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Ever sent your FOOD back ?



Gwylan

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
31,827
Uffern
I've sent back food a few times. I've even complained in a restaurant in Paris and got treated to a barrage of sneers from the waiter (but got it changed). However, there are times when you grin and bear it: I had a meal in a pub in North Yorkshire that tasted or rotting vegetables in a snot sauce, I'd normally have sent it back but I'd been for a 20-mile tramp in the Dales, had waited nearly an hour for the food and at that stage I'd have eaten grass omelette with dog turd fricasee
 




Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
My wife sent a steak back in a decent restaurant once because it was overcooked. She had ordered medium-rare, and it was closer to well-done.

The waiter had to agree and did everything necessary to put it right, being apologetic without being obsequious. We gave him a decent tip, have been back since and have recommended it to other places. Decent customer service makes sense.

I have always wanted to send a bottle of wine back because it was corked, but have never had the opportunity to, because it's always OK.

My other half ordered a rare steak recently which came out like a piece of leather. He was offered a replacement but refused just asking for a refund. He ate when we got home. He also got a full refund.
 


Man of Harveys

Well-known member
Jul 9, 2003
18,875
Brighton, UK
I always try to think 'how would things be dealt with in the USA'

Generally the service is fine there but really not always. And it's improved leaps and bounds here in the past 10-15 years, really has.

You do also get chavvy customers taking full advantage of the U.S.' "customer is always right" ethos and trying their luck by loudly pretending that there was something amiss with their food when there plainly wasn't so that they get a reduction on the bill - something I've never once seen over here.

So if you are a bit of a chav, do that over there: raise a fake fuss and act like a big baby, it generally works. Might put a bit of a dampener on the evening though.

it tends to make me more angry.

"More"...
 




Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
37,342
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
Yes I have. The one that stands out for me though is a place that totally rescued it. Was at the normally excellent Ginger Fox (ex Shaves Thatch) a couple of years ago on a hot sunny day and the garden filled up almost immediately. The kitchen was never going to cope so I was prepared to give them some leeway but I got a rare steak served well done with cold chips and veg. It had obviously been sitting on the pass for some considerable time.

Rather than get anything jizz covered I got a perfectly rare steak back with hot sides as quick as they could do it. The kids ice cream was comped and we got an extra loyalty stamp. We still go regularly and recommend it to friends.

Have to agree with [MENTION=409]Herr Tubthumper[/MENTION] about Due South. Though there was nothing actually send backable it is still the place that gave me the most disappointing Brighton high end experience of my life. Small portions, expensive and tasteless, wines advertised but not in stock and totally up its own arse.
 




Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
37,342
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
I've sent back food a few times. I've even complained in a restaurant in Paris and got treated to a barrage of sneers from the waiter (but got it changed). However, there are times when you grin and bear it: I had a meal in a pub in North Yorkshire that tasted or rotting vegetables in a snot sauce, I'd normally have sent it back but I'd been for a 20-mile tramp in the Dales, had waited nearly an hour for the food and at that stage I'd have eaten grass omelette with dog turd fricasee

I'd recommend you put some powdered aardvark spleen on that.
 


Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
62,701
The Fatherland


Gwylan

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
31,827
Uffern
Yes I have. The one that stands out for me though is a place that totally rescued it. Was at the normally excellent Ginger Fox (ex Shaves Thatch) a couple of years ago on a hot sunny day and the garden filled up almost immediately. The kitchen was never going to cope so I was prepared to give them some leeway but I got a rare steak served well done with cold chips and veg. It had obviously been sitting on the pass for some considerable time.

Rather than get anything jizz covered I got a perfectly rare steak back with hot sides as quick as they could do it. The kids ice cream was comped and we got an extra loyalty stamp. We still go regularly and recommend it to friends.

Have to agree with [MENTION=409]Herr Tubthumper[/MENTION] about Due South. Though there was nothing actually send backable it is still the place that gave me the most disappointing Brighton high end experience of my life. Small portions, expensive and tasteless, wines advertised but not in stock and totally up its own arse.

We only went once: Mrs Gwylan had oysters and had to stop to throw up on the way home, she was in bed the next day with terrible food poisoning. Too late to complain, but never went back

I'd recommend you put some powdered aardvark spleen on that.

I'm a vegetarian, I passed on the aardvark spleen
 




Nibble

New member
Jan 3, 2007
19,238
Yes, at The Dorset. The steak was like a piece of trodden in dogshit. The I left without eating. Good thing about Brighton is there's a restaurant every 20 yards so no need to put up with substandard service or food.
 


Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
62,701
The Fatherland
Have to agree with [MENTION=409]Herr Tubthumper[/MENTION] about Due South. Though there was nothing actually send backable it is still the place that gave me the most disappointing Brighton high end experience of my life. Small portions, expensive and tasteless, wines advertised but not in stock and totally up its own arse.

I met the owner/manager/whatever for a chat one evening as I was interested in hiring the venue for our wedding lunch. He really had a high opinion of himself and his establishment. There was no way I could work with him; total up-his-arse knob. I appreciate managers come and go so to avoid tarring all their bosses this discussion occurred in June 2010.
 


Man of Harveys

Well-known member
Jul 9, 2003
18,875
Brighton, UK
Yes, at The Dorset.

Incidentally the worst service I have ever received anywhere, ever, was in the Dorset. It was SO bad - proper nasty and sneery too - you couldn't even laugh about it. Horrendous.
 




Pantani

Il Pirata
Dec 3, 2008
5,445
Newcastle
I met the owner/manager/whatever for a chat one evening as I was interested in hiring the venue for our wedding lunch. He really had a high opinion of himself and his establishment. There was no way I could work with him; total up-his-arse knob. I appreciate managers come and go so to avoid tarring all their bosses this discussion occurred in June 2010.

The owner used to manage the place too, I worked with him for a while at a different seafront restaurant. Your description is accurate from my experience.
 


Nibble

New member
Jan 3, 2007
19,238
Incidentally the worst service I have ever received anywhere, ever, was in the Dorset. It was SO bad - proper nasty and sneery too - you couldn't even laugh about it. Horrendous.

Yes. The service is actually NASTY in there. The middle aged bint who runs it should in no way whatsoever be in the hospitality industry and that waitress with the great body, high heels but a face like you just walked into her house on Christmas Day and pissed on her kids. That place is absolute toilet.
 


happypig

Staring at the rude boys
May 23, 2009
8,171
Eastbourne
Not sent back but an indian restaurant in Mid-sussex, we took my mum there for lunch. Place was empty. Food was great. When the mains arrived, mum asked if she could have a popadom to go with it. Waiter says "No. you don't have popadoms with main meals" and went into the kitchen; we thought he'd gone to get one, after all they were'nt busy and popadoms take seconds to cook.
He didn't come back out for a while and when he did it was empty handed.
"poppadom?" I asked.
"No, I told you" he replied.

A very strange experience and when the bill came I paid exactly the sum on it and told him if he'd been arsed to bring that 50p popadom there would have been a ten quid tip. I may, or may not, have called him a useless c.t too...
 




Baldseagull

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2012
11,839
Crawley
Generally the service is fine there but really not always. And it's improved leaps and bounds here in the past 10-15 years, really has.

You do also get chavvy customers taking full advantage of the U.S.' "customer is always right" ethos and trying their luck by loudly pretending that there was something amiss with their food when there plainly wasn't so that they get a reduction on the bill - something I've never once seen over here.

So if you are a bit of a chav, do that over there: raise a fake fuss and act like a big baby, it generally works. Might put a bit of a dampener on the evening though.



"More"...

My son works at a restaurant where some of the travelling chaps have on a couple of occasions ordered a rare steak amongst a large order, then refused to pay the entire bill, including drinks on the basis that the steak was under cooked and that ruined the meal for all eight of them.


This is the reason for those annoying check backs that waiting staff do, "is everything alright for you?" which always seem to be whilst you have a mouth full of food or before you have even stuck a fork in it.
 


BensGrandad

New member
Jul 13, 2003
72,015
Haywards Heath
I worked at The George & Dragon Wargrave some years back a chap moored his boat and came in with 10 guests they all had 3 course meals no complaints. When given the bill didnt even look at it but got up and said the food wasnt good enough he wasnt paying. The police were called and he told them it was nothing to do with them as he had the means to pay the bill and it was civil matter between him and the pub. The outcome was he gave his name and address and Queens Moat Houses sent him a letter asking him to pay what he considered it was worth. He sent them £5 end of the matter. They had all cleared their plates?
 
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Nibble

New member
Jan 3, 2007
19,238
Ah yes, I've been in curry places when the pikeys have been in en masse. Everyone in the place knows they will not pay for the meal and the atmosphere is horrid as the time to pay approaches. Last time was in Surbiton, the do as you likey's were in full effect. The guys running the place called the police, then gave them the bill. Just as they opened their go a to argue the bill the police swooped in, made one of them pay and bundled the whole lot out the door and away. Marvellous.
 


Iggle Piggle

Well-known member
Sep 3, 2010
5,955
On a slightly different theme I stayed in a hotel with work last week, which caused me to complain. Due to the nature of my job, I’ve stayed in a number of places over the years and I can cope with anything from a Travelodge upwards and generally live with the odd problems that come my way as it comes with the territory. This place was something else ;

Within my bedroom I had the following items

A lighthouse
A Sowing Machine
An old telephone from the 1960’s

Here is a list of things I didn’t have

Curtains
Curtain Pole
TV remote
A number on the door – Finding room 12 proved problematic as none of them were numbered.
Shower – just a bath

The place looked like a stately home, walking into the bar area there were pictures of semi naked women (not a complaint issue I grant you), a huge Aloha sign, 2 wonky pool tables and no pint glasses. It was Fawlty towers if Basil was smoking a spliff
 




Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
37,342
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
Not sent back but an indian restaurant in Mid-sussex, we took my mum there for lunch. Place was empty. Food was great. When the mains arrived, mum asked if she could have a popadom to go with it. Waiter says "No. you don't have popadoms with main meals" and went into the kitchen; we thought he'd gone to get one, after all they were'nt busy and popadoms take seconds to cook.
He didn't come back out for a while and when he did it was empty handed.
"poppadom?" I asked.
"No, I told you" he replied.

A very strange experience and when the bill came I paid exactly the sum on it and told him if he'd been arsed to bring that 50p popadom there would have been a ten quid tip. I may, or may not, have called him a useless c.t too...

Indian service as taught to them by us during the Raj.

I worked in Chennai for three months in an old job. My boss liked burnt toast and I mean really quite black. On our first morning in the hotel, which was very swish, he put his toast through the machine three times to get it the way he liked it. As soon as he sat down two waiters swooped on him and tried to take it away saying "sir, you cannot eat that, it is burnt".
 


gregbrighton

New member
Aug 10, 2014
2,059
Brighton
I do complain if the food isn't up to it. Went to the BBQ Shack at The World's End. Sent back the ribs as they were tough as they had been reheated. I tried the pulled pork which the barman recommend as 'top notch'. That too was crap and just reheated fodder. Gave up in the end. Won't be going back.

My Trip Advisor review
 
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