A little bit of backstory without giving away too much information: I have two brothers in the Air Force and a sister (with her own kids) who lives in Berea, Kentucky (about a 5-6 hour drive from here). It's been a while since my parents have had all 4 children in the house at once, but this weekend, my sister decided to pop in for a short visit because one of my brothers is in for a while. Naturally, we all went out to eat before my sister had to go back home, so we went to Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen in Beckley. *Note: this one might be a bit long*
This picture isn't mine!!
Cheddar's has an atmosphere that makes them feel like they wanted to be Chili's, but gave up halfway and wanted to be something else with a Chili's vibe. Not too terrible, but at the same time completely unoriginal. The building itself is clean enough (and I'd hope so considering it seemed like someone would wipe down the fish tank every 4 seconds!), and the restrooms were nice and clean as well.
As I write this, however, it is Sunday, a few hours after we got home from the restaurant, and boy oh boy, do I still have some complaints...
When we arrived, we knew it would be packed (is it just me, or does every churchgoer seem to be hive-minded? When one man in a button-down and khakis shows up, they ALL show up). When we told the hostess we had a party of seven (me, my brother, my mother and father, my sister, and her two toddler age children), she told us we would have an approximate wait time of twenty minutes. Seeming fair enough for a busy Sunday, we decided to enjoy the semi-spring weather and wait outside, where the outside seating was wet and no one had bothered to come out and wipe it off, considering it hadn't rained since early this morning and had no plans on raining anytime soon. So there are just large parties of "I just got out of a church, look at me in my Sunday best!" looking people STANDING outside in chilly weather. Remember that twenty-minute wait?
That twenty-minute wait turned into a good thirty to forty-five. This, I can forgive, seeing as how you can't really force anyone to give up their table if they're still giving you money. What you can do, however, is tell your staff to put a little pep in their step and hurry up with cleaning the tables. Speaking from experience, it does not take fifteen minutes to clean a table and put down new silverware.
Also speaking of waiting for a table, my sister's youngest child is one, so naturally, he needs a high chair. Not one, but TWO hostesses walked by our table, looked at my sister with a baby in her arms, and did nothing. No high chair, no asking if we'd like a high chair, no asking if someone was getting a high chair. Just a small 'I-don't-want-to-be-here' smile and a 'please-get-out-as-quick-as-possible' nod. It took our waiter, a lovely individual by the name of Brian, bringing us a high chair after taking our drink orders. Brian, if you happen to be reading this: thank you.
After the debacle of waiting almost an hour just to be SEATED, we ordered our drinks, and they came in a good five minutes, along with our appetizer (chips and queso, no beef). This was fine and dandy, and I am more than patient enough to wait five minutes for an appetizer.
My sister got a house salad before her main course, which was a bacon cheddar burger, but we'll get to that later. After talking with her after the meal, she told me that her house salad had romaine lettuce, which she prefers over iceberg, and the tomatoes were nice and...tomato-y? Anyways, her burger came, and just to put it simply, not only do you get a better-looking burger from Wendy's, it comes with more on it than three sad patties and two slices of flaccid bacon.
As far as my order, I just got the simple chicken tender platter with a side of french fries and mashed potatoes (judge me all you want, I am not a fan of their watery not-coleslaw). Seems like a simple enough order, right? My order came out last, after three burgers and an order of full-rack ribs. My total wait time for my food was almost an hour. AN HOUR FOR CHICKEN TENDERS AND POTATOES.
*As I'm writing this, my mother felt she should tell me that we got no napkins for our drinks despite the table behind us, which had five or six people, had napkins for theirs. Again, not holding this against Brian because it was completely crowded and he seemed 100% overwhelmed.*
Everyone else seemed to like their food, despite the fact that not all of it was brought out at the same time and most of our orders were mixed up (my brother had my mash, and my sister had his extra fry).
Despite all of this, Cheddar's has really good food, not one of us received a cold plate, and it was a lot of food for just $84 (despite the actual nightmare that is Golden Corral...). However, underestimated wait times, lazy hostesses, and a swarmed Sunday lunch rush is a horrible mixture.
Brian, if you happen to be reading this, know that the only thing I hold against you is refills, but even that's forgivable - you performed well under the pressure, and I applaud you.
Cost: $16.40 with Prime
