I just wanted a perfect margarita!!! - Poor Restaurant Service

First off I want to start with I am not one to have a power struggle by any means or am I a super impatient person --okay I may have just said yesterday that patience was not my strongest suit but that is just with certain things like waiting for fish to bite and I can stand in line for rides at an amusement park for however long it takes. However last night I may have hit my breaking point and it has been bugging me if I went over board and over reacted or if my behavior was completely acceptable.

Yesterday was our 9 years together anniversary and since I have been on a strict eating kick and working out like crazy we decided to actually treat ourselves and go out to eat ( and I really didn't want to cook or was Anthony offering to). We finally decided on going to Applebee's, we figured we could share the 2 for $20 and I seriously LOVE their perfect strawberry margaritas! They serve it in a metal shaker allowing you to fill your glass almost 3 times resulting in the perfect buzz and the hubby has to drive home!!! 

Anyways that is not what I am here to talk about (or maybe it is!).

We got there about 7:30, were seated by the young host right by another couple that was in a booth behind us, he gave us our menus and said a waitress would be right with us. I looked around the restaurant and made a comment there wasn't an awful lot of people there and we figured we would probably get our meals fairly quickly. About 5 minutes passed and still no service so Anthony said if I made my mind up on what I wanted to eat then when they came to get our drink orders we could go ahead and order our food too. We we not in a big hurry but just planning ahead because I usually take forever to decide what I want to eat.

Another 15 minutes passed and still no one. The manager walked passed us twice, the host multiple times going back to the kitchen and even the waitresses checking on the couple sitting in the booth behind us. Another 10 minutes passed and we were still sitting there with not even a glass of water. Anthony looked at me and said do you want to go to Buffalo Wild Wings. I contemplated the fact that I was not going to get my margarita but was peeved about the poor service that I shrugged it off. 

We ended up stopping at the bar to say hi to one of Anthony's old co-workers and headed for the door. 

As we are heading out the host is standing there sweeping the floor and looks up and says "Have a good night" I looked back at Anthony and he said "You too!" and we walked out. 

I was immediately seeing red! 

Not only were we almost non existent while we were there but then that comment.

Now maybe it was just habit but the young man knew very well that we were leaving without even ordering out food as there was literally close to no one in there. 

I got on my phone and called Applebee's asking to speak to a manager.

I informed Josh of what had occurred, he apologized and asked if there was anyway he could get us back in the door and I declined letting him know that we were pulling in the Bdubs parking lot right then. He told me that when we return to the restaurant to make sure that we ask to speak to the manager and he would make things right. Anthony chuckled at that and said it might be a little while before we do that.

Our service was exceptional at Bdubs however we ended up paying more for our food and more for our drinks and of course my calorie count was thrown way off for the day when I decided to order 15 boneless wings (I did not finish them all so I am going to sneak a couple bites in today if Anthony doesn't eat all of them for his lunch) 

So I guess my question is 

How long do you wait before getting any service when at a restaurant?

the other thing is how do I even handle going back into Applebee's and ask to speak to a manager when I am not the type of person that likes getting handouts? I feel like I would be thought of as someone going on a power trip or people questioning how does Anthony even live with that person? But really I felt like our time was not appreciated or was our business wanted. Maybe the host needed to just learn a little lesson on customer appreciation. Either way we will still be deciding how we will handle our next trip there.