The Wave: How would you react to this experience?

[tigertides]

Just got back from a great week at Disney World with the family, but had one really questionable experience. My party of 5 people had a dinner reservation at the Wave. The food was fine, until a member of our party found a live caterpillar in their salad. Gross. The waitstaff and manager were very apologetic and comped her salad and added a free sundae for the person who ordered the salad. My question is this, should everyone at the table get their meal comped in this situation? Ultimately, the value of a free salad and a simple sundae couldn't be more than 5-10 bucks. It just seemed a little cheap to me. Thoughts?

The Wave response was adequate.
Unfortunately, there are too
Many diners who are planting items in their meals these days, demanding compensation.

retaurants have abandoned the days of giving away free meals due to bad actors fraudulent claims.

 

[Eastern]

Nope, they source lettuce from living with the land.

I don't think that one source can provide all of the lettuce needed at all of the restaurants.

 

[Eastern]

I worked in restaurants for many years and saw what goes on; it isn't always pretty. And I still ate in those places after seeing it all.

A caterpillar in a salad is not the worst thing. A new salad and free dessert seems reasonable, I probably would have appreciated a cocktail on the house, as well.

 

[MomOTwins]

I don't think that one source can provide all of the lettuce needed at all of the restaurants.

Not the quick service likely (not due to lack of supply, likely just due to needing quicker prep) and remember a lot of TS are owned by third parties e.g. Patina group and landries. LWTL produces tens of thousands of heads of lettuce each year. They actually feed the excess they don’t use at restaurants to animals in AK.

 

[BK2014]

At BOG, my husband’s lobster bisque was cold and left a nasty film on the bowl. After our meal, the restaurant manager came by to chat (probably because we purchased a pricy bottle of wine). We mentioned the issue, showed him the photo we took that day to share and he discounted our entire bill 20%. Granted we were two people but he seemed to appreciate our feedback on each course like he really cared.

Is there a reason you thought the bisque was so bad that you decided to take a photo to share, but didn't alert your server?

 

[monstermash23]

I may be a bit removed from the current conversation in this thread, but my experience as far as compensation when dining goes, has always varied. And I think the compensation you recieved for your situation was pretty close to what should be done in that case. Maybe an extra 10% on top of the bill would have sweetened the situation. But at least you know your salad was....truly fresh lol.

One example of over the top compensation - There was one time where we waited for 40 minutes for our table at Boma’s (they messed up and seated all walk ins and forgot about all their morning reservations). Without ever complaining once, because it didn’t affect our day plans at all, a manager came by, apologized and comped half our meal (50% off before tip). I don’t remember seeing him do that to other tables but he could have. We obviously accepted and were estatic, but didn’t feel it was necessary whatsoever. We would have happily paid in full and never been the wiser.

One example of being completely under-compensated while dining at Disney - I also have a gluten problem, and have to eat gluten free. Celiac here. Thankfully Disney standardized allergy accommodations, but before that occured many years ago, I ordered at Tony’s Square in MK. The server ensured me it was GF and I ate most of it. After feeling some concern from my body’s immediate reactions, I requested to speak to the chef. The chef came out later and confirmed the dish wasn’t gluten free, and that there must have been a mixup in the kitchen. No apologies, no compensation, no comped meal, nothing. The only thing anyone did for us was to ask me if I needed an epipen (celiacs is not technically an allergy so this would do nothing for me). But after the epipen offer, we were pretty much told too bad by the restaurant manager. I was sick the entire rest of my trip. Thank god they standardized allergy eating now though, have never had a single issue since.

 

[BK2014]

One example of over the top compensation - There was one time where we waited for 40 minutes for our table at Boma’s (they messed up and seated all walk ins and forgot about all their morning reservations). Without ever complaining once, because it didn’t affect our day plans at all, a manager came by, apologized and comped half our meal (50% off before tip). I don’t remember seeing him do that to other tables but he could have. We obviously accepted and were estatic, but didn’t feel it was necessary whatsoever. We would have happily paid in full and never been the wiser.

I too have an example of over the top reaction to something going wrong at a restaurant. In law school my roommate and I went to Carrabas's. We both ordered entrees that came with soup. Our entrees came out before the soup. We simply asked the waiter about the soup, and the waiter's face looked like he had made the biggest mistake. He profusely apologized and said that he would get the soup ASAP and make us fresh entrees. We told him it was fine, leave the entrees and bring the soup. He continued to apologize. The manage came by and apologize as if it was a big terrible mistake. Comped our soup and dessert. More apologies came from the waiter and the manager throughout our meal and as we left. It made us feel very uncomfortable. You would have thought the waiter was going to lose his job over an entree being brought out before the soup.

 

[White Rose]

I loose my appetite quite easily, if texture is off or if the flavor is waaay too spicy or extremely sweet when I was not expecting it, etc. a live insect would have made me barf. I am just very very sensitive to such things and bless you all who can handle it.

i know I am the sensitive one, and in a normal non insect situation, I would not expect any compensation for my own extreme reactions. I don’t go looking for exotic foods or something that would challenge me. But a live critter? In a salad?? I think my reaction would probably get the whole table free because I would have to leave the room and run to the bathroom. I am not a drama queen just have a very sensitive stomach and it is embarrassing.

I would not eat anything they put in front of me at the Wave, for the rest of the trip or probably ever. I have been comped a few meals when don’t complain because I react so strongly, and they felt bad for ruining my meal and my friends experience.

If the person was cool, calm and did not run off to the bathroom, the waiter did the right thing.

 

[Dis703]

I'm foremost impressed by the overwhelming reasonable responses. And, impressed by those who realize that the caterpillar in the lettuce is a sign of fresh. It is also a sign of the lack of pesticides. Eating pesticides is far worse for us than eating caterpillars.
What the restaurant did is perfectly appropriate. To not understand the nature of agriculture, food preparation and what is truly a dangerous contaminant is ignorance.

I was pleasantly surprised at how many people didn't think it was that big of a deal too. Having been a CSA member now for about 13 years and getting weekly fresh local produce straight from the farm we get our share of critters in our food. And we have been doing a little gardening the past few years too. I think when you experience that as the norm it's less shocking to find a caterpillar in your food.

 

[Lilsia]

I loose my appetite quite easily, if texture is off or if the flavor is waaay too spicy or extremely sweet when I was not expecting it, etc. a live insect would have made me barf. I am just very very sensitive to such things and bless you all who can handle it.

i know I am the sensitive one, and in a normal non insect situation, I would not expect any compensation for my own extreme reactions. I don’t go looking for exotic foods or something that would challenge me. But a live critter? In a salad?? I think my reaction would probably get the whole table free because I would have to leave the room and run to the bathroom. I am not a drama queen just have a very sensitive stomach and it is embarrassing.

I would not eat anything they put in front of me at the Wave, for the rest of the trip or probably ever. I have been comped a few meals when don’t complain because I react so strongly, and they felt bad for ruining my meal and my friends experience.

If the person was cool, calm and did not run off to the bathroom, the waiter did the right thing.

I completely understand that people have different reactions to things. What I don't agree with is the compensation should somehow be linked to that reaction. Something like the bug in the lettuce is unavoidable because nobody is going to look through every single leaf of lettuce. There's just not enough physical time on the planet to do that for restaurants. Like others have said it's not like it was a Band-Aid or a metal piece it is something that is foreseeable and so the compensation should not be extreme. I think we've all become a little too spoiled.

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

I think they should've comped her whole meal but not everyone's meals. This happened to my friend on 2 different occasions at Panera (bug in the lettuce). I always check sandwiches and salads now!

 

[B-Ride]

I would have been grateful for the replaced now free salad and the free dessert.

Agreed. A comped salad is like replacing it with another meal. The free dessert was a bonus.

On top of that the caterpillar is extra protein and you are lucky they didn't charge you for it.

You got a much better deal than the poor caterpillar.

 

[DLgal]

Well, this has nothing to do with bugs, but just today I had a $20 Caesar salad comped AND got two free 16oz beers at Ballast Point at Downtown Disney and I didn't complain about anything. My husbands food came out and mine didn't and the manager who delivered the food admitted that they burned my grilled chicken breast and had to make the salad again. No joke, it showed up 3 minutes later, so I didn't need all that, but he was falling all over himself apologizing about it. I mean, good recovery and completely unnecessary, but I guess it worked because I have no bad feelings about our lunch.

 

[westie55]

IMO, the response was appropriate. Yes it's gross, but they apologized and tried to make up for it. I don't think the restaurant needs to comp everyone's meal if there were not issues with the other meals.