O’Charley’s is one of my favorite places to eat. My husband and I love their loaded potato soup and the dinner rolls.
Recently, I didn’t feel like cooking. We thought about going out to eat, but didn’t want to go through the trouble of getting two kids ready. So, we decided to try out O’Charley’s to-go service.
I looked up O’Charley’s website on the internet and ran off a copy of their to-go menu. My husband decided he would like to have their bacon triple cheeseburger with French fries. I decided to have a 7oz sirloin steak, broccoli cheese casserole, and loaded potato soup. For the kids, we decided to get them the adult chicken tenders meal with French fries and loaded potato soup (which my husband ate).
I called my local O’Charley’s and told the lady who answered the phone that I’d like to place an order for pick-up. She asked me to hold. I waited for ten minutes before anyone came back to the phone. When the lady came back to the phone, she had to ask me again why I was calling.
I placed our order. I was told that our food would be ready to pick up in thirty minutes. So, I got together our money, waited for the thirty minutes to pass, and went to pick up our food.
When I arrived at the restaurant, I found a parking space dedicated to people picking up O’Charley’s to-go orders. I parked and went inside. I was greeted by a hostess. I told her that I was there to pick up a to-go order. She asked me to go to the back counter next to the kitchen. The hostess followed me back to the counter. She informed me that my food was not ready yet, but should be up in about ten minutes. I went ahead and paid her for my order and returned to the front of the restaurant to wait.
As I waited, I observed many employees standing around talking. They weren’t very busy. Finally, the manager noticed me sitting at the front of the restaurant. He went to the hostess and talked to her for a moment.
After about fifteen minutes, another hostess offered me a complimentary drink while I was still waiting on my food. I politely declined and continued to wait. After another five minutes, the original hostess also offered me a complimentary drink. I again declined and continued to wait.
Finally after sitting in the restaurant and waiting for about twenty-five minutes, the hostess told me that my food was ready and it was being bagged up. Just about that time, some other patrons entered the restaurant. The hostess stopped bagging my to-go order so that she could seat the other patrons. She told them to follow her to a table only to have them to return to the front moments later because the table needed to be bussed first. This seemed very inconvenient for the guests since one of them was an elderly gentleman walking with a cane.
The hostess then went back and finished bagging my food and brought it to me. Finally, after waiting thirty minutes at home, and another thirty minutes in the restaurant, my food was ready. I checked my order for accuracy and left. The other patrons were still waiting for their table.
I brought our food home and found that they had given us a generous supply of rolls and honey butter. My steak was cooked to my specifications, as well as everyone else’s order. We sat down to our dinner. Everything was delicious! The one disappointment was that the bowl of loaded potato soup that comes with a to-go order seemed considerably smaller than the portion you get in the restaurant.
O’Charley’s will probably continue to be one of my favorite restaurants to eat at. However, I doubt that we will use the to-go service again. It just took too long to get our food.
