"My MIL however has complained to the waiter/ waitress every single time we have gone out for dinner – and I mean every. single. **** time. Doesn’t matter if it’s a pub meal or Michelin stared…"
My MIL is the same. So much so I refuse to go out with them anymore. Sitting through an often expensive meal waiting for the impending and uncomfortable complaint is not what I call a nice evening out.
Only after a query regarding meat free options when I was assured a salad ordered was such. The ensuing conversation/discussion about whether chicken is in fact "meat" was at least entertaining. 🙂
That sort of thing doesn't seem to happen much anymore though really.
Knife.
So it was, memory fades a little over 40 years.
Something has to be VERY wrong for me to send something back. If something is not to my taste, or just average, I'll usually just leave it (and tell them why, if they ask), and/or not go back. Complaining, no matter how polite, tends to spoil a lunch/dinner a bit. I can think of an exception - we went to a nice-ish place for an full English breakfast (not usually my thing to be honest), and explicitly (but, politely) told the waiter if mine came with bake beans on the plate, I would have to send it back. Back it went....and something else was ordered. I accept that not everyone is offended by baked beans as much as me, but this wasn't a greasy spoon, and it was a fairly simple instruction.
Regarding the reluctance to send something back in case something horrible happened to it in the kitchen. In my younger days I worked in restaurants owned by my family, and nothing like this would ever happen. No chance. Don't know about fast food or other chains.
As above, I know a few people that insist on complaining every time they go out to eat. The common denominator is that they are all as tight as a badger arse. The mere thought of paying for a meal fills them with such rage that they feel they must get their moneys worth by complaining as much as possible and making the staff feel like crap. That doesn't make for a great experience either.
’..... 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”.
A writer for a food industry mag told me some pub chains buy in ready cooked, vacuum packed steaks, and all they do is heat them in a microwave before sending them out - is that right?
I’ve eaten a different thing to what I’ve ordered on several occasions. The gentleman at the table behind me in a Chinese restaurant once went apeshit because his meal was wrong. I’d pretty much finished his meal by that point though.
Can’t recall ever sending something back or complaining. I’ll just never go back if it’s no good
Hair. Even at home, if I see a hair in food, I just can't continue. No idea why my reaction is so strong, but that's about the only thing that does me in.
A writer for a food industry mag told me some pub chains buy in ready cooked, vacuum packed steaks, and all they do is heat them in a microwave before sending them out – is that right?
I know some Greene King pubs buy in vac-packed steaks from South America, not heard of pre-cooked ones though. I've also heard of restaurants searing steaks to be microwaved later, but again I've never seen it. I'll ask my chef when I see him.
I'll send food back/complain if the experience is rubbish, if the food is arse or the wait is ridiculous.
I cook well, and host friends often. Can't be bothered with half arsed restaurant experiences.
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
I'd have done the same. In the latter two cases i would have told the waiting staff at the end that i was a bit disappointed with the meal. Unless it was a £7.50 roast dinner in a chain pub like the one i had last month, where tepid veg is what you'd expect anyway.
Generally I'm not inclined to send stuff back because I don't want to be sitting there with no food while everyone else is getting on with eating.
But earlier this year I bit down on a large chunk of glass in The Mayflower in Bristol, and did grumble a bit about that. Crunched it right between my molars (could have been a lot worse) and had a headache from it all night!
I sent a pot of colslaw back because it was fizzy. They are very apologetic, I said I wasn't bothered about another, the rest of the meal was great though. They gave me a voucher for a free coffee from their coffee shop. I wasnt particularly bothered about getting anything for free but thought that was a bit shit amd they could have given me a free beer if they were going to give me anything! Spose they new I probably wouldn't bother getting the coffee.
It would take a lot to provoke me into sending something back, much more likely to just write a poor review on tripadvisor and/or not return.
On the chinese meal thing, we once saw what looked like our order being served out to a neighbouring table. They complained, the food was rapidly taken back to the kitchen...and miraculously our order appeared a minute later. What really gave it away were the grains of rice mixed in with the dishes. We didn't go back there again. To be fair the other table hadn't really touched it, just served it out and then sat looking puzzled for a bit wondering what they had got. We did think about complaining but to be honest the food was edible and we just thought it was funny.
Komodo - you're not wrong to demand what you requested, but what's your problem with beans?
Nick - was the server not a native English speaker? There are a couple of languages where beef and meat are used interchangeably...
what’s your problem with beans?
They're nasty. Bean water is nasty.
I'm not particularly fussy and will just decide to avoid in future, though sometimes a point needs to be made (with minimal fuss and politely). If its just a bit cold or crap I'll put up with it.
I've sent back a bog standard burger twice as the chef thought it was trendy to serve it rare in the middle, it came back the second time medium rare so gave up at that point and got half the meal refunded.
My work has a yearly xmas curry, we frequent one of two curry houses and to be honest they can't cope with large groups and there is also 1 or 2 from 12 that end up ill the following day. I dodged my dicky tummy turn when my fish curry came out with chewy, transulcent and barely warm fish, wasn't risking anything else from the kitchen so carried on filling up with poppadoms and sampling everyone else's dishes 🙂 The boss then had the usual ruckus whilst we watched from outside as they'd doubled the illegible drinks bill as per usual, I think 2017 was the last time we'll bother with those two places!
And most recently a decent local pub served me completely the wrong dish, normally would have just got on with it but I was looking forward to what I had ordered, so I risked a very polite apology (on their behalf) and got the correct meal.
Overcooked spaghetti.
‘Lasagne’ that was three strips of pasta with tomato sauce and very little meat drowning in scalding cheese sauce.
‘55-day aged American Angus Beef’ steak ordered mid-rare; got a lump of burnt gristley fatty rubbish.
‘New’ potatoes that were overcooked old potatoes with some sort of herb on them.
Undercooked sauté potatoes.
‘Pie’ that was some sort of stew in a casserole dish with a topping of exploding flaky pastry floating on top.
I've never sent anything back and to be honest was more annoyed at one restaurant when the waitress decided on my behalf that the steak wasn't cooked correctly and took my meal off me before I could get a word in. Ruined the meal as I just had to sit watching my wife eat her meal alone before I did the same. Would have had a far nicer time eating a slightly overdone steak.
Tasteless breakfast eggs served with white sliced packet toasted ‘bread’ and ‘fresh’ orange juice straight out of a carton...
Have sent a steak back before to have it come back worse. Asked for a medium, it came cremated and rock hard, sent it back. The other one came back worse. I left without eating it , got my money back.
They’re nasty. Bean water is nasty.
Yeah, bean juice is utterly revolting. I know it doesn’t bother 99% of people. I can’t even look at it.
I haven't found anything yet.
I did take a pint back once. I feared it was going to kill me.
sent some peas back that were still frozen once, they said there was nothing wrong with them and didn't like the suggestion that they should eat them then. It was the resulting attitude that got me, we are the ones that should be angry being served uncooked food, not you to be for us to have the cheek to complain about substandard service.
Carluccios - fine scoffing? Haha. It's a chain, if you'd mentioned Neal Street Restaurant then maybe.
If I get to the point of wanting to send food back then I just say'Ican't eat this just make up the bill up to and not including this and I'll leave'. There is no way in hell that I'd send food back, I know enough people who work low wage catering jobs to not expect to be eating knob cheese and cockroach garnish when the food comes back out again.
Only thing I recall was some frozen desert type thing. Was frozen so hard when I stuck my spoon and and tried to excavate a chunk out of it the glass bowl broke. Woops.
Tried sending a mixed grill back at the pub near the station in Edale - manager got agressive and said he had heated it up like the packet says! So yes, there are places that serve vacuum packes steaks - in fact he said the whole thing came in a bag.
It was years ago, but certainly never went back and never will.
Have no probs sending food back. Or telling someone exactly how I want it. Even in Subway the other day, I asked if the could cut the bread with the old "u shaped gouge" way and the guy rather sheepishly passed me the bread and knife to do it myself.
I’ve sent back a bog standard burger twice as the chef thought it was trendy to serve it rare in the middle, it came back the second time medium rare so gave up at that point and got half the meal refunded.
Why did you want over-cooked beef? Chef was trying to do you a favour!🥩
Compiling a list of people never to go to dinner with.
sbob, The Man wants you to cook a burger all the way through - https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/burgers
Even though I like a bit of Steak Tartare, I wouldn't want a rare burger that I hadn't prepared myself, and so agree with rmacattack (which seems an apposite poster name for the comment).
Why did you want over-cooked beef? Chef was trying to do you a favour!🥩
My wife had one served to her at the local 'gastro' pub, the blood hit her in the face as she cut into it and soaked the bun through, we sent it back for it to come back burnt and dry as the Mojave. We left and haven't been back since. If you can't cook a burger you have no rights in a kitchen IMO.
I asked if the could cut the bread with the old “u shaped gouge” way and the guy rather sheepishly passed me the bread and knife to do it myself.
Thats not a bad idea! Would have saved sitting on a train for 4hours with southwest sauce smeared down my front.
I've sent back crunchy rice. "It's because its brown rice"
I sat in a nice farm shop cafe place drinking a coffee where two seperate people on two seperate tables ordered lattes then sent them back for being too milky. They were so loud and rude about it with one asking the waitress why she was stupid enough to serve it while she described exactly what a latte should be whilst describing something which was in no way a latte, i almost got involved. Thing about it was the coffees we got were very very good.
I get the impression some people go to restaurants so they can act like a medieval king (or queen) for an hour. It's very odd.
If you get bad food, just take a mental note to go somewhere else next time. If they ask how it was, by all means tell them, but if you want consistent quality, you're probably better off at McD's or KFC.
There was one time though. At Butlins. Probably around 1987. Complained that my sausage was hard... My mother just thought I was being a whingey little shit. So I banged it on the table and the thing just disintegrated, dry from the inside out. Must have been heated for at least a week. That went back.
Both my sisters complain about most meals. One is loaded, but 'love to eat in the likes of 'chain pubs', but when you go out to a proper restaurant, they send it back. Chain pub food is crap.
I don't go out for meals now with them as a family, as they usually moan about something - take them to an £9.99 for two meals place, they love it.
I like quality restaurants, and will usually find an 'on line' deal to make it a bit more affordable. Chain pubs are useful for a quick bite when out on the ale.
Only once sent a meal back recently, TBH it almost ruined the meal overall as it took too long for the meal to be 'cooked' - it had arrived stone cold, and I asked if it was supposed to be served cold, 'no' was the answer. I've rarely had to send stuff back.
Don't get me started on cremated steak - that's what my sisters do, order it well done, but if there is a slightest 'pink' in it, it's back. Oh they have no idea that steak is best pink.
Pretty sure he was just throwing his weight around because he was loaded. And an arse.
Candidate for that special sauce then.
We rarely eat out these days, it's often disappointing.
Don't think I've sent anything back though things have been taken off the bill, chuck in a bottle of wine, whatever, though that's usually serving mix-ups and always best when it's the restaurant's idea. You're out for a nice meal, not a battle of wills.
I have had to force a few things down mind. Had some sort of steak dish this summer in a French Basque village, where a poached for 10 secs (raw) quail's egg had been placed on cooling greasy fatty meat. This was a nice restaurant where we'd already eaten once and the food was great, and I did not want to force myself through an "is it really meant to be like this" conversation. It didn't want to go down, but down it went.
The Man wants you to cook a burger all the way through
What the man actually says is that overcooked burgers are for the weak and infirm:
That's why we advise that anyone who is more vulnerable to food poisoning should only ever eat burgers that are thoroughly cooked.
This applies to:
children
the elderly
pregnant women
people with a weakened immune system
Bring on the pink! Looks like I'll be having a venison burger for lunch with a celeriac remoulade and all the trimmings. Nom nom!
Admittedly we do tend to err on the side of caution with the cooking of our burgers in the pub, though our beef is of the finest quality and minced by us on site. I could even take you for a short walk and introduce you to the cows you'll be eating in the near future.
I did take a pint back once. I feared it was going to kill me.
I did this recently, turned out the replacements were 9% abv or suchlike without us noticing which made for a more enlightened evening 🙂
oh pints - end of the barrel, smells a bit odd - all the bleedin' time!
If I buy anything and it either isn't as advertised, faulty, or just plain rubbish, I always return it. That applies to food like any other consumer good. If somebody wants to charge me a premium for eating out rather than cooking at home then it had better be worth it. If they set themselves up as a restaurant then they should be able to serve decent food, cooked and served well. Otherwise why should I pay? I am not totally ruthless and will accept some variance, but if I ordered a 32 spoke wheel and it only turned up with 31 spokes, would that be 'OK', or not? Well, it broadly looks like a wheel, but it isn't what I ordered. Same goes for food.
TBH I don't really eat meals out very often, generally only when on holiday or for special occasions or for interest.
Consequently I tend not to be troubled by sending food back very often - mostly because either my expectations are so low that a sausage-inna-bun is fine, or they're being met or surpassed as its in a very good restaurant.
oh pints – end of the barrel, smells a bit odd – all the bleedin’ time!
No sensible barman or landlord would be offended by the return of a dodgy pint. It happens.
