Do you send food back at a restaraunt?

debsey

Thu, Jul 31 2014, 12:03 pm

heidi wrote:

I once watched someone return a $70 steak because it was slightly more well done than they liked. I think the chef or manager refused to let the poor waiter give them a replacement since it was a special cut, and they were giving him such a hard time no matter how many perks and free desserts he offered. I think the whole situation was more of a power struggle than a real issue with the taste of the food, and that's often what these situations are about.

I really take exception to that! If I order a $70 steak, it darn well better be cooked the way I specified. I like my meat so raw it's practically still breathing, and I would certainly send back such an expensive item if it was "slightly more well done" which to me equates to inedible.

The ONLY time I'd send something back is if I'm really treating myself to something SPECIAL (like a $70.00 steak) and it doesn't come the way I ordered it. I once ordered a dish in a Chinese restaurant (upscale one) and the waiter said it's "mildly spicy" and it was "burn the roof off your mouth spicy" and I sent it back. It was that or not eat. And "not eat" is just NOT an option for me.

allrgymama

Thu, Jul 31 2014, 1:11 pm

But what about those restaurants that have that stupid line about 'we are not responsible for the doneness of steaks' on the menu?

I mean, come on - that's what I'm paying you for. I'm paying you to know how long the steak has to be on a fire for in order to be rare/med rare/ med / well done

My husband has gone to restaurants and gotten medium rare that was utterly raw at the center and medium rare that was a well done carpet.

And the cost of having a food related business is that sometimes your chef will screw up and sometimes a server will screw up and sometimes you cut open a rotten avocado and sometimes the fridge breaks and all your food spoils and yeah, sometimes you have a pain in the neck customer. But you don't take that out on the customer.

watergirl

Thu, Jul 31 2014, 1:11 pm

Thanks all. I do send stuff back when DH will let me. He worries that someone will be fired on my account. He tells a story about the BESHT not complaining about inedible food because he did not want the new cook to be embarrassed, fired, whatever ( I cant remember the whole story right now). But lately, he agrees with me that if I order sushi and specify NO MAYO, which to me, renders the dish inedible, I am entitled to enjoy.

We were at a well known restaurant about 7 months ago, and I was really looking forward to going, its very well known and people rave about it. The food was so bad I was almost in tears (I was really hungry and SO disappointed). The worst part is that my step daughter is friends with the owners daughter, and she had been insisting we try it, and I knew she would ask how it was (they knew we were going). The dish they are known for was so gross, it came with whole wheat and the menu did not say it was whole wheat (why go out to eat and then get ww? Its normally a given that its white wheat unless requested), the pasta was cold and congealed, it goes on and on.

We sent it back and I told the guy "I feel like you guys didn't want to be opened tonight", he said "yeah, its pretty cold out", and he refunded all of our money with out a fight. DH asked a shailah about what we should tell DD, and he was told that its LH gamur and we cant comment about the restraint at all.

yOungM0mmy

Thu, Jul 31 2014, 1:55 pm

DH once got mouldy cheesecake - you bet we complained about that. And once I got a 'Ceasar salad' that was iceberg lettuce, drenched in sauce, with cheddar cheese cause they were out of parmesan. I sat there for 20 minutes, thinking, it's ok, I can eat it...but it's really not what I wanted, but how can I be such a brat... eventually the waitress noticed I was not happy and came over, and they made me something else.
But once we were in a restaurant and there was a guy yelling that he got vegetable cannelloni instead of vegetable lasagne, and insulting the waitress doesn't she know the difference, and all I could think of was, really? It's soft pasta, in a tomato sauce, with veg...so what if it's a different shape! So not a big deal worth making such a scene that the whole restaurant has to know.

Chayalle

Thu, Jul 31 2014, 2:05 pm

debsey wrote:

True story - though I have it thirdhand - a friend's sister was on a date and the boy told her that the trick to getting free food is eating 1/3 of your food, then sending it back because you're dissatisfied.....Needless to say, he didn't rate another date.

eewww......

Dating is the tip of the iceberg. I can't imagine anyone wanting to spend the rest of their life with someone like that.

amother

Thu, Jul 31 2014, 3:08 pm

I once went out to a restaurant with my husband and 3 other people. The main dish we all ordered had an ingredient missing that was listed on the menu (one of the main ingredients.) We complained and the waiter said he would bring along the thing that was missing. We waited a while then decided to start eating anyway. When we had finished we complained again that the waiter had not brought the missing item. He said we could have a free dessert, so brought us a spoon each.

He then turned up with a SINGLE portion of cheesecake which he expected us to all eat of the same plate! Oh, and it was stale and gross.

33055

Thu, Jul 31 2014, 9:38 pm

yOungM0mmy wrote:

I was in a restaurant and I ordered chow fun and was served lo mein. The waitress was insisting it was chow fun even after I showed her on goggle what chow fun was. She was nastily insisting that they call the lo mein noodle chow fun. I told her they can call it pizza but it is still lo mein. The size and shape of the noodle changes the taste of the dish. Our waitress would not return the dish. She was belligerent. I had to get management to bring something else. They brought sushi with ketchup. I was nauseous after that. Our waitress didn't bring plates and we had missing silverware. We had to all 3 times while the food was getting cold. I finally took the silverware off a nearby table and walked towards the back for plates. The worst was that management tacks on a mandatory 18% tip. This results in lousy service. IMO if she had to be nice for her tip, the dining experience world be better.

justforfun87

Thu, Jul 31 2014, 10:28 pm

I feel that as a customer if something is not delivered as expected, it should be sent back. I once went out to eat and had a friend order tempura. It came as vegetables fried in a disgusting cake batter, like a corn dog. The owner insisted he has been making his tempura like this for 20 years! I think it is wrong of these cheap kosher resteraunts to act like they are doing you a favor by serving you sub-par food. You have to beg for an exchange, forget about a refund. If a pizza is raw, it is sent back. If food is cold, sent back. If fries are not delivered for 40 minutes and all our food is finished, I request not to pay for it and send it back. I don't think it is right at all to take a bunch of bites and then send back. I am even hesitant to send back food that I just do not like but again if it does not meet decent standard then they should always take it back.

ElTam

Thu, Jul 31 2014, 10:48 pm

Quote:

The reason why restaurants have to have this line is because people order without knowing what they mean. Well done means a specific thing. Rare means a specific thing. If you order rare, and the steak comes out rare, but you wanted it "rarer" that's not the restaurant's fault. If you order it well done and it is well done, but it's not the specific version of well done you like that the waiter is supposed to psychically figure out and give over to the chef or line cook, it's still well done. Restaurants operate on very thin margins and most of them go out of business. Meat doneness is one of the biggest issues in restaurant business. Every steak that goes in the trash is profit going in the trash.

Yes, if your rare steak is brown all the way through, you should get a new steak. But someone who has waited tables, I can tell you, that is 1% of the time steaks get sent back. 99% of the time are people meaning something different than what they say or not knowing what the term they are using means.

ETA: Here's a good chart for what steak doneness means. http://www.topcut.com.au/Documents.asp?ID=68

egam

Fri, Aug 01 2014, 12:02 am

MaBelleVie wrote:

If you're that particular about the exact level of doneness you like your steak, you are obligated to make it very clear to your server EXACTLY how you like it. Otherwise it's just not fair to a chef who is told "rare" when you meant "bloody".

And as ElTam said you have to educate yourself to a correct terminology.

I did send back a souffle that was burned to a crisp one. But sometimes people send back food without a good reason. In one restaurant where my DS used to work somebody send a salad back complaining it was not salady enough Confused

. If anybody knows what it means, please enlighten me.

amother

Fri, Aug 01 2014, 2:32 am

I was once in a restaurant and realized there was a fly in my soup. I stopped eating it and would not have said anything but the boss was walking around and saw me not eating so she asked me why. So I told her sorry but there is a fly in the soup. And I said it very low so as not to cause a scene. She looks into the plate and says I don't see a fly. I show her and for a good 3 minutes she was trying to show me that it is a spice and not a fly. But it was very obviously a small fly. The wings were clearly visible. She was literally fighting me until I told her that I am in the food line too and these things happen. I had to tell her to graciously take my plate. And no. At that point I did not want a replacement.

Now another time we were in a restaurant in Israel. A group of 7. We ordered soups and mains. 3 people ordered salmon for mains. The others ordered whatever they wanted. So out comes one of the main dishes first. I ask the Waiter where the soups were so he said he is bringing this first. He claims we didn't tell him we wanted the soup first. So I told him that the way the world eats, it is usually the soup before the main. And he acted all nasty saying that now my main dish will be cold by the time we finish the soup.
Finally the soup comes. COLD. and I mean really cold. Like out of the refrigerator. So we had to send it back. Fine. Then we get served the main. And instead of salmon, we get tilapia. We tell him that we ordered salmon. He says oh but we made this already so try it. Well one person ended up keeping it but the other two wanted the salmon. So he said fine but it will take awhile until it is done. The attitude we got there was terrible. No I am sorry. The waiters kept on blaming everybody else.
So we decided against dessert and just went for the bill. And that is when I asked to speak to the boss. Cuz they charged us for 3 tilapia and 2 salmons. I complained to the boss who kept on apologizing.
I am not the type of person to complain. I would keep a dish unless it was unfresh or had something wrong with it. But that day was just way too much.
The service was so bad.

Dina_B613

Fri, Aug 01 2014, 3:14 am

OP - Not that this applies to you necessarily, but I think it's better to send the food back then to give a lousy tip and for the waiter not to know what THEY did wrong.

From watching all six seasons of Kitchen Nightmares, some of the time it's not the waiter's fault - he's just the one we see, while the chef is going 'there's nothing wrong with this - who says the center of the pizza should be cooked?!'