Unfiltered Story #249930

My family is going to a play at a performing arts center near a hotel and some high-end apartments. The showtime is about three and a half hours after I get off work in the evening, so getting dinner is a bit of a crunch. As such, my mother decides to check and see if the buffet the center sometimes has is open that night.

The buffet in question is intermittent and is set up on a second floor area that has several tables and chairs but otherwise isn’t normally equipped for dining. It’s not particularly great dining, but for our purposes it is extremely convenient. Since it is only open sometimes, the center has an app that allows patrons to check when it happens and book reservations.

My mother uses the app and finds she can book a reservation for that night. She does, the reservation is accepted and her e-mail gets a confirmation request and on the day of the show she gets a reminder alert as normal for this kind of setup. Everything seems to be in order.

We get to the center for our reservation and find that the buffet isn’t there. After a few minutes trying to puzzle it out, we manage to ask one of the concession stand workers who was there early what the deal was.

Turns out the app my mother used is a complete crapshoot, listing the buffet as open – and taking reservations for it – on many days in which is isn’t running.

Fortunately the employee was able to point us to an Italian restaurant that was visible from the center’s windows and barely a minute’s walk away, so we managed to eat before our play.