We visited Denny’s mid-week around 3:00 pm. When we walked in, it looked closed. No one was at the front hostess station and the bar area (weird) was dark. We didn’t have to wait too long for a hostess to seat us, and were seated along the right side in a booth. We ordered coffee and Dr Pepper and went over the menu. The server was friendly, smiled a lot, and dashed our hopes on a few items they were currently out of. With all the Covid and supply chain issues, being out of avocados or other goods is a normal occurrence these days, so we rolled with the flow and ordered things they had available.
A quick look around the dining room and it was evident that cleaning wasn’t high on their maintenance list. At 3:00 in the afternoon, and only 4 customers there should have been ample time for an employee, a manager, an owner or a hired outside service to grab a broom and a rag. In an eating establishment, cleanliness and sanitization should be a restaurants top priority. If this is what the customer sees, what does it look like in those places they can’t? Considering the public display of filth, we decided to go ahead and take one for the team. Whatever you do, don’t look at the underside of the table. No one has cleaned under them in years.
Our dinner was a mixture of just okay and miss. One plate was French Dip with spicy fries, while the other was chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, french fries and bread. Overall the french dip sandwich itself wasn’t horrible. Onions weren’t cooked all the way, but the meat was okay. The dipping sauce itself though wasn’t Au jus. The sauce was powdered brown gravy mixed with too little water. Far too salty. The chicken fried steak was packaged and frozen breaded meat. The mashed potatoes were of a soup consistency, and the gravy that everything floated in was also too thin. The french fries were served with no salt and cold, so no salt would stick to them. The salt shaker on the table was dirty, and empty. The bred was a roll, cut in half, buttered and grilled.
We ordered coffee and Dr Pepper for drinks. First glass of Dr Pepper wasn’t Dr Pepper. The coffee was weak and tepid. This surprised me considering Denny’s was created as a breakfast diner. There’s nothing worse than a bad cup of coffee. And the cup had a sharp break on the handle.
Would we go back? Absolutely not. New management, new employees, or a fix in the supply chain issues won’t fix a deep rooted problem. The problem has been going on so long that it’s clear no one cares here. If a breakfast joint can’t serve decent coffee, and the people that work there won’t clean, I’m not going to spend my money on subpar food.