One of my worst restaurant experiences. Do you have more to add?

C

clofthwld

Well-known member
I went to a local chain seafood restaurant known for it's swordfish. I order a 10oz swordfish steak. That would certainly be enough for me. When it arrived it looked the size of a credit care and just about as dry. 4oz at best. I asked to speak to the manager. Now, I was very nice and said that this couldn't possibly be a 10 oz piece of fish. "Oh, yes, our products comes in pre-weighed".

So, I said are you advertising cooked or raw weight? She didn't know. I asked her to bring a scale to our table and weigh it. She refused saying it would cause a disruption in the dining room. I said, I'd gladly accompany her into the kitchen. She said their insurance wouldn't cover any injuries I might suffer in the kitchen.

I knew right then, that they were going to beat me up if I didn't eat my little hockey puck swordfish. I refused to eat it. She came back to the table to remove our dishes and she gave me a $10 gift certificate for my next visit.

I was very kind at that point, and I left the gift certificate on the table as well as a tip for the poor waitress. I never went back. That restaurant is closed.

Customer Service, Customer Service, Customer Service.

I know this sounds mean, but I absolutely refuse to get robbed at a restaurant anymore.

 
Let me add just one more Experience.

You know how you get those egotistical chefs that don't believe you need salt or pepper, that the dish is perfect as it is served. I spent a ton of money taking my daughter our for her birthday and our filet migon with green peppercorn sauce was so salty we couldn't eat it. It tasted as though every chef in the kitchen added salt to it before it was served. I like salt. This was inedible. We returned the meal. They offered us dessert instead. That restaurant is closed now. The chef would not serve to our tastes. Mind you, this was in Northampton, Ma and there's a lot of competition there. He's probably washing dishes at the Blue Bonnet by now.

You, as the customer are right. If a chef gets all haughty because you don't like his food, then he should swallow his pride, get his butt back into the kitchen and make your $100 meal worthwhile.

 
Again, I'm with you!!

If I sit down and don't see salt and pepper on the table, it's the first thing I ask for, even before I order the food!


I'm very agreeable today, hey?

 
Dress codes are needed

at a local chain. As the hostess walked us to our table she was, as my mother would have said, "cracking a smile". I realize this is considered fashionable but there is no way I want to see it anywhere near my food.

To make matters worse she was wiping down the tables after the busboy would do his thing. She was climbing around the booth behind us, sticking it up in the air for all to see RIGHT BEHIND MY HEAD.

This cannot be sanitary.

I spoke the manager on duty and was told it was todays fashion. I left a comment on their website and received a phone call the next day to tell me that mine was not the only complaint and they assured me it wouldn't happen again as they do have a dress code and that her butt cleavage did not meet that code.

 
That's not the only place dress codes are needed. We went out about a month ago and the

wait person's top was soooooo low I was afraid she was going to fall out of it.
When I went to the hospital for my back 3 weeks ago the mid 20's, 200 pound plus female in reception had borrowed the top from the wait person, I think.
Entirely inappropriate. I was told that human resources says they can't tell a person how to dress if there are no uniform requirements.

WHY NOT?!

 
Bravo, Coll, that you were polite and you tipped the waitress. When I was a waiter,

if the cook screwed up and the manager didn't fix it, guess who got stiffed while the cook and the manager both got paid.

Any good restaurant should be willing to comp or replace a dish if the customer isn't happy with it. Period.

 
Last evening Hubby and I went to a very upscale restaurant in Ottawa. Wait staff was in a uniform:

handsome blue shirts and black slacks. Most diners wore"elegant casual" which fit the atmosphere of the place. As we were leaving a group of young people came in wearing what might be appropriate for the bowling alley or hockey game. Is it me or is a dress code needed for patrons as well as servers?

 
As a waiter, I'll bet you can appreciate this one. There was a time, way back of course, when new

restauarants were opening in the Caribbean, looking for regular resident customers. REsidents could buy a book of coupons. Let's say...2 meals for the price of one. This is an expensive island but wait staff get paid next-to-nothing because 'normally', tipping is huge.

So we go out with this couple that has one of these books. So let's say their meals each totalled 60 local dollars. At payment time, he plunks down his coupon, and his $60 plus tip on the $60 only. I actually knew the waitress as she worked in a dress shop I frequented, but I would have been so embarrassed anyway. I asked him if he was tipping only on the amount paid and not on the service provided. I don't know how I found a nice way to ask that but he did answer politely that this was just what he was doing. And the % he paid was lower than the minimum anyway.

I found a way to return to the table after our departure and leave a reasonable tip. Never went out with them again. This guy is a multi-millionaire, many times over. This just reminded me that when they came over for dinner, they brought a $3 bottle of undrinkable wine. I didn't even know such a thing existed there.

 
I commented to H last night when we were glancing at a food show. People were being treated

to a party that was being presented on national TV. Dressed in crappy blue jeans (I like blue jeans but these were disgusting), undershirts, sloppy sweat shirts.

I know I'm old and picky but I sure am noticing these 'standards' plummeting. To me, it just seems a reflection of a blase nature bordering on disrespect. I feel awkward if I am not dressed 'appropriately' in a restaurant where it is clear that the proprietor is attempting to maintain some standards.

 
As a former waitress...thankfully you left a tip. I can't tell you how many times I was stiffed

because of something that happened in the kitchen. When things go awry at the table, you have to work twice as hard because not only are you trying to get all the players to make things right (management, kitchen staff, etc.), but you still have other tables to attend to. Argh, this is bringing back waitressing nightmares, for sure!

 
GRRRRRRRRR. Whoever thought up 2 for 1 coupons should be shot. The guy you describe

is EXACTLY the type of customer they attract.

Thankfully, they never come back. They go wherever the next 2 for 1 offer is. So, what was the point?

It was nice of you to go back and fix the tip.

 
LOL! As a caterer, I can imagine why! Yowza. Imagine putting a wedding cake

in the back of an SUV, then driving up a steep hill (a la San Francisco). You arrive at the hotel, only to find that the beautiful cake has slid and now, due to the incline, is smashed up against the back window! You raise the door, and "SPLAT" goes the cake, right in the hotel's circle drive...as the valet asks for your car. The cake gets scraped off the window, driveway at fancy pants hotel gets hosed down....

Oh wait! That **really** did happen!!!!

Ugh...

 
Oh ya. I forgot. The real point was to get people to try restaurants they had never tried before.

This place was one that he and we (separately thank goodness) had frequented many times. Even if I had purchased the coupons I would never use them in that place.

It doesn't seem to matter how much money one has, it sure doesn't buy their good manners and generosity.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top