Ruby Tuesday Restaurant

In the mail today I received a $5 off coupon on my next visit to Ruby Tuesday. I guess they must be starving for business and trying to get people in the door. This might not be the case if they had better service to begin with. Last month while visiting family in Maine, we went to dinner at the Ruby Tuesday in Waterville. It was right down the road from the hotel so in a way it was convenient. There were 10 of us in the party, including 2 hungry children. We arrived at the restaurant around 7:30 pm and had to wait in the lobby for about half an hour. I understand that a short wait may be necessary to accomodate a large group of people for dinner. 5 or 10 minutes is acceptable, 15 minutes AT THE MOST. We could see the table where we would later be seated from the waiting area. It was covered with dirty dishes and the hostess told us over and over it would just be a few more minutes because they were cleaning it off. For the first 20 minutes not a single employee went to that table to clean it. Finally, when my sister in law spoke up and said she would go clean it, she had been a waitress before, they started. At that time the manager came up to the hostess booth and asked if we had been helped yet. I told him that we had been acknowledged, but I wouldn't say 'helped'. He then took us over to the table to be seated and failed to apologize for the wait or even tell us to enjoy our meal. The waitress came over and took our drink order but we still had to wait. Now it has been 45 minutes, it's way past my daughter's bed time, and she's starving! Normally if you are getting an entree with the salad bar you can just go up to the bar and start. Every time I go, I get the salad bar for an extra $1.99. Do you think the waitress said "go ahead and help yourselves to the bar"? Of course not... 10 minutes later when she came back with the drinks and took our entire order, then she said it. Finally we were able to eat! After that I decided no more Ruby Tuesday for our family.... but I'll give them one more shot since I do have a coupon.