Todays question Monday 3-24-08 (best, famous, wife, kids)

[AksarbeN]

One several occasions my wife and I had to get the manager of the restaurant and show him the problems after which we polity left to eat elsewhere. These were a couple of big named restaurants that you wouldn’t expect to have issues with being dirty and unclean.

Also several times we have had to send food back because of poor cooking. Recently I found hair in cold slaw, and in the past I’ve seen cockroaches. Many restaurants have roaches and it’s something that comes with handling food items, although it can be controlled and shouldn’t happen where customers view these problems.

Normally we never make much of the issue and always try and be polite when discussing it however I remember one visit to a nice restaurant for breakfast and the “service” was so poor, so very poor that when I was paying the cashier I asked to speak with the manager. That when I told him how badly the service was and that although the waiter might be a very nice person who you’d enjoy their company you might not want to have them being a waiter. It’s the wrong occupation for him! He could be a good mechanic, painter, plumber, bricklayer or whatever ~ but the last type of work that he should be in was a waiter in a restaurant. I’d enjoy having him as a neighbor but I don’t want him waiting my table ever again. I’d never before told a manager how bad their employees were before that or after that.

[I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA]

I have no problem sending food back if it's not cooked correctly. I recently sent my stuff french toast back at IHOP because it was cold.

[kaykay]

Originally Posted by I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA

I have no problem sending food back if it's not cooked correctly. I recently sent my stuff french toast back at IHOP because it was cold.

Absolutely. We are not super picky, but my dh and I eat out a lot. If the food is not prepared correctly, we certainly do not have a problem sending it back. Particularly like--steak cooked waay underdone or overdone. Doesn't have to be perfect but should be somewhere in the ballpark of how you have ordered it.

Especially if the meal is extremely expensive...again such as with an expensive steak, it should at least be prepared close enough to how you ordered it that you can eat and enjoy it IMO.

[AksarbeN]

Would you eat at a restaurant after seeing the kitchen and who was preparing your meal?

I remember years ago when I was employed by a company to provide services that required me to enter all the areas of restaurants and businesses. While it was a job that I enjoyed there were times when I just hated some of the businesses and restaurants that I had to work in. I remember several restaurants that after seeing the back room and kitchen area I would never feed my dog there; and these were big named restaurants that you would have thought everything was ok.

If you ask the manager if you could visit their kitchen before ordering and he says “no” it would be a good idea to exit the front door and look for another location.

[Mrs. H]

Mornin' Karla!

Hmm...I hardly send food back. 99.9% of the time the food is just right. Now, my mother will send food back and really doesn't mind doing it because she says if she is paying for it, she expects it to be cooked correctly. LOL...I love her but get embarrassed if that happens. Oh well. It's not my food, right?

[tet tea]

This might sound a little weird ... but ... I go into the bathroom in some of the restaurants before I sit down. If it isn't clean I don't eat there. There's a fast food mexican place in town. One look in their potty and I was in the car and heading somewhere else!

[LaceyEx]

TetTea-dirty bathrooms a sure giveaway as to what the kitchen looks like.

[Roaddog]

Do you ever send food back at a restaurant?
I've only done it twice, a rotten lobster, they gladly replaced it and potato skins on a fresh salad with a tomato worm crawling on them got me a free dinner, all expences paid. Well there was one time I ordered a BBQ sandwich and it was beans on a bun with catsup poured over it, that time the cook told me if I didn't like it to leave, so I did. I don't send things back unless i just have to, I don't like spit

Extra credit: If you find a server that you really like at a restaurant you frequent, will you ask for them ?
Nope, we don't eat out enough to remember the server.

[kaykay]

Originally Posted by AksarbeN

Would you eat at a restaurant after seeing the kitchen and who was preparing your meal?

I remember years ago when I was employed by a company to provide services that required me to enter all the areas of restaurants and businesses. While it was a job that I enjoyed there were times when I just hated some of the businesses and restaurants that I had to work in. I remember several restaurants that after seeing the back room and kitchen area I would never feed my dog there; and these were big named restaurants that you would have thought everything was ok.

If you ask the manager if you could visit their kitchen before ordering and he says “no” it would be a good idea to exit the front door and look for another location.

LOL! I just try not to think about it. The irony is this -- I am personally extremely, extremely persnickety about cleanliness when I prepare food at home. I mean, extremely! But yet as I posted earlier, the dh and I eat out all the time. I figure if I saw what was happening in almost any commercial kitchen, I'd probably never eat out again!

[Rance]

No. If it's that bad I just get up and leave.