Bad Food or Bad Service?

[wizzzzzard]

Which of these two would get a restaurant on your never do again list?

I was intrigued by a thread that was talking about which restaurants people would never go to again.

Many people expressed thier reasons as either bad food or bad serivce. But I wonder which matters more?

Would you go back to a place, that had a server you loved, but nothing you liked to eat?

Would you go back to a place that is always very busy, but the food is spectacular? The servers are not rude, but they're so busy it might take longer to get what you want, and get it right. But when you get it....Oh my!

Which is more important to you. The food, or the people?

Which are you more forgiving about? A server might have a bad day? Does that mean, you never eat there again, becuase he/she was a little forgetful?

I am curious to see what people think.

For myself, I am tolerant of people. They make mistakes. I only ask that they correct them.

I doubt I will ever eat in Morroco again. Either the TS or QS place. There just isn't enough there to entertain my palate.

 

[Kricketnp]

Interesting poll - I'd definitely give a restaurant another chance if there was bad service because you may just have an "off" server or an "off" night. If the food is bad, though, it'd be hard to get me to go back.

 

[mfd25wife]

Interesting poll - I'd definitely give a restaurant another chance if there was bad service because you may just have an "off" server or an "off" night. If the food is bad, though, it'd be hard to get me to go back.

Same here. I would give them two chances on service. If I hated the food, I don't think I'd go back.

 

[OKW Lover]

Although I voted for bad food, in reality it would have to be both. And over several visits.

I can see a particular server giving bad service, or the kitchen having an off night. So, I'm willing to try most any place more than once.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

It's more complicated than that. And usually I have to go to a place more than once if my only problem is the service or the food.

For example, I will never go back to Garden Grill again, but it was because of 5 or 6 different things.

If it was JUST bad service or bad food, I would consider a second attempt.

 

[DisneyJen0504]

Definitely bad food!
We ate at Mama Melrose in 2007 and the food was awful but service was fine. We tried it again in 2009 only to have disgusting food, an extra long wait despite our adr, AND bad service so now Mama Melrose is on the never again list!

 

[2Tiggies]

It's more complicated than that. And usually I have to go to a place more than once if my only problem is the service or the food.

For example, I will never go back to Garden Grill again, but it was because of 5 or 6 different things.

If it was JUST bad service or bad food, I would consider a second attempt.

I have to agree. For me it also takes more than just bad food or bad service. What you need to remember as well is that there is a big difference between bad food and food which is simply not to your liking. I think the latter is always lumped in under the bad food title, when this is not necessarily true.

As for bad service it is usually down to a server having a bad day or something similar and it would have to be a rather extreme bad experience in terms of service to deter me from visiting again for a while.

First impressions are also lasting. For example, if you have had consistently good experiences at a restaurant and have one bad visit there, you are likely to put it down as a once off bad experience. However if that happened to be your first visit, it's all you know about the place and all you have to judge it by. Everything is relative.

 

[aussietravellers]

It is sort of both for me. I put food because if the food was really bad then we would not return but if the service was really bad then we would also not return. But service coming from a variety of areas, like management if there was a problem to the server. If the server was really bad but management were great and helped with a problem then we'd go back but if the overall food and service was absolutely terrible then it is no return for us.

 

[KatMark]

Bad food would be the top priority, but bad service on top of bad food would make it more so. We usually try to give each place two tries in case it was an "off" night for a particular establishment. We did this with Hollywood & Vine and wished we had stopped after the first visit because it was even worse the second visit (because of this we won't be going back to Whispering Canyon and giving it a second try -- bad food and bad service).

 

[ciera321]

I can deal with bad service, but I have to have good food or I won't be back!

 

[MYD714]

Definitely bad food!
We ate at Mama Melrose in 2007 and the food was awful but service was fine. We tried it again in 2009 only to have disgusting food, an extra long wait despite our adr, AND bad service so now Mama Melrose is on the never again list!

This is one of my "never again meals" also. We went in 2001 and both the service and food was terrible. Our server resembled Lurch from the Adam's family and we couldn't understand anything he was saying because he had a serious mumbling issue. It was the worst WDW dining experience I've ever had.

I like to think that I'm starting to recover from it, but my husband hasn't gotten that far yet. We also will never do Biergarten again. Loved the atmosphere, hated the food.

 

[Symans3honeybees]

What an interesting poll
This poll reminds me of "Soup-nazi" in Seinfeld. Long lines of patrons wanting good soup, but have to endure BAD service

 

[Pakey]

I would give any restaurant two chances if either bad service or bad food happened on first time.

However, if I get both in the first visit (happened at Kouzzina), then I'm not likely to return.

 

[Alexander]

Usually I go to a resturant to eat, so i'm gonna have to say a deal breaker is bad food..

Bad Service = Bad Tip.

Ditto!

 

[Tiger926]

It's more complicated than that. And usually I have to go to a place more than once if my only problem is the service or the food.

For example, I will never go back to Garden Grill again, but it was because of 5 or 6 different things.

If it was JUST bad service or bad food, I would consider a second attempt.

Definitely agree! It drives me nuts on here when people say a restaurant is the worst restaurant ever, yet they've eaten there 1x, and it's their first trip to Disney!

You cannot truly assess a restaurant unless you've been there multiple times, on multiple occassions and eaten a multitude of food items, IMHO.

We have been to 'Ohana breakfast 3x now, and it stinks each and everytime - horrible food, horrible service, huge waits to get in, huge waits to be served, huge waits for characters. After 3x, and having eaten in pretty much every WDW restaurant, and coming from a restaurant family myself, I am confident that there are major issues at that restaurant that need to be fixed, so we won't be going back. We have made our assessment during 3 visits, that happened during 3 different times of year, at different times of the morning and with different servers. Same problems each and everytime, spells trouble.

Tiger

 

[TruBlu]

Since there are so many wonderful places to try at Disney, one terrible experience is enough for me to write them off. We WASTED over 4 hours that we could have been in the parks at 'Ohana, but EVERYTHING was terrible - the ADR wait time, our table location, the server, the food. I think I would probably try one more time if it was just me, but if I even mention the name DH and my boys all yell NO!

 

[r&kmommy]

I'd give a restaurant a second chance if I got bad service the first time around. I'd give it a second chance if only one member of our party didn't like the food, but if it was 2+ members of our party who didn't like the food we'd likely not go back.

 

[ipodluvr287]

I would never go again if there was bad food. Service is kind of hit or miss and one day you could have a spectacular server, while another could be horrible. It just depends on the server's mood, how busy he/she is, etc. Some people have a bad day every once in awhile, myself included.

 

[ilovejsparrow]

While both food and service can have an off night, I'd be way more likely to go back to a restaurant if my meal was awesome but the service was lacking rather than the other way around!

 

[wizzzzzard]

This is what I was looking for. I wasn't figuring people would be likje " one bad experience and I'm done". Seem like people are more forgiving of bad service so far, than of bad food.