Restaurant patron ethics, on the part of the seated

@ossobuco,

Around here, they're all referred to as waiters / waitstaff.

Kinda like flight attendants etc.

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I'm sorry, I can't eat this. I asked for my burger "whatever you asked for".

Please take it away.

~~~~

Truthfully, I'd have to mull over the "I'm sorry" bit, but that's pretty Canajun.

If they offered to replace it, I'd mention that they can skip the bun, unless they've got something different.

They need to be told what works, what doesn't. Letting them think a poorly prepared burger is acceptable will get 'em shut down sooner rather than later.

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Where we are here, they're called "servers", never waiter/waitress, and they're flight attendants, not stewards/esses.

I would have sent the burger back and asked for it to be less cooked. And maybe toast the bun, that might have made it less dense, or seem so.

I don't pay for food that isn't good. I send it back. Try again, please, and hopefully they'll get it right. It isn't like it's rocket science - millions of people are doing it around the world, and that's all they're doing - they're not designing bridges while cooking. That's their only business.

I think they would appreciate knowing what was wrong. I do, when I cook for others.

Stop being such a wuss, Osso. You can be nice about it but still firm. Don't. want. to. eat. this. Not. what. i. ordered.

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@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

I know I fall under the passive aggressive non complainer type and if I have a bad meal I usually never return to the place. So it's kind of a lose/lose.

I suppose if you show genuine support and concern along with your constructive criticism, if the waitress and cook are open minded towards self improvement then it could be a win/win for both of you if you return.

Tsarstepan's post perfectly describes the way I deal with complaints that truly need to be made.

Let's do go back and check it out again, Osso, and let's be sure to order different meals than last time.

What I strongly object to when people complain, is their tendency to be condescending as they point out every little objection, sounding like a food critic from the NY Times.

A kindly worded, not totally wussy, constructive complaint is a win/win for customer and owner.

Even though I loved the beef (real beef, not some mystery meat) on flat bread, excellent flat bread, with pesto aioli and a fresh, garden salad on the same plate, Osso's hamburger looked like charcoal. I was quite surprised that she didn't complain. It really didn't look edible.

OK Osso, we are now duty bound to go back and have another lunch, else how will the owner know where the fixing needs to be done?

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@Diane,

Next time I'll try the lemon tart. (You can't watch, Diane..)

On the whole subject, I'm a pretty good complainer, normally, while trying not to be rude, etc. This time was different, something about the server. Sending it back was out of the question, as we'd already waited a long time. But I could have not paid for it and had.... yes! pie.

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@ossobuco,

There was a restaurant a block or so from our studio/gallery back in Humboldt that had quite good food, that we frequented once every couple of weeks for a treat. The server was good as far as following what I take to be the manager's instructions, but hard for me to tolerate in that she would ask at least six times during a meal - and not a multicourse meal - how we were doing, almost every time with me with my mouth full or else talking about work business or something else of interest, having to stop dead so she could go on to the next table. I managed to get her to stop that, at least for us, without undue vitriol.

I mentioned that before once on a2k and got a series of responses on how hard the job is, which I do understand. (I'd probably pour soup on laps after tripping on a napkin..) Customers vary. Me, if I need something, I'll catch the server's eye and ask for it, or usually, if something is wrong, I'll explain.

This time was a bit different. I'd toss it off, except that I still hope they improve. So, yeah, I'll have to tell them about the wretched burger after I finish my lemon tart.

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@Diane,

I would no more feel obliged to go back there than I do the Restaurant on Church Street. You may have missed out on that one when the group was in town.

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@roger,

I'm trying to remember. Eva was there, and Mame, and you and I and Thomas. Was Johnboy there?
I'm the one who waited forever for the flan, which I'd ordered since it was inexpensive, though never to arrive, despite the waiter from the set from hell, or a bad movie (actually, I sort of liked him, as a fool caught in headlights).

But, I'd liked the place before. And even on that day, I liked the guacamole ordered by others that I scarfed in my pain. Guacamole varies, and I liked that one. On the other hand, I was "starving".

You all know I'm not all that nicey. I am who I am on a2k.

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@roger,

I don't feel obliged to go back there and probably won't, much as I kid about lemon tart, or maybe only for that. We didn't try their baked goods, ah, none on display, and I'm the only one who can eat them. I think not getting a decent hamburger is hopeless. Listen, I'm a maven of the Apple Pan, link later.

And that was probably my underlying motivation for not saying anything, much as I had sympathy.

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

ossobuco wrote:

I don't feel obliged to go back there and probably won't, much as I kid about lemon tart, or maybe only for that. We didn't try their baked goods, ah, none on display, and I'm the only one who can eat them. I think not getting a decent hamburger is hopeless. Listen, I'm a maven of the Apple Pan, link later.

And that was probably my underlying motivation for not saying anything, much as I had sympathy.

Apple Pan = Apple pie ???

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The Apple Pan, always comfort, mostly stand and wait, quietly. I won't say I knew the guy at the counter, but he was a fixture in my life.

http://www.fabuloustravel.com/index.php?option=com_resource&controller=article&category_id=394&article=21764

http://www.fabuloustravel.com/uploads/picture/98/thumbnail_table/1217263604_apple_pan_ext.jpg

This place has some fame but before all that it was just there, and after all that, it was/is just there.

It was maybe eight blocks from my apartment, me living on Glendon.

There was a cook/server there, who needed to be robotic, for decades. I wonder how he is by now.

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The emotional condition of the waiter is not your problem, you are not her, you did not hire her, and you did not let her work this day. Your assumptions about her condition should not have been allowed to direct your actions.

I dont bother to complain unless both my opinion has been asked, and I might be willing to give them another try. Absent both of these conditions complaining is not worth my time. Primarily my opinion is registered in the tip and where I decide to dine in the future. And I dont hesitate to cut the tip if the food sucks, because of good chunk of that tip is passed to the kitchen normally, and I dont want to reward a person who spends their days trying to sell and who slings crap. If the food is horrible to where I cant eat it I will send it back, but this is rare.

"I owe it to the restaurant to complain" is nonsense. If they are halfway competent then they already know where the problems are. If they are even min competent they will routinely try to get feedback. If they don't know and don't ask then they don't care, so **** them.

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@ossobuco,

This is probably a screaming real estate question., as this is a good corner, a block from Westwood Blvd. on Pico. There is a now a gigantic pavilion across the street and kitty corner further. I was a teen in this neighborhood in the fifties, or somewhat. No pavilions...

I figure the apple pan is on the cross out list.

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@hawkeye10,

There are enough people who slam.

I expressly said in my opening post that this restaurant was trying, and I still think it is trying not to sling crap. This is the only place in a long time in this immediate area that I see trying to figure out an non air-bun for burgers - though I take them as off the mark in the opposite direction.

Of course this is not my problem, but it interests me.
I direct my actions, bud.

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@ossobuco,

ossobuco wrote:

Next time I'll try the lemon tart. (You can't watch, Diane..)

On the whole subject, I'm a pretty good complainer, normally, while trying not to be rude, etc. This time was different, something about the server. Sending it back was out of the question, as we'd already waited a long time. But I could have not paid for it and had.... yes! pie.

Of course it took a long time. Charcoal takes time to create, you know.

Smile

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@ossobuco,

ossobuco wrote:

The Apple Pan, always comfort, mostly stand and wait, quietly.
I won't say I knew the guy at the counter, but he was a fixture in my life.

http://www.fabuloustravel.com/index.php?option=com_resource&controller=article&category_id=394&article=21764

This place has some fame but before all that it was just there, and after all that, it was/is just there.

It was maybe eight blocks from my apartment, me living on Glendon.

There was a cook/server there, who needed to be robotic, for decades. I wonder how he is by now.

U guys r so GOOD with getting n posting those pictures. I admire.
I remember a chain of restaurants in Manhattan in the 1970s
called The Magic Pan; thay cooked very thin crepes,
by dipping the bottoms of each pan in batter,
then inverting the pans n putting them over gas jets,
on a circular carousel. Good fillings; a Seafood Crepe,
among others. Dessert crepes Thay were very good.
I loved that place; very sad n mt when it died.

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Restaurant patron ethics, on the part of the seated

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