainer or fill out bad comment cards (I do for great experiences). Unfortunately, the experience at Cullens was horrible from start to finish.
First of all we had reservations but the party was smaller that arrived so we needed a smaller table. It is understandable we had to wait since the table that was ready was for a larger party. We had to wait but needed to come back to the hostess stand to check if our table was ready versus having a pager or someone come get us.
Second, we were taken to the table and waiting 10 minutes before being addressed by our waitress - Mickey. The bread was set on our table and the girl (new hire) walked away. Then again, the new hire asked in a soft voice, has anyone taken your order (after another 10 minutes from the time Mickey gave us our menu). We asked her about the soup of the day and she didn't know that answer. Mickey came in and said it's Black Bean Soup. One of the guest asked what type of bean soup and she said ""a bunch of different beans"". She said the other soups are fine. The other guest asked how is your Chicken Fried Ribeye. She said its a Chicken Fried Steak. Then we had to ask for napkins and the table was not set (even with us waiting over 30 minutes - expectation from the Hostess was 15 minutes). The soups were brought with no soup spoons so we had to find someone to bring us that utensil. The appetizer was never brought and the Waitress checked on other tables around us and didn't address us or fill out water. That was the last straw when we asked where the appetizer was and she blamed us for not ordering it since it was not on her sheet.
We went to get a manager to discuss our experience and instead of taking ownership and turning our bad experience into a tolerable/better experience, he proceeded to make excuses. ""This is our busiest night"" Continuously, he repeated that instead of apologizing. He seemed to want to run away from the situation and get us refills. The waitress turned to the manager and said ""You can handle this"" and left. The experience of the wait was not the issue, the issue was the Service Experience. For being an award winning restaurant as stated on your website, you will not win in 2012. We called our Best Restaurant - Killens Steakhouse. Not only was our table set when we arrived but the hostess and our Waiter greeted us and gave us the Normal BEST experience we always get at their Steakhouse. That restaurant is always booked but there has NEVER been a BAD experience. The experience starts with impression and the wait staff and manager in the Main dining room need a lesson from Killens. Even the table next to us had to complain earlier so we are not the only ones who had a bad experience on 1.28.2012 (8pm-9:15pm - NO FOOD was eaten except Soup - Gumbo soup tasted like Campbells)_.
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