Sending eggs back, really? I can see if you were paying $50 for a steak and it wasn’t cooked right, by all means send it back. But a breakfast meal? People make mistakes all the time. I might mention it, but eat it anyway, and decide whether or not, I want to frequent this place or whether there are other choices. But try not to make such a big deal out of a mistake on cheese on the eggs. I would think there are bigger problems that deserve complaint, not this.
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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.
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We actually tried that about 2 weeks ago when son’s French fries were stone cold. The server was about to take the whole plate away and was asked to just bring out new fries, she said, “I have to take the whole plate back to prove to the cooks.” OMG…I said, is that because y’all think your guests are liars?
We wouldn’t have minded if they wanted to put the cold fries on a plate and return just that for “proof”.
the problem is often only the “bad” item is remade…so when the plate comes out again, the rest of the plate is now cold.
I’m not even sure if doing it that way (only remaking the bad part) is correct for health standards.
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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.
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We still left a full tip…cash of course, since there wasn’t a bill to add it to. We know that servers make a low hourly wage, so withholding a tip can be too painful for the server.
I would expect them to provide an entire freshly made plate!
Well, in D1’s case, if she were to eat anything with cheese in it by mistake she would get bad stomach ache and would need to run to a bathroom. It is not making a big deal by asking them to make another plate of eggs. Why should she or OP’s son go hungry because they made a mistake.
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Sending eggs back, really? I can see if you were paying $50 for a steak and it wasn’t cooked right, by all means send it back. But a breakfast meal? People make mistakes all the time. I might mention it, but eat it anyway, and decide whether or not, I want to frequent this place or whether there are other choices. But try not to make such a big deal out of a mistake on cheese on the eggs. I would think there are bigger problems that deserve complaint, not this.
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What the heck?
Ok…my son isn’t allergic to cheese but he truly hates cheese. Hates it…and has hated it for a long time. Therefore he firmly always mentions, “NO cheese” on anything he orders since he’s long learned that sometimes cooks just sprinkle cheese on everything as a garnish.
Would YOU eat it if you were allergic? @preppedparent
My willingness to leave a tip and how much in such a situation would have a lot to do with how polite and apologetic the waitperson was.
@preppedparent I really disagree with your logic. Shouldn’t matter whether it is steaks or eggs. In fact, eggs are much easier for the restaurant to replace. The cost is very, very low vs. a steak. I think most restaurants would prefer eggs sent back than steaks. 
Different strokes for different folks. Take off the cheese. But I wouldn’t make a federal case over a low cost breakfast. Too much is being made of this. And yeh, I also eat out a few times a week. Mistakes are made, get over it.
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really disagree with your logic. Shouldn’t matter whether it is steaks or eggs. In fact, eggs are much easier for the restaurant to replace. The cost is very, very low vs. a steak. I think most restaurants would prefer eggs sent back than steaks
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Exactly! Remaking two scrambled eggs is probably less than a buck. Remaking a steak is probably 10+ times more cost and certainly more time.
And really, the problem is this happens soooo frequently (putting cheese on), that it’s just annoying. I love cheese, and I don’t mind when chefs throw it around like a garnish! However, I’ve got a kid who despises cheese. He thinks it stinks…even the milder ones.
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Take off the cheese.
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melted cheese is very difficult to remove. Family members often remove tomatoes or onions or lettuce or whatever…but melted cheese is difficult.
Anyway…the bigger issue was that the remake wasn’t given a kitchen priority.
Ideally the waitperson would be glancing over at your table periodically and notice your son had no food. She should swing by and apologize and check with the kitchen. Perhaps she could offer a muffin while he waited.
If the WP did none of that the tip would be reduced.
OP: Was this a chain or a local restaurant?
One of my children has a severe food allergy. I hate the idea of a WP remembering your order in their head.
@preppedparent Have you seen any of your lovely children fall into full anaphylactic shock? It is terrifying.
I tend to be the one whose restaurant meal is most often brought out wrong. “No cheese” seems to be very difficult for restaurants. I HATE when the restaurant remakes the part of the meal that was wrong, usually the meat/entree leaving me to eat side dishes first and have nothing but meat to eat at the end. If I wait for the corrected entree to arrive, the sides are cold.
thank you for tipping the server. Like I said…mistakes happen. The redo time might not have had anything to do,with the server.
Getting comped the check was because something went wrong. It wasn’t because the server was bad. For all we know, the server asked again and again where the eggs were.
Similar issue happened to us at DDs HS graduation dinner. I ordered a rare steak that came very well done. I immediately returned it. No really…I wanted RARE which should have taken very little time. My steak still wasn’t done when the rest of the family had finished eating. I asked them to remove it from my check…and cancel it in the kitchen.
They offered to comp us either drinks or dessert. No one had had anything but iced tea…and none of us wanted dessert.
We left the waitress the proper tip. It wasn’t her fault that the cook got it wrong…and then didn’t fix it.
Vote with your feet, @mom2collegekids . Just never go to,that place again. That’s what we choose to do…never returned to the steak place.
At least they comped your meals,
That’s a terrible experience, I’m sorry. Glad they comped the whole meal for all of you and let’s hope that someone learned a lesson or several someones. As for others proceeding to eat, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal especially being a family. After failing to get the attention of the waitress, I might have actually gotten up and tracked her down at that point.
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Sending eggs back, really? I can see if you were paying $50 for a steak and it wasn’t cooked right, by all means send it back. But a breakfast meal? People make mistakes all the time. I might mention it, but eat it anyway, and decide whether or not, I want to frequent this place or whether there are other choices. But try not to make such a big deal out of a mistake on cheese on the eggs. I would think there are bigger problems that deserve complaint, not this.
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I cannot stand cheese in my eggs. When I stayed at a hotel with a hot breakfast buffet and the eggs had cheese, I found something else to eat. But when I order eggs without cheese and they come with cheese, that’s a whole different ball game. I don’t care if it only cost a few dollars but I am not going to pay for food that I am not able to choke down, especially when I ordered them plain.
I had a fun one the other night when a waitress at a local diner scolded me. Twice. Long after the tables around us got their food even though the diners had arrived after us, we finally got our meal. She put a plate of chopped steak, not the top steak I’d ordered, in front of me. I told her I’d ordered the top steak and she said “No,you did not”. And got pretty huffy. I picked it up and moved it from in front of me to the side so she could put down my side dishes. And she scolded me for “throwing my food”. Um, no. I was being extremely careful not to let my temper control me and I very gently sat it down - even my jerk of a husband defended me on that one. SERIOUSLY, a waitress is going to scold a customer? I’ve worked in customer service jobs and the customer is always right even when they are being obnoxious.
Eventually I did get my steak but ended up taking it outside to feed the feral cat colony that lives in the parking lot of the diner because I assumed it was spit on or otherwise tainted.
And I DID leave the standard tip. I felt that would make more of a statement. She knew she didn’t deserve any tip but if I hadn’t left one she’d have justified her bad treatment of me by labeling me an A-hat. The tip spoke to my integrity, not her service.
But it will be a cold day in hell before I return to that diner.
A well run restaurant would want to know, @preppedparent. They want you to be a repeat customer. They don’t not want you to return over cheese on eggs. So, yes, for that reason alone, a professional restaurant manager would want a a guest to speak up. How will a restaurant know where their shortcomings are and how to fix them if nothing is said? Ask any restaurant manager if they would rather have the customer speak up (even for eggs!) or not return and worse badmouth the restaurant or post something on yelp or trip advisor. Restaurants can’t afford unhappy customers over less than $1 worth of ingredients.
It is very frustrating when there is a meal screw up. You were right to expect it to be given priority. Sometimes it just takes time. 20 mins was a bit excessive. It is awkward and I think most people just continue to eat.
It was nice that the manager comped the food for you.
I am glad it worked out financially. There is not too much of a take-a-way because it was out of your control. Not a whole lot you will change by getting mad. It is just one of those things. Mistakes will happen.
I’m old so I remember earlier times when one could expect some minimum of customer service.
preppedparent’s post interests me since it points out the obvious. These days we are just expected to take whatever we can get.
props to the restaurant for comping the meal
Now that the restaurant comped the meal, I think OP SHOULD go back (if the food was otherwise good). I feel that the comped check was the restaurant’s way of saying, “Give us another chance.” I hope she goes back and has a seamless experience.
I like my hot food hot so I send back food all the time. If it’s a side like fries, they usually don’t take my plate but bring another order of hot fries. I always tell the people I am eating with to please not wait - I don’t want their food to get cold!
I’ve been comped a few times on meals that have been just awful, the orders were screwed up, service just plain bad. if you don’t complain the restaurant management doesn’t know things are bad,
I usually tip because most times it’s not the servers fault.
I also never go back to a restaurant after one bad experience. No second chances.
OP did the right thing sending the eggs back and the manager did the right thing in comping the meal.
This happens to me all the time – I too stay away from cheese. I am not allergic but I get congested immediately after eating cheese so I avoid it. For me it depends on how much cheese arrives with the meal and how hard it might be to just push it aside. So for instance if it was a flatbread pizza I would send it back because I can’t get it off without ruining the dish. But if it’s just a light sprinkling of parmesan over some pasta, I’ll just scrape it off and keep the dish.
I am going to sound like my mother now, but I really think service in this country has seriously declined. Unless you are dining in a high end restaurant, service is often abysmal. I too feel horrible about not leaving a tip but I am getting to the point where I think I might change my mind about that to send a message. If you have terrible service and tip the normal 20% what incentive does the server have to do any better the next time? None.