Chrissy Teigan is a swimsuit model who LOVES food, she is also on Twitter and is hilarious so please follow her if you have Twitter. She recently started a blog called So Delushious ! and it is well worth a read. A while back she wrote this post about sending food back in restaurants.
I found it interesting that Chrissy and many of the commenters would rather put up with crappy food than send it back and get a new meal. As a waitress, I encourage people to send back food if there is genuinely something wrong with it. If it is over or under cooked. If it is different to what the menu stated. If you asked for no ‘A’ and it comes out with ‘A’. Or if it just generally badly made, soggy, tasteless, bitter etc. If you point out a genuine problem with a meal, most waitstaff will recognise it and will have no problem taking it back to the kitchen, good chefs don’t mind refiring food when they see they have made a mistake. Good chefs are passionate and would be embarrassed about sending out something bad. You can bet your new meal will be cooked to perfection.
Of course you must notice I said good chefs, I have worked with one chef in particular who thought he was the best chef on Earth and who would make an excuse every time a meal was sent back. It was never “his fault”, it was always “well you must have taken it to the wrong table” or “that’s not what the docket said” or “I went to school with that guy and he just hates me” <—-seriously. He was one of the worst chefs I have ever worked with both skill wise and personality wise. In saying that though he never did anything dirty or revolting to anyone’s food who complained and I have never worked with any chef who did exact any form of ‘revenge’ on customers. So I think horror stories like that are exaggerated and/or few and far between.
So genuine problem? Send it back. Do not, however, send a meal back if it is cooked properly but you don’t really like it. I mean, it is cooked exactly how it should be, there is nothing inherently wrong with it, it is just not to your taste. It is not our problem if you chose badly for your taste. It would be like me deciding I want to give brains a go, (I cannot stand brains, it freaks me out and I hate the texture) getting my meal, deciding I don’t like it, then asking for a free replacement. That is just silly, restaurants are not “try before you buy”.
If you do decide to send something back the most important thing is to not be a jerk about it. As I mentioned, wait staff and chefs are likely to be embarrassed and happy to fix any genuine problems. Being a jerk about it only makes things worse. Be clear about what the problem is and what you would like done about it. For example, “excuse me, I ordered my steak med-rare and this steak is medium, may I have a new one made? Thanks” or “hi, I my salad seems to be missing the dressing? May I please have some? Thanks” or “excuse me, I ordered my fish grilled but it came out battered, I am in a hurry and I don’t have time to wait for a new one so I will eat it but I don’t want to pay full price for this”. Three extremely reasonable complaints that should get the required result and will maintain friendly relations with the wait staff. Please please do not eat your entire meal and then complain because, well, you ate the evidence and it will come across as if you are just trying to get a free feed.
Happy dining!
Love Carrie xoxo xxxx
Do you send food back?
Have you worked in a venue that didn’t take send backs very professionally?
Put your stories in the comments!
Unfortunately the ‘revenge on your food’ cliché is deeply ingrained, i suspect it is why a lot of people wouldn’t send food back.
Comment by Steven McG — July 28, 2011 @ 7:09 pm |