Hammy Horton's, Shawnee, OK

Today for lunch we went to Hammy Horton's in Shawnee, OK, which is located in the Cindarella Hotel at 623 Kickapoo Spur Street, Shawnee.  We've been there about five times in the last six months.  The service is always good.  The food is usually very good.  However, I've heard that lately their food is not quite as good.  So, today we decided to check it out.  As usual, the service was very good.  There were only two waitresses there today, they're the same ones all the time, no name tags, so I couldn't tell you their names.  There were four of us.  I ordered my usual, the Cranberry Walnut Salad.  It is always delicious.  It is a salad with mixed greens, Craisins (sweet dried cranberries), candied walnuts, feta cheese, and grilled chicken (that is very good!).  I get it with the raspberry viniagrette dressing, yummy!  The other three all got the same thing, chicken fried steak, onion strings (wonderful!), and corn or mashed potatoes (which are real).  As I was eating my salad I noticed that there were only about 8-10 Craisins on the whole salad.  I don't know if they ran out of Craisins, but instead of using Craisins, they used dates!!!!  It made the salad taste so odd that I took all of them off.  Not a big deal, but I wish they would have just said, "hey, we're out of Craisins, do you mind having it without?"  At least give me a choice, don't just cut corners by putting dates on a salad, very strange!!  So I told the waitress when she came over that those were dates, and she said "no, those are cranberries."  I politely told her that they were indeed dates and not cranberries.  She picked them up off the table and said she would go tell the cook and see, because she was sure he must have thought they were cranberries.  How can you possibly mistake a date for a cranberry.  The dates are 2-3 times the size of the cranberries (Craisins), and they are almost black, rather than red.  Needless to say, when she came back to the table she couldn't even look at me, and she never said another word about them.  Yep, they were dates, can't pull that trick on me, I know my dried fruits.  And if THAT wasn't enough, it also had only about one-third the usual amount of candied walnuts and feta cheese.  Dadgummit!

Okay, so in asking the others how their food was, they said that the chicken fried steak had sort of gone down in quality.  Just six months ago it was the best chicken fried steak in all of Shawnee.  Not anymore.  The onion strings as usual were awesome!

So, one of the things that is so frustrating is that many, many restaurants start out so good, but then they lose their consistency and go downhill.  A server can make or break a restaurant, that is true; however, no amount of good service can make up for a restaurant's lack of good food consistency.

I'm sorry to say that I doubt we'll be going back to Hammy Horton's, it was good while it lasted.

McDonald's, 1758 E Carl Albert Pkway, Mcalester, OK

Saturday, July 23, 2011, we stopped in at McDonald's in Mcalester, OK, for lunch at about noon.  This is a very nice McDonald's, very clean.  The bathrooms were immaculate, which always impresses me!  It was a complete madhouse this day because there were so many children (they have a playground attached to this McDonald's).  Since it was a madhouse, I was pretty surprised how quickly we got our food (we had McDoubles, fries, Coke).  The food was very fresh and good.  There were no standouts as far as the employees, but I think that was mainly because of how crazy they were that day.  The service was good, but they had no time to do anything other than be professional and FAST!  We would definitely go there again.

Chili's Grill & Bar, Yukon, OK

On July 8, 2011, at about 7 p.m., we stopped at Chili's in Yukon, OK, for dinner.  They were packed to the gills, but we were able to get a "first-come-first-served" table in the bar area.  We figured it would be a while for our meal since it was so packed.  ERICA was our waitress, she was quick to get our drinks and our order, she was pleasant and professional, AND she was one of "those" waitresses who took our order without writing it down (how does she do that?).  We ordered the 2 meals for $20, I got the Quesadilla Explosion Salad and he got the Ribs, with chips and the Guacamole with corn for our appetizer.  We finished our drinks and had them refilled, were filling up on chips fast, when ERICA came by to tell us that she promised that our meal would be there soon.  Then she came by again and said the same thing.  She was always checking on us and our drinks, good waitress!  We were starting to look around to see if food was coming out of the kitchen, it was, and finally ERICA came by once again and said our food would be up shortly, and then it came out.  We did wait a very long time (I didn't time it).  No sooner did we have our food than JEFF, the manager, came by and asked us how our food was.  We said good and he told us that it took a very long time for our food to get to us, and we said that it was okay because we had our drinks and appetizer and we were just relaxing, and he said that it took our food the longest to get to our table and he apologized for the wait and told us that he was going to discount our ticket.  We were so pleased!  We never even complained or said anything at all, but the manager knew that it took too long.  The most important thing here is that he solved a problem before it became one.  It only cost them a few bucks off our ticket, and they cemented us as their customers.  Also, our meals and appetizer were delish!

As a side note, while he was chatting with us, he told us that he used to work at the Midwest City, OK, Chili's, and that he was only at this Yukon Chili's for a month.  This was important to me because about two months prior we went to the Chili's in Midwest City and had dinner.  My Quesadilla Explosion came out and it was absolutely horrible, looked like the whole thing was soggy and the lettuce was transparent as if it had been frozen or soaking for a long time.  Anyway, I told the gentleman who brought it out and he apologized and immediately took it back to the kitchen to get me another.  While I waited for my meal, the waiter came by, noticed I didn't have my meal, and asked me about it.  I told him and he was so apologetic and friendly and said he was glad that the server had it taken care of.  I had my new Quesadilla Explosion Salad within 5 minutes!  And it was awesome as usual!!!  When I got home, I sent a comment online to Chili's about how the experience was a wonderful one because what could have been a bad meal was taken care of immediately, and professionally, and I was very impressed with how this young staff handled it.  I never asked for anything, but two weeks later in the mail I received a kind note thanking me for my comments and some gift certificates for my next visit to Chili's.

My point:  JEFF was the manager at the time of the visit to Midwest City.  This young man must really train his staff, because of the way they handle normal everyday situations in their restaurants.  JEFF is one valuable manager to Chili's!

Thank you JEFF!