On the Border?? NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!

So tonight was the very last time I will set foot in an On the Border for dinner, ESPECIALLY the location on Barry Road in Kansas City, MO.

My husband and I had previously visited this location for dinner back in November. During our visit, there was an appalling sight - an employee was on the floor wearing a t-shirt that declared in huge letters, "I LOVE BOOBS." That was repulsive and degrading and I was very upset about this. I complained to the company and was contacted by the District Manager who asked me to try them again. HA!

We had gone ahead and visited them for lunch awhile back. It was okay; not great, but not bad, so we assumed they had worked on things. Tonight, we decided to give them another try at dinner, and took the kids. When we arrived at about 6:25, there were several children in their screened patio type area, screaming and running around. The kids had removed one of the screens and were hanging out the window yelling at customers. Lovely. Such a shining example of lousy parenting. We walked inside. As we were entering, an employee shoved open one of the doors, almost hitting one of my children, and slammed it behind him, rather than passing the door to one of us as we walked in. Can you say RUDE??? But it doesn't get better!!!

We got to the hostess stand, where two females were standing. "Five?" one said. Nice greeting, eh? We told her yes. Then, the two proceeded to discuss something amongst themselves for at least 3 minutes while we stood there, waiting, observing a lot of open tables! That restaurant may have been 25% full, and yet here we stood. FINALLY, one of them said something to the other about taking too long. I almost agreed out loud. The girl took us to a table and then brought us a 5th service. Note: She saw us for quite a bit of time as you can tell....remember that in a bit!!!!

So, we had a table, and menus, and we knew what we wanted. We waited. A server walked by, looked over at our table, and continued walking. Um...ok, must not have been our server. More time...then a blonde female server walks by, looks over at us, goes and gets a broom, then proceeds to sweep up chips RIGHT BESIDE our table. She doesn't say a word to us. Meanwhile, there are 4 servers along the edge of the restaurant chatting it up. They finally break up and two more servers walk by, saying absolutely nothing to us. Okay, so it's been ten minutes and we have menus and no chips, no salsa, no drinks, NOTHING! Another female server goes to the table directly beside us and refills drinks, totally ignoring us. A table two over? Their server brought them something in a bowl, saying nary a word to us.

Are you wondering about the management?? It's the same woman manager who was there the LAST time we had a bad experience. My husband saw her for about 10 seconds when she walked out of the kitchen, adjusted something on a cart, glanced right and left, and went back to the kitchen. Now there's a proper floor check - NOT!!!!

My husband stands up. It's now been a full FIFTEEN minutes and not a word has been said and we have nothing on the table and are very frustrated. Servers are on the floor, and nobody says a thing. The rest of us get up as well and we walk back across the restaurant. Do you think anyone stopped us or offered to help? HA!

Now GET THIS!!!! The EXACT SAME HOSTESS who had just seated us is standing at the station. She looks directly at us, half smiles, and says, "Thank you! Have a great night!" I looked at her and said, rather loudly, "Yeah, we'll go someplace where we won't be IGNORED!" She didn't say a word, so we headed out the door.

Remember those kids who were playing so wildly when we got there? NOW they were literally HANGING out the windows!! I am not kidding. They were holding onto the window ledges and dangling above the ground! HELLO?? Does nobody SEE this???? I bet they notice when the ambulance shows up and they GET SUED!!!!!!! Sheesh!!!

Is this not the most ridiculous experience you can imagine? To be totally ignored by several employees and have the manager oblivious not only to our empty table, but to children who could be seriously hurt on premises??? WTH??? Disgraceful and unacceptable!

Oh, and here's a further funny. We went to another restaurant, and imagine this - they APPRECIATE our business!!!! (By the way, if you're in Kansas City, it's called China Moon and they absolutely ROCK!!!! I'll blog about how great they are another time.....) Anyway, we told the owner that we had walked out of On the Border due to total lack of service. He had his own story to tell. He had been in that same restaurant for lunch not too long ago. He was ignored, too, and flagged down a male server, who took his order. As the server helped him, a female server walked over and started ARGUING with the first server about his stealing her table. He said they got into a big fight and the manager (THE SAME WOMAN - the description matched perfectly!) came over and gave his ticket to the female server. She didn't apologize, or offer anything at all! She ignored the guest and didn't say a word to the servers about arguing on the floor, right beside a paying customer!!!! HELLO?

So, in summary, I STRONGLY advise that if you want a decent dinner and/or actual service, AVOID On the Border like the plague!!!!! I can promise you that we won't be giving them our money anymore!!! And I really hope someone from On the Border reads this blog and has some serious TRAINING done!!!