Restaurant Service...when to complain?

Parent Cafe
1

Today we had breakfast at a nicer restaurant. When son ordered, he specified, “no cheese”. When our food arrived, there was cheese on his eggs. Son mentioned the mistake and the server swooped up his dish and said it would be “very quickly” remade. She apologized for forgetting to indicate, No Cheese.

when this sort of thing has happened in the past, it kind of annoys me that they’ll take away that person’s entire plate of food. Doing this puts the rest of the group in an awkward situation…do we begin to eat? (Kind of rude)…do we wait? (and then our food gets cold)… Do we share? (which is a problem since much of our food has cheese on it).

I wish that in situations like this, the server would leave the dish so that the person can at least eat what is ok on his plate.

Anyway, the dish was quickly taken away with a promise of a QUICK return because making scrambled eggs should only take a couple of minutes. The restaurant was average busy…not very busy since it wasn’t peak breakfast time.

We waited and waited and waited. I was able to share my cheese-less dish with him, and my H literally finished his own meal. We saw the server come to the next table, but we couldn’t get her attention before she left it.

We waited and waited some more. Finally, another server walked by to go to the kitchen and I asked her to send a manager. All in all, we waited about 20 minutes.

The manager arrived with the missing meal. She apologized, and while I understand it wasn’t her fault, I told her that this was terrible because the rest of us were now finished, and those eggs should have been quickly recooked. And, I mentioned that the original food should have stayed on the table, and just the eggs remade because of how it affected the table.

Frankly, I don’t understand why a mistake isn’t given top priority in the kitchen since the rest of the table has been served.

The manager came back and comped the entire meal, which was more than what we expected. That was very generous, but I still don’t like how the whole thing went down.

Thoughts?

2

You were right to complain. Mistakes can happen but should have been dealt with promptly. The only silver lining was the comped meal which was warranted in this instance. At least the right thing was done in doing that. Sounds like the waitress was in the wrong - first in not indicating and remembering “no cheese” and second in not pushing for a very fast turnaround for the replacement dish.

3

I believe it was the right to do to take the whole plate away, but I do agree they should have rushed the order. This happened to us when my Jewish friend ordered a salad without bacon. When it came with bacon, my friend pointed it out to the server right away. It would have been awkward for the server to leave the original salad with bacon in front of my friend. In your case, your son could have been allergic to cheese (like my kid), so it was better to have removed it and make him a fresh plate.
It was nice of the manager to have comped you for the whole meal. They didn’t have to do that.

4

I agree that this was very annoying but I also think receiving the entire meal for free was a better remedy than many restaurant managers would have offered.

5

OP didn’t do this, but it is not good to complain about a dish after you have eaten most of it and then expect another plate. If you don’t like something it is better to say something in the beginning.

6

This kind of thing tends to happen to my younger daughter all of the time. It stinks because she already isn’t really a fan of eating out and then gets so annoyed that she just wants to have her uneaten food boxed and leave once it’s finally brought out.
I agree with you that a mistake made should bump the meal to be remade ahead of the other meals thatbhavent yet been started. It really annoys me when that doesn’t happen. Comping her meal makes my husband happy (since he got his food on time and is the one paying) but she doesn’t care and often never wants to return to those restaurants again.

7

I agree that the comping was very nice and not expected.

I agree that if there’s an allergy or a kosher issue, the entire plate is a concern, but at least ask the person if they want the entire plate removed…or not. Eating out is expensive and part of the enjoyment is eating together. Having this awkward situation just puts a pale on the experience.

I guess because this frequently happens (cheese appearing when told, “no cheese.”), that it’s just annoying that this one son’s food always seems to be taken away and remade.

Recently his pasta dish obviously had cheese on it (stringing when pasta lifted), but the server insisted that there wasn’t cheese on it…lol. The dish was remade, but again, the rest of us were put in an awkward position. We couldn’t share because all of our dishes had cheese.

As for kitchen remaking the dish and making that a priority, that seems to be an add’l problem. Certain dishes can’t be quickly remade, but today’s scrambled eggs would literally take 1-2 minutes since the grill is already hot, and they can spread out the eggs to quickly cook

I know that many servers love to take orders “by memory” and that seems to often be a common denominator for these mistake.

8

Taking the whole plate is the correct thing to do. The server would have no way of knowing if your S had an allergic reaction to cheese (or milk products) or just doesn’t like cheese and would prefer without. If the former, leaving the plate would force him to pick around anything that might have touched the cheese.

Of course. And the classy thing is for your son to say, “please, don’t wait for me, go ahead an enjoy your meal while its hot.”

This was the inexcusable part. Shoulda been a rush job moving to the front of the queue.

9

It sounds frustrating but mistakes happen. Comping the entire meal was a generous way to deal with the problem. At that point, I don’t know what more could have been done.

10

I do think the second order should,have been rushed.

But I also think it was right to take the whole plate away. I am allergic to scallops. I always indicate this. Occasionally a seafood something will appear in front of me that clearly has scallops. There is no way I would eat anything on the same plate with those scallops. Not worth risking an allergic reaction.

And I wouldn’t want the plate sitting in front of me either.

But I would expect that the replacement be done quickly. The restaurant did the right thing by coming your meal.

I hope you still tipped the waitress on the original price. Mistakes happen and the speed of the replacement was likely a kitchen issue.

11

Agree on both counts. Having worked in food service, we were trained that SOP was to remove the plate. SOP was also that any remakes get priority by the kitchen.

To be fair, the waitress could have entered “no cheese” on the kitchen ticket, but the cook made it wrong. If that were the case though, the waitress or expeditor should have caught it before it left the kitchen.

Well, that’s just common sense, but many guests did seem to lack that. :slight_smile:

Anyway, to the OP, you were right to complain, and the manager was right to comp the check.

12

" If that were,\ the case though, the waitress or expeditor should have caught it before it left the kitchen."
Exactly, @skieurope, so it is the waitress’ responsibility and fault for not catching it. Part of the job for a well-trained waitperson.

It also shouldn’t take 20 minutes for a manager to show up when asked for. The restaurant sounds like it has “front of house” issues at a minimum. I would have been out of my seat and looking for the manager well before those 20 minutes were up.

13

I agree, mistakes happen, but when they do, the fix should happen quickly and jump to the front of the line. I think comping the meal was appropriate especially if you waited for 20 minutes!

14

Next time stop them from taking the whole plate. We do it. “Could you leave it and just bring the new eggs to swap out so he can still eat something? We’re starving.” Something like that.

When things like this happen I realize I have already turned into my mother.

15

<<<
OP didn’t do this, but it is not good to complain about a dish after you have eaten most of it and then expect another plate.
<<<

Right…we didn’t do that, and have never done that.


[QUOTE=""]
any remakes get priority by the kitchen. <<<

[/QUOTE]

This seems to be the main problem. A remake of scrambled eggs is a 1-2 minute process.

the server admitted that she forgot to put in No Cheese in the POS system.

Again, I understand the allergy issue, but I think it would be nice if the server asked if the person wants the food removed…or not.

Of course, my son did tell the rest of the table to go ahead and eat.

16

“When things like this happen I realize I have already turned into my mother.”

Oftentimes, Mother does know best. :wink:

17

Did you leave a tip after the meal was comped? It may sound ridiculous, but I never know whether to still leave a small tip in those circumstances.

18

I eat out a lot, probably few times a week. I have to say I could count on one hand when my food didn’t come out the way I want it, and that includes on how I like my meat to be cooked. I am kind of surprised it happens to so many people. The incidence I mentioned where my friend got bacon in her salad was a rare occasion.

A more memorable one was when I sent a bottle of champion back because it didn’t taste right. It was at the Rainbow room and the waiter tried to argue with me. I asked the manager to taste it and he agreed. We also didn’t drink the whole bottle and asked for a new bottle. :slight_smile:

19

If the service was so bad that the manager comped the meal, I think a tip of 0 is warranted. I’ve only done that once in my life, but it was similar to OP’s episode.

20

On complaining after you’ve eaten half the plate:

What do you do when you’ve eaten a portion of a terrible dish and the waiter comes by and asks how everything is?

If you know the place, and know that it is anomaly, I feel it is best to let them know something is wrong with the dish.

At that point, they often insist on replacing it. I would never ask for a replacement at that point, but I would sometimes accept a replacement if most of the plate is inedible and the restaurant insists on providing a replacement.