Do people complain or send food back? I went to a restaurant with my girlfriend and parents tonight, a rare occurrence to get everyone together but we took advantage of the BH. My main was heavily over cooked, not to the point it was where i couldn’t eat it (i ate half the meal) but was poor. Then there was massive waits between courses, loads of stuff had ran out and when they brought the bill over it wasn’t clear whether theyd taken the dessert off theyd said they were going to for my poor main meal. I asked only to be told it had and that they were sorry that the bill wasn’t clear admitting it wasn’t obvious, making me seem like a dick. Now for four people the bill was nigh on £200, so not cheap and the staff or manager didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.

customer service in a restaurant isn’t rocket science, simply making sure your customers don’t have to wait an age, have empty plates removed in reasonable time and recognise when things don’t go well doesn’t seem too ask? Anyway, needless to say i wont be going back, sadly, i don’t think the establishment care.

Got two free deserts last night night after my poor main course, my wife’s was excellent and has been good on previous visits.
Main thing with complaining is being constructive in the criticism and not coming across as a dick IMO .

Yes, we complain. By the same token if we have received good service or the meal was exceptional, we will comment on that and tip well too.

Was out for lunch in one of my favourite pubs the other day. I went to the bar to pick another round and overheard a couple of Greys moaning about the food to the waiter/barman (lovely chap, btw)

“That was so disappointing” they said, as they handed over their totally empty plates! So bad you noshed it all down, eh? I’ve been eating and drinking in that pub for about twenty five years and never had anything other than plate cleaningly brilliant.

For me? If it’s not good enough, it gets sent back, politely.

If it’s clearly crap, yes, as your experience sounds. Shonky way of dealing with it as well.

However, I do hate it when folk I may be with (sorry, but always women!), seem determined to pick fault with any aspect of a meal or service. Poking stuff with a fork or commenting on too much/too little salt/seasoning/cooking time etc, as if they are some gastronomic genius.

When you eat out, it’s mainly for the experience someone to cook, serve and wash up for you, whilst enjoying time afforded, chatting with the company and complemented by food that is of a decent quality, and cooked as requested.

If you’re looking for culinary perfection, got to the Tyre-starred establishments!

Sorry, it does annoy me, that.

Yep, got to be pretty crap for me to say much, last night was a £12 pizza, that I left 3/4 of, soggy, tasted of nothing and had raw pepper chucked on top, £1 from lido would have been nicer 😉

As bearnecessities said, with two young kids most places we eat aren’t gastronomic palaces, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t expect decent service, and for meals to be cooked as specified – eg: asking for no olives on a pizza is a reasonable request and one that should make it through the order process from table to kitchen and back again. If you then pick the olives off to avoid making a fuss, no one learns, least of all my daughters who one day will need to know how to complain and make and take criticism in a constructive way.

Not sure about you lot but I would never send food back unless they cook it in front of me again otherwise I would not know if they have added some “extra personal ingredients” in the next dish.

Don’t tip and never go back again.

😐

I’m too English. Just pop the gristly bits in the napkin. I think it’s a hangover from school dinners in the 60s.

McDonnalds has the “throw it in a bin” option, I’d suggest this option is taken up by all restaurants, saves all the tosh you seem to get from staff running around like headless chickens asking you about 19seconds into your first mouthful “is everything alright for ya’s, is it ? Good ill bugger off then and hassle some other customer” 😆

Truly pisses me off that.

£200 for 4 is a lot of dosh , I think I would have had a bit to say if the meal and service was really bad .

I once took a yogurt with a fruit layer back in the cafe at work because they’d made the fruit purée with salt instead of sugar!

I worked as a Chef and was working at Walton Heath golf club which was pretty swanky and made a sweet trolley and everything had salt in it instead of suger . Can’t to this day understand how it happened as I tasted things as I made them and the meringue came up perfectly .

I once took a yogurt with a fruit layer back in the cafe at work because they’d made the fruit purée with salt instead of sugar!

Are you sure it was Yoghurt?

If food is truly awful I ask for it to be taken back to the kitchen.
I speak to the manager and if I get no joy I then leave the restaurant.
If they can’t make one decent meal how will the others be?
I make a note of telling the manager I’ll be posting on trip advisor telling people how shit the food was.

I once took a yogurt with a fruit layer back in the cafe at work because they’d made the fruit purée with salt

Are you sure it was Yoghurt?

Get you, Mr droll humour!

Ha ha

Worst ever was Caluccio’s in St. Albans. Waiting an age for the table. Took forever to take our order, no bread left at 20:30! Courses coming in a totally random order with an amazing range of temperatures. So bad that the manageress scrubbed the entire bill.

Utter garbage, would never go there again.

I never send food back. The son of a good friend was an assistant chef at the poshest restaurant in town. He assured us that if you send your steak back in that restaurant, the “best” place it will be before it arrives back at your table is the floor!!

I totally accept that the restaurant in question is the exception , rather than the rule, but I’ve never sent a meal back since hearing that tale. I simply don’t go back to restaurants which have bad service or poor food.

Having said all of that, I have very, very rarely had food so bad that I felt tempted to complain. And I travel with work 2-3 weeks a month and eat out almost every night.

We had a works meal – 30 people ish at an Italian in South Kensington.
The manager thought it was appropriate to cook and serve each choice of main course in order with 30 minute plus gaps between.

19:00 Starters
19:30 the pasta main
20:30 the fish main
21:00 the risotto main

I had the risotto 😕 It was a complete joke, but the manager made it OK by giving everyone a free glass of Limoncello 🙄

Conversely, there’s a restaurant in Aviemore which we must use 15+ times a year which is excellent. The food is good rather than 1st class, but the service is second to none and really makes the difference.

@Geoffj

Classic tactic to make a mint off your groups boozing. Matey saw you were a works do, and sloooooowed the food down.

@Geoffj

Classic tactic to make a mint off your groups boozing. Matey saw you were a works do, and sloooooowed the food down.

I’d really like to credit them with that level of cunning, but I think they were just under staffed/equipmented muppets!