Out to Dinner

We decided to go out to dinner tonight after Daisy meeting for one reason: Peter saw a Jack in the Box commercial advertising a Meal deal. It was supposed to include a cheeseburger, fries, drink and taco for only $2.99. YES, dinner for under $20 for 6 people!

So, we load everyone up in the van at almost 8 p.m. and head on over. Everyone piles into the restaurant where we ask about the deal. The response: "We are one of the non-participating locations". We now pile everyone back into the van and head over to Denny's where kids eat free on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Right as we are getting out of the van the people in the car next to us tell us that the Denny's only has salads and desserts right now because of some equipment being worked on. In my opinion that means that maybe they should just close the restaurant for the evening! Back into the van and over to IHOP where we hope that they still have kids eat free on Tuesdays. We are in luck! They have a limited time promotion where kids eat free any day!

You would think that this would make for a happy ending.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

By the time out food came out, we were the only customers in the restaurant. So, that would mean good service since there are no other customers to worry about. NOT!

We were practically ignored. Peter downed his drink in about a minute and had to wait more than 15 minutes for a refill. Amanda's meal came with a bowl of "fresh" fruit that was missing. When it was brought out the fruit was NOT fresh. The pineapple was brown for heaven's sake. What on earth makes anyone think that THAT is okay to serve to anyone?!

We quickly finished our meals and had to ask for our check from the three employees who were chatting on the other side of the dining room. I went to pay and found that the computer would only discount one of the kid's meals even though the deal says one free kid meal for each adult meal purchased. Apparently food from the "For Me" light menu is not considered an adult entree. Amanda and I had both ordered from this particular portion of the menu. SO, if I want a free meal for my child I guess that I am required to order a high calorie meal for myself even though I would rather eat something lighter!

The night manager finally called her supervisor and found a way to make it work since my argument is that there should be something somewhere stating that the "For Me" menu is not considered as adult entrees since I would not have ordered from it if I had known.

In the end, our quick and in inexpensive meal out with the family ended up costing $30 instead of $20 (still pretty good for 6 people, I know, but more than we wanted to spend) and we didn't get home until 10. Oh, but I did get a good headache out of the deal!

I don't think I will be going to IHOP again any time soon . . . if at all.