Do you send food back in the restaurant?

In 50ish years, exactly once, for an actively unpleasant smelly piece of food. Otherwise I just pay and leave and don't go back.

Xpost And you dreamed of the barista who couldn't sleep at night, trying to find out how things went wrong.

How could I forget...her cream

someone out there who has sent food back 50+ times is reading this thread going hmph. hmph!

AS I DREAMED OF WALKING INTO TRAFFIC killed me a little

good story Neanderthal lol people are awful

The only other time I ever went food back was when I bit into my eggs and chomped down hard on a big piece of glass

omg. one time at a greek resto in queens a friend received a SCREW in her chowder and we all had a big laugh about it with the wait crew who were a lovely family and comped half our meal lol.

Just once, when the pizza crust was literally raw dough.

serve me a plate of steaming human shit garnished with maggots and anthrax and I will still smile at the waiter and say everything is fine, thank you

I only ever say anything if food is completely inedible (which I think has maybe only happened to me three or four times in my life). I don't send it back, I just ask for it to be taken off the bill. I've never had any pushback or argument on this.

answers going as expected id imagine

im broadly in line, have sent stuff back if wrong (based on a specific request made when ordering or not cooked) or flearidden etc, but never for a simple case of "this wouldnt be what id call tempura/spicy/whatever"

coffee order or anything i stand and wait for is different, get it right pls

i dont really believe cooks spit on a meal thats the result of a sendback but i don't believe food sent back is automatically a no-charge or discount. life is complicated.

big fan of "thanks very much everything was grand" wont be back

the only meal i can recall where i regret trying to eat it and saying nothing and paying for it was a fatty undercooked chop of bacon as described abive in a pricey happening place in Portland - to this day i feel i would have been entitled to sling it at the far wall and just raise an eyebrow demonstratively as it not only stuck, but climbed upwards towards the light source

I know my stepdad has had *something* done to his food, because my mum used to see the waiters peering through kitchen door laughing while he was eating. Not because of sendback, it was drunken rudeness usually. He would be outrageously rude and complain about everything, but they'd tolerate him to a point because if he'd had a good evening in the casino he'd be acting like a bigshot giving £20 tips to the waiters.

all fair enough

Misread that as used to see the waiters peeing through kitchen door

no, just peeing in the house wine I think!

Peeno Grigio

I have no problem with sending something back if there's something egregiously wrong with it, something like raw chicken, a large bug or other foreign object. I once found a short strip of heavy duty staples in my pizza at Blaze Pizza, and had no qualms with complaining about it.

What I've done most often is point out when the server/bartender got my order wrong or misheard me: fries instead of a salad. They often bring me a salad anyway.

I most recently sent back uncooked shrimp, which apparently scared a manager enough for her to personally apologize.

But otherwise it's been years.

Sometimes you *have* to complain - the meal as prepared is totally inedible or actively dangerous!

There is also the element of luck or fate in this - some of us just haven’t stumbled into as many (or any) awfully prepared meals.

yeah I'm highly unlikely to send stuff back too

sadly the thing is if the food's really shit not sending it back still leaves you with the waiter going "was there a problem with the meal?" and then you have to do the "oh no I just wasn't that hungry" spiel

i have worked the last two nights in the restaurant where i work and
* two ladies sent back their moscow mules because they tasted "weird". one replaced it with prosecco and the other asked for a West Bank (she meant Left Bank, one of our house cocktails) She loled nervously while i waited for her to stop.

* a child turned up her nose at the lemonade, asked for a rootbeer, received it. I forgot to take the lemonade off the check and the mom reminded me and said "it's ok, you don't have to take it off, but it's still on the bill" and I promptly took it off the bill because why bring it up if you don't want to have it removed?!?!

No complaints about the food because our food is good and the people who make it are consistent and professional some fucker who is making your food, they are not. (also please watch your words, these are real people and that is v rude!)

As for myself, i rarely eat in restaurants and the only time i remember sending something back is when there was a rock in the bruschetta. They comped our entire meal, which was unnecessary, but i did think they should know there was a rock in the food.

A Rock in the Bruchetta and Other Stories

Once I was traveling in Southwest China, a beautiful old city called Guilin. I as hungry, it was dinnertime, and every restaurant was packed except one which was suspiciously empty. I sat down to eat in it (first big mistake), ordered a dish with cooked meat and raw vegetables (second big mistake), which arrived immediately, lukewarm. I said "fuck it" and ate it anyway (third and final big mistake) and got the worst food poisoning (well, giardia) I've ever had, just constant cramping and expelling of liquids from both ends for three days until I could buy some antibiotics from a guy on the street on my first tentative venture outside the hostel.

xxp

my crude phrasing was not intended as a denigration of kitchen staff. I worked as Kitchen Porter before which is a combined dishwashing/dealing with kitchen deliveries/ cleaning role. Which kind of puts you at the bottom of the kitchen hierarchy! The way I see it is stressful work in a kitchen and it's still hard work even if you are making bad food and there could be a number of mitigating reasons the food isn't good which are beyond the kitchen staff's control. That's why I'd never send anything back unless it was raw meat or had broken glass in it, not because of the quality of the food.

I ate at Texas Roadhouse once, a real nightmare, do not recommend. We didn’t each much of our food because it wasn’t good. The manager randomly came over and asked how we were doing and we told her the food wasn’t that good but our server was amazing and a really kind person.

xp that is all great and thank you for the explanation although i had no way of knowing your intention when i read your post containing the phrase "some fucker who is making your food," and i got defensive of kitchen staff, who work hard and stand next to hot ovens to make food for hours on end, day after day

Yes, I send stuff back. Usually if it is something that's severely undercooked, still frozen in the middle, or includes non-edible items (rocks/glass/plastic). Probably the fussiest I get is if I get an over easy or poached egg and it comes completely cooked through. I really don't want a hardboiled egg on my eggs benedict.

I would never send something back if it is just not to my taste. That's a me problem.

Rarely but I will if something's not cooked or burnt or whatever. I mean, why wouldn't you?

"I don't like parsnips after all" vs "If I eat this raw meat I will die"

I have twice -- inedibly salty blackened redfish (the manager came out and loudly pass-agg apologized "but that's how blackened fish is supposed to be" and I said "no way, not that salty") and once with grouper that was still raw in the middle. I'm easygoing about most things but fish needs to be right.

a few years back a Brit tourist died of multiple blood clots from a severe reaction after eating raw chicken at a Greek buffet, it sounded like a horrible death as well. You don't mess about with raw chicken.

when I'm cooking chicken it's always overcooked, I wash my hands about 10 times and thoroughly wash the cutting board and knife for cross contamination risks. Raw chicken makes me queasy just looking at it.

never done this, i only would if i felt it was unsafe/inedible

one time I went to a cafe and got a completely raw piece of chicken on a bun, didn't want to make a fuss so I ate the whole thing. I did mention the fact it was a little underdone, he spit in my face and called me an asshole. I wiped it off and said "thank you sir." Ended up in the hospital with salmonella, when I got out I started a GoFundMe to help pay for the server's daughter's college education.

I will bring things up if they are really wrong but am always very apologetic about it. Like, "hey, sorry to mention this, but just thought you should know your toast is moldy."

A coffee shop I used to go to had a sign up saying something to the effect of, "___% of customers never complain about their food, they just never go to the place again. Please let us know if something's wrong so we have a chance to fix it," and so I think of that sometimes and try to balance it out with not wanting to be someone who complains. (That cafe had consistently terrible coffee, though, and I never asked them to remake it, but I also never drank it. I was there for the ambience and the couches.)

Once I was out at a restaurant in New York with my dad and uncle and ordered spinach ravioli and was brought lobster ravioli. I brought it up to the server only because I didn't want us to be charged for the lobster which was more expensive, and he was horrified and fell over himself apologizing in a way that puzzled me until I looked around at my table and realized how very Jewish we all looked.

lol ums

re: moldy stuff, I went to a gas station convenience store and got a sub because I was on my way to a tailgate and only had 5 minutes to grab anything.

I ripped off the paper and saw not only was the ham moldy, it wasn't even like a little bit....the ham was basically blue from top to bottom. almost threw up.

didn't go back to get my money back, cos I didn't have time. grossest thing I ever saw. I did email them though to warn them because I figured that wasn't the only moldy sandwich out there on the shelf.

when I was on the other side, as a waiter, the thing that annoyed me were guests who didn't know the temperatures of steak at all.

like how frequently people would order medium rare then make me take it back to get the 'pink' out of it.

Neanderthal- I have had the convenience store experience you describe, but with a breakfast sandwich. As someone who has a huge problem with mold I his was a dramatic thing though I didn’t throw up. Of course I didn’t open it up until I was back in whatever hotel, and wound up just throwing it away and looking for food elsewhere. Another lesson learned.

My experience of mold was at a quayside coffee shop in Exeter. I sat outside and ordered coffee with cream and a plate of toast with butter and jam, and was very pleased at being able to order something so simple and eat it by the water. The bread was moldy and the half and half had gone bad, so the entire meal was spoiled. I let them know but they didn't seem particularly concerned, probably because they knew I was a tourist who wouldn't be back anyway.

Back when I was a corporate whore and not a social worker I had a very bougie dinner at Gramercy Park Tavern (high end NYC place) and as I enjoyed my very delicious salad I encountered the teeny tiniest green inchworm, it was kind of charming as opposed to yuck! Spouse and I were admiring it and the server noticed, came over, and was completely appalled and apologetic, whisked it away and had another in front me in like 30 seconds. I was just impressed that the greens were so fresh that a wee inchworm was still living its best life in there. I would have finished it no problem, I'd just leave behind the little inchy and his home.

Similarly I was a high-end restaurant in Paris (dining is a favorite vacation activity, sorry not sorry) and needed a refill of my sparkling water. The bottle was right next to the table in a silver chiller thing on a stand, right at my arm. I picked it up to pour some more water, was spotted by the server; I really think he almost had a heart attack and literally RAN to take over the pouring. I think it ruined his day, so distressed was he that a guest was in a position to have to embark on the terribly onerous task of pouring H20 into her glass.

im gonna just check, paris france you say this was in the paris in france, that paris?

wait staff in paris france not what id have called famous for concern over guest welfare is the thing

i hear the high end in that paris is in nosebleed inducing territory, so maybe not so hard to believe in this instance

My wife and I just celebrated a milestone anniversary and we went to a steakhouse and her cut came out a bit more gristly/tendony at medium-rare than one would expect for a restaurant of that caliber so when the server came by to ask how everything was my wife mentioned it and showed the server how much effort she was making into getting through the steak and she apologized without hesitation and brought out another cut that was much better... she was happy to do it and we didn't feel guilty or anything. We don't eat out nearly as much as we used to so that's my immediate baseline.

Done it many times with corked wine and the somm is always on hand to verify and it's purely transactional, ime the employees don't have an emotional stake in the ops, it's a mere process.

agree with all of that, like calm down they can handle it

We had a long wait at a really popular breakfast place recently. When the food came out, mine was cold. Not lukewarm, but cold. It had obviously been finished first and sat there waiting. Under the circumstances, I did ask for it to be heated. To their credit, the staff were really apologetic and not only heated it, but took it off the bill. I almost felt like an asshole, but I would have felt worse if I hadn’t said anything.

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-prole-info-abolish-restaurants

wait staff in paris france not what id have called famous for concern over guest welfare is the thing

One time I was eating foie gras and I bit down and was alarmed to find a piece of Philip Glass

did it repeat on you?

boom

The rest is silence

Oh shit that might be a pun I had missed (because literally, in music, a rest is, in fact, silence)

😂😂

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