Reviews for Spaghetti Mama's

07/14/2010 - RICK
Review of (Non) Service at Spaghetti Mama’s in the Jordan Commons, Sandy, Utah.

TABLE for TWO, PLEASE

On July 13, 2010, my wife and I decided to eat at Spaghetti Mama’s. This decision was made after passing by several other restaurants in the immediate area. With tickets to a nearby concert event that was to begin at 7:30pm, we felt like we had plenty of time to eat before the concert. The buffet special listed on the sign outside looked good. We walked into the restaurant at 4:45pm. We gave the hostess our name and that there were 2 of us. We were told that there was about a 15 minute wait. No problem. . . Not much happened in the next 15 minutes, but around 5:00pm, we noticed more waiters/waitresses on the floor and figured that the next shift had begun and we should get in to eat soon. They surely must have been expecting the large crowd coming before the concert, and had extra staff to handle the workload. NOT!
15 minutes turned into 30 and then to 45. We kept inquiring as to how much longer it would be. Large groups were coming in and being seated, but evidently they couldn’t break loose a table for 2. We were told that they were seating those with reservations first. Come to find out, people were walking in, finding out the wait time, walking outside, calling the restaurant, walking back in with a “reservation” and being seated immediately. Since when does walking into a restaurant and giving the hostess your name and number of your party not constitute a “reservation”??? My name was on the list, just like everyone else with a reservation. 45 minutes turned into 60, then 75, then 90. By this time I was beginning to get angry. We had been standing there for 1½ hours, with our name at the top of the list for the next table for 2.
The final straw was when a party of 4 walked in. By this time, people were being told that there was a 2 hour wait time. They went immediately to the buffet area and began serving themselves. They were confronted by one of the waiters and we figured they would be told to wait their turn like the rest of us. Instead, he took them and gave them a table. (A little extra in it for the waiter, perhaps??) When asked about them getting in ahead of us, the manager gave some smart -ss remark about how they were taking people on a reservation basis first, that there was nothing he could do, and went to seat more of his “reservations”. I guess the tips are bigger on large parties. Again, what about my ‘reservation’???
The biggest problem with this whole fiasco was the manager himself. Instead of delegating responsibility to the hostesses to seat people, he was doing it all himself. There were times when he was gone for 5 or 10 minutes at a time, when others could have been helping out. Instead, he told the girls to stay out of his way in the hostess booth. He even delegated himself to bring out food from the kitchen to the buffet area. Worst case of managing I’ve ever seen . . . I felt sorry for the girl who was the hostess at the hostess booth because she was the one taking all the heat for not getting people seated in a timely manner. I’m sure she was extremely frustrated.
At 6:30pm, after 1 hour and 45 minutes of watching everyone else but us get in, we walked out of the restaurant, having waited all that time and never being seated. Stupid us. I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone!!! There is absolutely no excuse for the treatment / non-treatment that we received.

Disgruntled patrons,

Rick & Terrie Chugg
3825 W. 5850 S
Roy, Utah 84067

801-985-6813