Bad restaurant experiences

MrGonzo05

Wait, I thought america was supposed to have great service?

That's right. It's great. WITH NO EXCEPTIONS.

snazzyjazzy21

Wait, I thought america was supposed to have great service?

That's right. It's great. WITH NO EXCEPTIONS.

Are you telling me my whole life has been a lie? I feel so betrayed...

Tiffa0909

Unfortunately for me , a lot of servers believe in stereotyping so that translate into them giving bad service because their preconceive notions of who is going to tip and who is not going to tip. So they cheat themselves out of tips for their attitude.

I always tip even if the service was bad , but now I know that some states have laws that stipulate that if the server does not at least make federal minimum wage on tips the owner has to pay the server the difference. So next time the server is extremely rude , I'm going to reconsider my stance in always tipping .

jimshine

I tip fair, and frequently overtip and frequent the same dozen places. 9 times out of 10 the server knows me, or another server gives them a heads up. I get great service everywhere I go.

Another thing I do that saves me some money. I always figure a tip is 20% as a base, and usually add to that. Inform the server after you eat, before the bill you would like to know if there are any specials. If there are, you will split the savings and add it to their tip. They usually find some way to cut some bucks off the bill. Give them 20% and add half of the savings,. You still spent less than normal and they will bust their *kitten* to take care of you. Especially if there is something in it for them.

taso42

Lots of places put Margherita Pizza on their menu, but when they bring it out, it's obvious that they have no idea what that means.

teresamwhite

**I DO THIS** for my In-Home Fine Dining events!

I have a remote doorbell button, and the chime part plugs in, in the kitchen. I put the remote under the host's plate, and tell him that "I want to give them their privacy" during the meal.

That's code for "i'm going to stay in the kitchen, and finish cooking or cleaning, until you call me, so I don't have to keep checking up on you every 5 minutes."

The first time they ring the doorbell, everything's silent, followed by a big laugh when they hear the DING... but after that, it's no big deal. EVERYONE says that they wish they did something like that in a restaurant!

That's brilliant! I usually just peek around the corner, but I like this much better. (I did have one couple with a tiny silver bell...it was nice not having to keep checking, but on the other hand it was a bit 1800's for my taste...the doorbell has a bit more humor to it, espcially if I can find one with an amusing ringtone!)

And I agree with another post above me (somewhere)...I actually appreciate it when someone brings subpar food or service to my attention. I can't fix it if I don't know what is going on. I would rather try to fix it on the spot (when the employee in question is on the premises) than try to unravel an online review after the fact and figure out who was serving, who was cooking, who else was on the schedule, etc.

ihammen

My husband and I go out to eat a lot. One place we don't go to anymore is Texas Roadhouse. We could never get our starter together. I would always order the chili, and my husband the salad. Sometimes there would be a 20 minute difference there, so one of us was always watching the othere eat. The final straw was the last time we went, and I ordered a margarita on the rocks. The first one was so light it was almost clear, and had no taste. When I told the waitress, she brought me another that was almost the same way, maybe a little more color. When she asked how it was, I told her the same. Her reply: Maybe you've built up a tolerance to them". It's not like I drink margaritas on a nightly basis or that I'm an alcoholic.

JenAndSome

I went to an Waffle House in South Carolina with my grandmother one time and we sat there for 15 minutes without a single person coming up to us to take our order. It was pretty obvious we weren't welcome so we left. It was pretty awkward.

Other than that the worst dining experience I've had was at a Chinese Buffet when I got back to my table and saw the lady who went through just before me outside vomiting right in front of the window. :sick:

smantha32

I went to an Waffle House in South Carolina with my grandmother one time and we sat there for 15 minutes without a single person coming up to us to take our order. It was pretty obvious we weren't welcome so we left. It was pretty awkward.

Other than that the worst dining experience I've had was at a Chinese Buffet when I got back to my table and saw the lady who went through just before me outside vomiting right in front of the window. :sick:

Here in Dallas, Waffle House is really really low end. I wouldn't be surprised by bad service. But that Chinese Buffet thing is just scary.

anemoneprose

Oh, jeez...This is EXACTLY what I tell my staff: one satisfied guest might tell another person or two, but a dissatisfied one will tell at least ten...and in the world of easy-access social media, those ten turn into the world.

As a food service professional, I am sorry so many of you have had bad experiences, and I have to say there are a great many who DO take a great deal of pride in what they have chosen to do for a living. But, most people think food service is an easy way to earn a paycheck and they do it to collect a check and not much more. I feel food service professionals need to really have a desire to serve the public, otherwise they aren't going to make it, and we are going to have a problem in the future with a guest.

I bartend during Derby season, and we have a lot of parties and galas during those three weeks. We host celebrities, internationals, and locals...I am in my late-ish 30s, and my well-mate is about the same age. At the end of one night, we made more in tips than some really cute early 20s chicks. We overheard them demanding to know why we "fat, old, b****es" got more than they did. We never once asked for or mentioned tips with the guests...and we flirted with everyone...men, women, old, young...(not sexually, but compliments on their clothing or eyes, or choice of date...and with a couple ALWAYS flirt with the girl! The guy will look at her with new appreciation and the tips get bigger as a result). They only flirted with the young, rich and good looking.

I bet you're amazing at your job

Wld be great if you taught those greek dudes how to give a darn. I think they'd have been just as happy being crappy mechanics. Probably just had a grandfather luck into the property and went with it because they were too lazy to figure something else out.

fyi, i did still tip, bc no it wasn't the server's fault and they've gotta live in a cold world too. HOWEVER I will never ever ever ever go there again, because my money = my life and time, too.

lback89

I know this is an old topic, but after last night I had to throw my two cents in.

Last night we went to a popular Mexican restaurant in our town. After waiting over 15 minutes for out waiter to stop chatting in the doorway to his co-workers and come over we were finally able to order drinks. Everything was fine until my entrée arrived. I found a half cooked cockroach/grasshopper looking bug on my plate after eating about a third of the meal. I called the waiter over (after several minutes of him being MIA) and when I told him that there was a bug in my food, he mumbled.....oh ok....and took my plate away. I watched him scrape it into the trash and head into the kitchen. At this point, I was not hungry anymore. Without asking, he brought me out an entire new entrée. I told him I wasn't interested in more of their food. I wasn't looking to get anything for free, but I sure didn't want more of it! He finally did take my entrée off but never apologized or said anything else. He just wandered away and ignored us until we left. He got no tip. Typically we tip at least 20%, but he earned 0% for sure.

Also, a few weeks ago we went to a Chinese buffet. As I was finishing with my food, I broke open a cream puff and found it to be COMPLETELY full of mold inside. Once again, when I showed it to our waitress she immediately threw it away and offered no explanation or apology. We paid full price for our food. It kind of freaked me out that there was mold..... I hope I didn't eat much, if any.

BDC44

I'm still recovering from food poisoning this weekend. We went to Charleston's in AZ. I had their "pot roast special". Oh, it was special all right!

This was Sunday afternoon. By 3:00 a.m. Monday morning I was "visiting the restroom" on a regular basis and this lasted for two days. :sick: I'm still getting back to eating normal.

I know it was the pot roast because that was my last meal of the day and I had given my dad the last couple bites of my meal and he had one small bout on Monday. Thankfully his illness was very brief.

I reported them to the health department.

Keepcalmanddontblink

My husband and I rarely eat at restaurants, because we usually can't afford it. When we have, we've only had maybe 1 or two weird/bad experiences. I think we mostly have good experiences due to being super friendly to the wait staff and to our waitress/waiter. We make small talk with them, ask them about their day, and thank them for just about everything they do, even if they are just re-filling our water glass or bringing us food.

Despite that, the one bad experience we had was at a Denny's near our home. We ordered drinks and my stepdaughter ordered a hot chocolate. When we got our drinks, hers was actually a cappuccino and she refused to drink it since she HATES anything coffee flavored. The waitress ARGUED with us that it wasn't anything other than hot chocolate, even though we had both tasted it and confirmed it was in fact not cocoa. My husband put his foot down and said she would either get his daughter another cup of cocoa, or he would speak to the manager. She did what he asked and the rest of the meal was fine till we got our bill.

That woman had the nerve to charge us for the cappuccino on top of the hot chocolate!! We had to argue with her again to remove the charge and than speak to the manager, who didn't seem to care, before it was removed from our bill. We did leave a tip, but left it at 15% rather than 20+ that we usually try to leave.

Sadly we went back and had subpar food with a really nice waitress who seemed to be waiting on the entire dining area. Our bill was over $50 and we realized we could have gone to Olive Garden for less and had better food. We tipped her about 30% cause she really tried, and have never been back.

JTick

I used to work in a restaurant, so I am very tolerant when it comes to them being busy, our food being unusually slow, etc. I know what can go on behind the scenes. As long as the server is friendly, the rest I can deal with.

But when I get a bad server, my tolerance goes right out the window. I sat at a table one time with a friend, and our drinks had been empty for 15 minutes (not exaggerating) while the server stood at the table directly behind us chatting with her friends. I ended up flagging a manager to get our drinks refilled, and he ended up comping our meals.

I always tip. A really bad server who gave me an awful experience will still get 15%. A really great server? I'll tip 50%, but usually 100% if my bill was less than 20-ish dollars. I don't go to super expensive restaurants, so it's not like I'm tipping out $100. :laugh:

ECA67

I had aluminum foil blended up in my smoothie at Applebee's.

JTick

I had aluminum foil blended up in my smoothie at Applebee's.

This reminds me of the time my dad found glass in his bowl of pudding.

k8blujay2

Worst experience was at a sea food themed resturant in the Boston area (I can't remember the name as it wasn't Red Lobster or Legal's or anything like that)... we were seated our waitress got our drinks and then pretty much ignored us for the rest of the time we were there... what was she doing? Talking to her friends up by the waitress station... Needless to say, the busboy got her tip simply because he got the manager so we could get our check and pay...

salembambi

meat or dairy or eggs in my meal when specifically told I am vegan and do not eat those things

so disgusting & why I pretty much refuse to go to a non vegan restaurant unless they have a clear large vegan section on the menu

madhatter2013

I'm nt a wat and see kid of person. If I go somewhere to eat, I demand greawt service and food. I don't flat out say anything, though. I know this isn't the most polite way to tip but I will lay a stack of 5 ones on the inside of the table, out of the servers reach, but just so they can see it. As the meal progresses, I either add remove bills depending on the service. I know it seems like a crappy way to do things but I don't get bead service anywhere because of it. Some servers feel that most people won't tips anyway so why take pride and do a good job? I make sure they KNOW that they will get a good tip if their service is good. It works every time and I haven't had to make a scene or complain in quite some time.

headofphat

So I went to a restaurant today and had a really good time. The food was great and the waitress was nice. So i put a nice tip on the table in cash, and went up front to pay the bill on my card. I filled my paper out and drew a line threw the area for the tip and started to walk away when the waitress who had waited our table says to me "Did you want to leave a tip on your card?" When I told her no, she just gave me this mouth gaping dirty look to which I replied "Your going to feel like a real butt head when you find your tip on the table."

anyone else had a bad restaurant?

I would have walked over and removed the tip from the table.

BlueBombers

Probably the time I went to an expensive Italian restaurant and I was 90% finished my dinner when I noticed a very long blond hair tightly wrapped around my tiger shrimp. I am a brunette so I know it wasn't mine. I don't get easily grossed but this sure did :sick:

jasonmh630

When I got the bill they had already taken out an 18% tip and left a slot that said "extra tip." Needless to say I left it blank.

Probably shouldn't have left it blank and instead put SOMETHING there lol... I know of people who have left it blank, then their statement showed an amount that was MUCH higher than the actual bill. Some waiters and waitresses look for an empty tip spot so they can write something in.

LeahBelcastro

This is one of my biggest pet peeves! I really hate bad service when I am going out to eat. It seems to follow my best friend and I around wherever we go. I’m not sure if it is because we are younger looking and the think our generation are all jerks. However I think the worst service I have received happened last week.
We were unsure of what we wanted to eat that night and somehow we ended up at an outback steak house. We walked in and got sat down immediately, which was the only nice thing that happened that night. After being sat we waited for 10 minutes which multiple waiters walked by and didn’t acknowledge our existence. It reached a point where I was about to get up to leave. When the waiter finally showed up he asked if we wanted drinks where my best friend proceeded to tell him we had sat for 10 minutes and were ready to order. After placing our order it took him another 5 min to bring 2 glasses of WATER! He then said I’m going to run and get you some fresh bread I will be right back…. Another 5 min later he comes by with cold bread and then is followed no less than a min later with our food… It wasn’t even hot and my steak was RAW after I had ordered it medium… I could go on and on about how everything else was undercooked but that is another story. After eating not even half of my meal we sat and waited and waited trying to flag someone down to get boxes. We were completely ignored by the staff. Finally when he came back around I got my tiny box and the bill. By this time I am fuming and I can’t stand to sit there a minute longer. Thank god I had cash that night… I counted out exact change and left. No tip for you….

I have no problem leaving you a good tip if I get good service. If the food is good but the service is horrible I will leave you a couple of bucks. Don’t expect a tip from me if you aren’t going to do your job. You are in the service industry. You know what is to be expected of you and your job… I don’t get a tip for doing lousy work so why should you?

headofphat

My girlfriend and I go to Salem every year for Halloween and we make it a point to visit new restaurants in the area while we are there. I am a foodie and a chef and tend to love trying new things / seeing new ideas. I usually am never over critical unless someone swears theirs is the best, or I really psyche myself up for it.

I'll paste the reviews I left on the sites following the description of the 43 Church Burger, which was promoted on Ghost Adventures on Travel Channel. The other thing that was a huge issue was trying to find what was supposed to be a staple in Mass - New England Clam Chowder. I would go the entire day not eating in hopes of filling up on an amazing binge of the NE Clam Chowder, only to find it water, bland, scorched, or tasting nothing like clams. Spent over $60 on clam chowder that weekend, and the best one I had was at Chili's, possibly because it came from a can - so disappointing lol.

The 43 Church place has since closed - they had a burger that was described as grilled angus with thick cut peppercorn bacon topped with melted gorgonzola on a pretzel bun with side of shoe string potatoes. I ordered it medium rare and it came out charred black on the outside, and cooked to temperature in the middle. This wouldn't have been an issue except aside from the burger, everything else was lukewarm / cold at best and the burger was unseasoned (this baffles me). It would not have been an issue except the burger was $24!!!! They also did some weird attempt at a take on tuna tar tar, making it with sliced raw apples in it....which did not make sense / taste good at all lol.

Other place we went to had this AMAZING pumpkin seasonal beer that they would put this caramel / pumpkin glaze on the rim of the rim of the glass and dip it in pumpkin spice / brown sugar (AWESOME)

Downside was it took over 30 minutes before we even got a beer, waited 20 minutes to get menus, 15 for nachos that were cold, and had no cheese on them except on the top layer. I dealt with it, annoyed as I had been waiting so long already. Went to ask for another beer, because it was so good. But I then realized that they had stuck the check under the nachos so we were closed out already. I said screw it, paid the check, 10% and left.

Why would you ever tip anything for pure *kitten* service. This is the reason why waiters/waitresses feel they are entitled because no matter what they do they get a tip. It's retarded people.

If your child came up to yo uand punched you in the nose for no reason would you take him out for ice cream or punish him?

You deserve crappy service if you are just going to perpetuate it by tipping.

stevemcgurkin

Went on a date, picked out an italian place that had great (*cough* astroturfed by employees *cough*) reviews. Now, I'm 1/2 italian, grew up with that cooking. So, ya damn skippy I got expectations.

Anywho, date was going well enough, and we were waiting on our food. I kept noticing that the cooks were never really cooking anything for a while... and we were one of 2 other tables there with patrons. So, after about 20 minutes of waiting and never seeing our server, I strolled over to the kitchen to find out wtf was going on.

I see our food cooking, no cooks anywhere to be seen. Didn't think much, so I strolled back to the table and the food arrived about 10 minutes later. No refills on drinks yet, no refills on bread.. just nothing.

I had fettucine alfredo, she penne pasta with your average marinara. Both meals, 85% noodles, 10% sauce, 5% tears of a thousand chefs. NO GARLIC. NO SALT. NO PEPPER. NO PARMESAN.

Got the check the next time our forever missing server appeared, and left a tip on the receipt that stated "Please stop serving food to the public".