Good Food Gone Bad

Last night I read Posh Mom's Gilt City Gone Bad experience. It sort of lit a fire in me even though this post has nothing do to with "coupons" but instead we see eye to eye on customer service.

Let me take you back to April 2012. A new hot spot in Dallas opened. Sissy's Southern Kitchen was the "it" restaurant in Dallas. Of course, being a lover of Southern food I had to go as soon as a reservation was available. Katie, Emily and I headed over on a Saturday night, at 5pm. Yes, if you want to eat at the "in crowd" restaurant you sometimes have to be willing to eat at the same time as toddlers. We arrive and are only one of two tables in the restaurant. Our server just so happened to be serving both tables. After taking the other table's order and getting them settled she comes over to us. Problem numero uno- she starts to be incredibly snarky when asking questions (all one work answers with a side of eye rolling) about the menu and then acts incredibly annoyed that we are unsure what we want to order after her briefly going over the menu. Please note, the restaurant was NEW at this point and none of us had ever been so there was NO reason to roll your eyes when I asked if you had specials. Anyhow, we are gracious and quickly order so we do not cause her any hassle. In the mean time another table is seated in our servers' section. I will get to the point and just say that that table was served DESSERT before we even got our main course. I am not sure where our server had some sort of issue with us or what was up but her attitude and service was unacceptable. So unacceptable that Katie, Emily and I all made a point of contacting Sissy's about her and our experience. I rarely do this, but *Anna (name changed for privacy reasons) was just so rude that I felt compelled. One would think a new restaurant would maybe get back to you or even just say they were sorry for this rare occurance. Instead, NOTHING. No word from Sissy's. No acknowledgement. Nada. Zero Zilch.

Fast forward to a Saturday night earlier this month when Cassie invites me and Emily to Sissy's with her college BFF who is in town. We oblige as we are willing to give them another chance. While the service was wonderful inside the restaurant the food and valet were horrendous. All three of our desserts were inedible (think BURNT cookies) and the sides left something to be desired (creamed corn is not corn chowder....). While that was certainly a disappointment the real issue was with the valet. Not only did they accuse Cassie for trying to STEAL a car (no, I am not kidding, they confronted her and actually said this), but they also called her a b**ch to our other friend (yes, to Emily's face). Totally unacceptable. No excuse for that. At.all! Cassie, being a lawyer immediately got on the phone (as soon as she got in her stolen vehicle...) and contacted the manager of Sissy's. Sadly, the manager choose to just come up with excuse after excuse before finally deciding it might be a good idea to acknowledge there was maybe an issue and take down all Cassie's info. Emily and I were in Cassie's back seat and decided to tweet to Sissy's. Fast forward to Monday...Sissy's starts replying to positive weekend tweets but neglects to reply to either of us. I understand not replying to every single tweet, but I looked up Sissy's and they are not some Kim Kardashian getting a 100 tweets a minute. It seems like they feel they are above acknowledging negativity or admitting to their faults. Almost as if they are wrongly being accused. Only after we tweeted about being ignored did we get a tweet back asking to give them another chance (you know, because both times we dined were not enough I guess?).

 Dallas is an eating out city. We have more restaurants per capita than NYC. If you have bad food, rude staff and refuse to try and turn a problem around you do not deserve to stay afloat.  If you live in Dallas or plan to visit or even know people here I would tell them NEVER to eat at Sissy's Southern Kitchen. The atmosphere might be pleasant and the decor is appealing but all good things stop there. This restaurant does not warrant spending your hard earned cash. If you want good fried chicken go to Babe's or Bubba's. Not only is the price more wallet friendly, but the food is some of the best in town and their staff is far superior to the more "upscale" Sissy's. Moral of this post: good food can go bad in a second and customer service is key to keeping clients. It seems like Sissy's might have to learn the hard way!