Our "Night"mare Out

Our family loves to eat out. The kids like getting something other than "home food". Ben likes getting food that I don't cook at home like red meat. And I just love that I don't have to do the cooking and cleaning!

There was a time when we dined at a restaurant weekly, but then Owen came along. He hated restaurants. They made him scream relentlessly. Then came the bad economy and high gas prices. So eating out is a treat for us. We do a family afternoon out once a month or so when we do an errand or two together then have dinner at a restaurant.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) there aren't many good restaurants in Clarksville. Most everything is a chain and they are all chains that gained popularity in the 1990's (read: old). Then there are the cookie cutter Mexican places and Chinese buffets. We usually choose Rafferty's or Longhorn. Rafferty's has several dishes that Ben is fond of. I only like a few things, but I have warm, fuzzy memories of it as one of the first places Ben and I visited when we started dating. They used to have good options for the kids too.

All of that changed on our visit there this week. It was so disappointing that I made my way to Rafferty's website to lodge a complaint. I don't like confrontation nor do I want the undue attention of other customers. But it definitely merited a complaint so I did it the best way I knew how: writing.

Here's what I wrote:

My family visited your Clarksville, TN location on December 4, 2008. Rafferty's has always been one of our favorite places to dine here in town as it is consistently good... good food and good service. Unfortunately, on our last visit we were disappointed. The service was fair, but the food left much to be desired. We ordered our usual hot chicken fingers appetizer which tasted the same as always, but seemed much smaller than usual. I was surprised when my request for honey butter drizzle on the croissants that come with the Chicken Salad, Soup, and Croissants entree was met with an up-charge for an entire ramekin of honey butter. I declined. It is just ridiculous to me that I would be charged for a 1/4 cup of something that would amount to less that 1 tablespoon when drizzled on the croissants as it is on the ones that come with all of other the salads on the menu. I ordered the soup of the day, broccoli cheese, which amounted to melted Velveeta with chopped broccoli... at least that is how it tasted. It was lukewarm and had the consistency of glue. The grapes in the chicken salad were ALL mushy... way past their prime. The croissants were not the usual ones nor were they anything like the one my husband got with his salad that evening; they were more like Pilsbury crescent rolls... small and tasteless. My husband's meal was the Wood-Fired Pork Chops. They were barely eatable. Tough and overdone. In this economy, eating out is no longer a given. Our family goes out to eat about once a month... a special treat for all of us. I have a friend who is a server at a local restaurant and she has noticed a marked decrease in business as well as her tips. What I expect of a restaurant that values me as a customer and wants to keep my business in order to STAY in business is that despite tough times they will give me my money's worth. I was willing to lay down my hard earned money at Rafferty's for food I expected to be worth it. I am not surprised at higher prices on the menu, but I am shocked when the food I receive in return is mediocre and not up to the standards that you once achieved. We will not make that mistake again.

I felt like Chef Ramsay in a Kitchen Nightmare of my own. Only I didn't want to help them turn things around nor was my meal on the house. But hell hath no fury like a mom who got a crappy meal that she could have prepared better and for way less money on her own. So spread the word... add 'em to the black list of Clarksville restaurants NOT to eat at.