Cinebarre's food has never been a bargain, especially the snacks, but today they hit an all time low of cheapness.
We ordered the ""Big Lebowskis"", which used to be a basket of breaded and deep fried pickle chips. This time it came as 4, count 'em f-o-u-r, breaded and deep fried wedges. Basically, it was ONE pickle, cut into 4 pieces, battered and fried, for $8.
Seriously? The $8 zucchini appetizer at Claim Jumper gives you a mound of wedges. Cinebarre gives you *four*. Two dollars per piece of pickle.
Claim Jumper is not a place you go for bargains, but they look downright magnanimous and Cinebarre looks decidedly cheap and chintzy. It's not like the food cost on pickles and batter is a big expense.
I brought it up with the manager, because I thought ONE pickle for EIGHT dollars was quite a rip off. She pointed out that the amount of pickle was about the same as when they did the chips. The ""weight"" was the same.
Yes, but there's a lot more surface area to bread with the chips, so you get more breading (and thus feel more full). But hey, they save the labor of having to cut and bread 16 chips instead of 4 wedges, and maybe 20 or 30 cents worth of batter.
When you're cutting corners on fried pickle chips like this, your committment to quality and to customer service is obviously dying.
Too bad. The Cinebarre was a nice place to go, but if they're going to start pulling these shenanigans to save a few cents, I just don't want to go back, because I'll always wonder what cost-cutting measure is going to lower their quality (but not their prices) next.
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