Just wondering really . In the last 3 weeks I've had a meal with a hair in it which I removed and carried on eating . A steak that was more medium than rare that I just ate and another meal where the veg wasn't ever so hot that I ate . I am maybe a bit sympathetic towards restaurants having been a chef for 30+ years but it seems that some people are determined to have a bad time
Usually, I'll eat most things.
Mrs Dubs is allergic* to a few things, if they are on her plate then it goes back.
*not in that it causes her to swell up & die, but that it flares up excema
I once sent back a crab salad because the crab tasted odd. I'm struggling to think of another instance.
Steak is seldom cooked properly in 'normal' pubs/restaurants. I'd have a higher expectation at an independent establishment who claimed to specialise in steaks (I don't mean Beafeater!).
I used to work in a kitchen, would not send a dish back..collective hakalugi
In the last three months I've sent back some lamb that was grossly over-salted (a restaurant in Soller, Mallorca) and a steak that had been cooked on a griddle just after fish so stank and tasted of fish (Royal Hotel, Comrie).
I've no compunction about sending food back in proper restaurants although you have to be ready to tolerate worse in British pubs that serve up microwaved Brakes, 3663, Food Service and other frozen portions described as "home cooked".
If it's not what I ordered is the main reason but it also depends if work is paying and I'm just hungry.
My old boss was "allergic" to black pepper and would happily send anything back it got a little trying in the end, especially as it's basically in everything.
Not very much.
I can cook to a decent standard,so if I go out for a meal I expect things to be right.
I once mentioned a dirty fork and that escalated quickly
The issue with sending something back is you're already having a bad time - sending it back just means you are disappointed for longer. Even if people are genuinely contrite, being apologised to isn't fun either.
I'll leave it and/or not pay for it but I've known too many people who worked in kitchens to know better than to send anything back to be changed or replaced.
Hardly ever send stuff back, normally I'm eating with other people and I much prefer to eat together. Provided it's edible i just get on with it. But I do remember and bare it in mind if I'm booking somewhere next time. Last thing I sent back was some liver that was raw and cold in the middle 🤢
never.
the human body can deal with almost anything.
British pubs that serve up microwaved Brakes, 3663, Food Service and other frozen portions described as “home cooked”.
I stopped in a place outside Edinburgh a while back - one of those chain ye new-builde olde fashionede pubes built in a place where two ancient drovers routes conveniently converged on the corner of a retail park
They had two menus - one the regular menu, the other was a 'sale' of meals from last years menu
It would take something really really wrong for me to send something back.
Usually I just won’t go back to the place again or order the same thing again if giving them a second chance.
never.
the human body can deal with almost anything.
It's the processes it uses to deal with these things that are the interesting bit.
I went out to eat with a new acquaintance, the meal was crap, and at the end she said to the waiter (nicely but directly) "take the fish off the bill, it was minging". And they did!
If I believe there's a risk of poisoning (uncooked chicken once or twice).
Don't recall that I've ever been served anything cremated. That's easier for the kitchen to spot I guess.
Only done it a few times, can't remember the first few being so long ago.
Last instance was in Carluttios in Canary Wharf, once a fine scoffing establishment then it went through a really rough patch and I sent a couple of dishes back during that period of about 12mths.
1st was some pasta dish that the pasta hadn't even been cooked, honestly it was rubbery solid and blurgh..
2nd time was a pea/ham soup thing that had the corner of a plastic bag in it.
To be fair, the resulting complaint was dealt with very quickly and professionally.
I did once get snarky with one of the assistant managers who seemed dead against serving me and my wife, quite why she ignored us and pretty much flatly walked past us on plenty of occasions is beyond me.. I didn't sleep with her and forget to call the next day or anything like that.. Just two folks out for post work supper.. Anyway, I ended up at the bar at the far end of the restaurant ordering my food and wine, to the blushed barman and then some other waitress who was most apologetic..
collective hakalugi
They can only do that if they have some pre-packed frozen Collective Hakalugi in this months shipment- and then only if theres a button for that on the till. 🙂
I didn’t sleep with her and forget to call the next day or anything like that
What about your wife?
Usually if it's cold maybe give them the chance to heat it up, happened a few times. If it's dangerously under cooked i would send it back and not bother with anything else. We get more hacked off with waiting ages for staff to take an order, even for a pre-dinner drink, fairly likely to walk out if the service is that bad to start with.
Me and my mother sent back tepid soup last month - just needed putting back in the microwave for a bit longer.
Usually I say nothing and just never go back again. Then I tell all my friends the story (not in a mean way - just through general chit chat). Before you know it nobody in the village goes there anymore. It must be a stressful life owning a pub/cafe/restaurant when one false move can ruin your business.
You got to be really careful complaining and then eating.
Some #$^* in a French restaurant " poisoned" me with a seafood pizza after an argument. I was in agony for three days afterwards and vommitting up stomach bits.
Never complain and stay.
I once mentioned a dirty fork and that escalated quickly
😁
I once mentioned a dirty fork and that escalated quickly
I hope you kept quiet about the spoon!
I had a discussion which very nearly turned into a fight when an Aviemore takeaway owner served me a 'kebab' that you could only hope to eat with a soup spoon.
I hope you kept quiet about the spoon!
Knife.
Thats not a knife
I sent back the freshly made veggie burger that was still frozen solid inside, but went for the refund instead
We get more hacked off with waiting ages for staff to take an order, even for a pre-dinner drink, fairly likely to walk out if the service is that bad to start with.
^^ If it's just Mrs Taxi and myself I'll walk out if there's no drink within about 5mins or so. If they can't do that what else can't they do.
I have walked out for slow service or bad food but can only think of one time sending food back.
#logsbackinagain
Doesnt McDonnalds have a pledge “if you wait more than 5mins for your food, you get it for free”?
If that’s so, plenty of people ignorant to it..
And those self service order tills are shite and take twice as long as being served by a human.
As per TJ above - walked out for slow service, but never felt the need to complain about the food - a good few places I will never eat again nor recommend though. My MIL however has complained to the waiter/ waitress every single time we have gone out for dinner - and I mean every. single. ****ing time. Doesn't matter if it's a pub meal or Michelin stared...
Then get your chops around this! Accelerates up your nasal cavity and out of your eyeballs like a Mk24 at full chat!
EDIT - forum just shat itself but I'll leave it here anyway as it liven up a rubbish steak.
i usually eat it then tell them how shit it was. That'll show them!
Once didn't tip because of the ridiculously slow service and was followed outside where they complained at me for not tipping!
Doesnt McDonnalds have a pledge “if you wait more than 5mins for your food, you get it for free”?
Funnily enough McDonalds is the only place I've send food back recently
i usually eat it then tell them how shit it was. That’ll show them!
To quote Sir Henry Rawlinson 'That was inedible muck. And there wasn't enough of it.'
Oversalting. And I throw up when I eat horseradish. So I’ve sent back a million roast beef sandwiches over the years despite my careful requests.
I've never had to send a meal back - last family meal out, my sis-in-law sent something back for being undercooked (fish iirc). She was fussy as hell, works in catering, if that makes any difference.
Went out with a girlfriend's very rich family once long, long ago. Her grandfather sent fish back because it didn't [i]look[/i] properly filleted. Pretty sure he was just throwing his weight around because he was loaded. And an arse.
Like clothes, bikes, tools, cars, everything actually - if its not perfect it goes back, why waste money on sub standard items, you would do it everywhere else, why not in a restaurant too? Never have a replacement dish though, find another eaterie.
These folk who just eat substandard food and don't complain........how are establishmnts going to improve if you don't bring the poor service/meal to their attention?
Never have a replacement dish though, find another eaterie.
So a family of 12 sits down, all receive their meals and starting eating. One finds a hair in their salad, return it and all 12 get up a and leave? Yeah right. BITRW*
*back in the Real World
Working in the trade we generally always know what places are like when we dine out so it is very rare we get a meal bad enough to warrant sending back. This does of course mean we get to see it from the other side...
It must be a stressful life owning a pub/cafe/restaurant when one false move can ruin your business
We rarely respond to online reviews are they are mostly bollocks and obviously so to anyone with an ounce of intelligence, but we did respond to one woman who wrote us a scathing review a couple of months ago. She ordered a venison cottage pie and got upset because she didn't know what a cottage pie was and was expecting a traditional pastry pie.
We pointed out that she had not once written a positive review of our pub/food despite mentioning in her complaint that she had enjoyed dozens of meals at our establishment. She also didn't bother mentioning her concerns to us at the time, so there was little we could do.
She has since retracted her bad review and still comes in to eat. 😁
hakalugi
Never seen it, nor worked with anyone that would consider it. It would be instant dismissal so why bother? I think this only really happens in the movies...
Funnily enough McDonalds is the only place I’ve send food back recently
Should have left a scathing review on Chip Advisor
if it's not perfect it goes back
Taste is subjective so it is impossible to be perfect for everyone. For all we know you have a piss poor palate?
