Disaster at Denney's in Moab, Utah

Through the years my family has dined at many different restaurants-some chains, some not. Most of the experiences have been pleasant, a few not so pleasant. But the absolute worst dining experience we have ever had was earlier this year at Denney's in Moab, Utah.

My husband and I, my niece and her husband had spent the day at the Arches National Park and stayed a bit later than we had intended. As we were leaving late in the evening, we decided we needed to eat before driving back to their home in Grand Junction, Colorado. Denney's was the only restaurant they remembered having seen in Moab when they had been there before. So since we were in a hurry, we just stopped at Denney's, which was the first restaurant we saw as we drove into town.

Shortly after we were seated, a waitress came and asked for our drink order. A couple of minutes later another girl came and also asked for our drink order. We told her we had already given our order to another waitress. She looked very upset and asked which waitress we had given our order to.

A few minutes later the first girl brought our drinks (Cokes and tea) and took our food order. After a rather long wait, she brought our salads, and the bill. We might not have chosen to eat any dessert,anyway, but it appeared she didn't plan to give us that option. We thought that was rather strange.

After eating our salads and waiting a very long time, as darkness fell outside and we dreaded the drive home, we started to feel we had been forgotten.

I had seen four plates set up in the window between the kitchen and dining area, and they sat there a long time, untouched and unclaimed. I wondered if they were supposed to be ours. Meanwhile, the waitress never once returned to the table to ask if we needed our drinks refilled or anything else. In fact,she was nowhere to be seen.

Eventually I saw a man who appeared to be the manager looking at the plates in the window and then looking around the dining area, as if searching for the diners for whom the plates were intended. I caught his eye and gave a sign to indicate they might be ours. A few minutes later, the man brought the food to us. It was stone cold. The whole atmosphere in the place seemed cold and unfriendly, so we were hesitant to complain, figuring it would do no good. And we didn't have another hour to wait for our food to be reheated.

We ate the food in relative silence, almost too disgusted to eat it, but knowing we had no more time to waste. Neither our waitress nor any other employee ever came back to our table to ask about drink refills, dessert,or anything else.

If we had had any disagreement or unpleasant conversation with the waitress or anybody else in the restaurant, we might have had an inkling of what caused the horrible lack of service we received. But not one of us had done so. We wondered if our waitress had trespassed on the second waitress' territory and they had had words over that. But it wasn't our fault or our responsibility.

When we left, my husband took the ticket and wrote in the place to indicate the amount for a tip,"NO SERVICE, NO TIP!" As he paid with a credit card, he explained to the cashier the reason for it. She just said she was sorry and made no effort to have any adjustment or correction made, nor did she call a manager.

We had never had any really good experiences with Denney's before, and this one clinched it for us. We will never, ever eat at any Denney's again.