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I send it back if it is inedible. Inedible to me can be putting mayo on my sandwich when I asked for no mayo. I am repulsed by mayo. I'm very careful when ordering to make sure what comes on the sandwich and order it the way I like it. If it comes out different than I ordered it, I send it back. I usually don't send back a slightly overcooked steak or cold French fries, but I will send back undercooked fish/chicken/eggs because, to me, they are inedible. I will tell the waiter or manager if the food was other than ordered but not inedible. I don't expect to be comped anything that I have eaten more than a couple bites of.
I'm picky about certain foods, and I don't hesitate to ask questions and order something slightly different than the menu states. Most restaurants are accommodating. For instance, if I'm on a low carb diet, I might order my steak with 2 servings of veg instead of veg and potato. I've ordered burgers without buns before too. If your request is reasonable and you've emphasized what you want to the waiter, you usually get it. But mistakes happen and you react accordingly.
My first eating out with SO in the US. A long planned affair to celebrate a graduation. We waited what seemed forever for basic menu items. I cut into my filet of sole and barely warm butter accumulated in the cut. The rest did not look any better. Our waiter asked how dinner was. My low voiced response was "Please take a message to the Chef. I would like to invite him as long as he will eat what he cooks."
We are driving cross country on a shoe string budget and have a dead line. On the third day of white bread, bologna and sweet pepper pickles SO revolted. We were in the middle of Idaho and he pulled in at a truck stop. All I see is chicken fried. He cautions me. No, I am hungry! The waitress brings a platter sized plate with chicken fried steak. I burst out in tears. After we figured out that I did not know it would be beef she brought me what was probably the best meal I have had - a huge, fluffy baked potatoe with sour cream, cheese and chives. I was in hog heaven. Does it qualify as sent back? Maybe.
I never send anything back to the kitchen, there's no telling what an angry chef might do to the food if he/she feels insulted. If the order was really screwed up, I don't go back.
I once sent a shrimp cocktail back (discreetly) because it had a hair in it. I saw it when my server sat it down in front of me. She took it away and returned in a few minutes with another, but I couldn't eat it. I figured they had just removed the hair and brought it back to me.
Now I generally order something deep fried because I don't deep fry at home.
If it is an expensive place and the order is really screwed up, and the person sending it back does it politely, I don't have a problem with asking to have things made right. As a waitress myself in my youth, I kept an eye on my tables and could usually tell pretty quick if the customer was not happy.
My mother had this habit....(she's now 95 and doesn't remember me let alone the habit)...
We would go into a fish place and she would order steak, and complain that it wasn't fresh. And then we would go into a steak place and she would order fish and complain that it wasn't fresh. In each place the manager would give her a free coupon for a free meal the next time she came.
She went well with my father who would park in handicapped parking right in front of the restaurant, and then walk into the restaurant like he had some very severe form of muscular dystrophy, and claim he forgot his sticker. As soon as he was in the restaurant he would walk normally. Miracle cure I guess.
There were pieces of work, and not in a good way. My childhood with them in charge was not fun.
Dining out ... have you ever sent a meal back to the kitchen ?
I myself have never done this. Not that the food item did not warrant replacement or whatever. its just that I am not that picky of an eater and can eat just about anything served to me ( be it over spiced or over done or not cooked enough )
I am not a passive personality in any way shape or form ( actually quite the opposite )
I just prefer not to make a scene and will eat my meal and possibly mention it to the server if they check in that I am unhappy with it. But I have never actually sent it back to either be redone or replaced that I can recall.
Maybe because I typically order pretty standard entrees and do not frequent upper end high $$ places where I feel slighted by my $60 meal not being up to snuff so to speak. usually if I am eating out its a $12-15 menu item sitting infront of me ( hardly worth the effort to complain )
I recently ( past few years ) have really been doing the Yelp thing. And reading the reviews I notice its far more common for patrons to send things back to the kitchen than I thought.
Just curious everyones here experiences and thoughts on this issue
Just a few times. Like you though, I don't frequent more than average priced places so I'm basically expecting hot when it should be, not moving anymore and not growing anything.
A salad at a Perkins, the cucumbers had mold on them. A fellow diner ordered a medium rare steak at Hoss's, still frozen in the middle. A "flame broiled" BK Whopper that somehow managed to come out almost stone cold. That's pretty much it.
Once - due to a rather long hair being all wrapped up in the food.
But unless there is something terribly wrong with the food (something that could cause me to be ill or non-food objects in my food), I will not send it back.
It bothers me when food gets sent back for trivial reasons. Not reading the menu, ordering something new and not liking it, eating half of the meal then deciding it isn't good - these are not the restaurant's problem to fix.
I've never personally sent anything back, but my dad sent something back for me at his insistence years back when I was around 15 or so.
I was still eating meat at this point and we had ordered steaks. I had ordered mine well-done. When the steak arrived, it was so underdone it could have passed for steak tartare.
I was going to to quietly just eat the other stuff on my plate and take the steak home then feed it to the dog, lol.
My dad saw it and insisted on sending it back to the kitchen. I was a bit embarrassed by it and personally have not sent anything back to the kitchen since.
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Dining out ... have you ever sent a meal back to the kitchen ?
