When do you decide to send food back?

[Dean Marino]

That doesn't send that message at all. The biggest message food on the plate says is that restaurant portions are absurdly large and the guest only ate what they wanted.

I worked as a server for three years. No one thinks food on the plate means you didn't like or or that something was wrong. Like most people, most servers will assume nothing is wrong with your food if you do not speak up and TELL us that.

I've done the same . Probably why some of our best friends at WDW are Servers . My father (a Maître D in San Francisco for 40 years), used to WORRY if everyone cleaned their plates ... to him it meant they were not getting quite enough .

Just ONCE in 12 years have we ever sent something back. The other time? We were pretty sure, given the restaurant noise, that our server just did not HEAR us all that well. A "medium rare" can turn into a "medium well" just that easily.... us, order at the pass, whatever... it can happen . And yes - sometimes the food is great, and we just get full . But we've always had great servers that ASK about that - bless their hearts .

So - cbg1027? Thank you for everything you've done. Being a Server is a VERY difficult job. You are on the front line, and everyone wants to blame YOU for anything that is not perfect . The real issue could be a Sous Chef that doesn't feel that good that day, a management decision that you have no control over - yet, you must smile, and do your best. THANK YOU for doing what you did. Probably just me - but if I got really BAD food (I never have) - I would still thank my Server, and find a way to make sure she/he got none of the fallout .

 

[Seattle]

I send food back if I cannot eat it. If I choose to keep food that is beyond redemption that usually means that I have decided that I am not giving that restaurant another chance, and that is something I have only done twice in my life. I pay for my meal, and I am through.

For the most part, cold food or meat I cannot chew or that is way to over for me goes back. I will say that no one in my family will dine out again with my DS and his DW because she has never met a meal that she will eat the first time around. Every time she sends something back, disrupting everyone else at the table. There has never, not one time, been an instance that we all dine out together and she is happy wth her plate. She has not done that if it is just the two of us, but I think she is afraid of me.
One valentines night Dh and I were dining out in a nice restaurant in town. WE seldom went out during the week, so this really as kind of special. The guy seated next to us was going off of the server, he sent his prime ib back no less than three times, and nothing made him happy. The last time th server brought him a new plate he started berating he again, and my DH just had enough. All of a sudden he looked at the guy and told him to just be quiet and eat! Honestly, my DH is usually that guy who says nothing, but he is pretty intimidating when he does, all 6'6",265 piunds of him. The guy put his nose down, stopped complining and ate!

I love this story.

 

[Nancyg56]

I love this story.

He was so mad that he never even realized he said it out loud until he did! I swear there was high fives from the folks around us.

 

[LBlovesM&WDW]

I send back food that isn't cooked the way it was ordered (usually have issues getting a rare steak or medium rare burger) or if it tastes like it's gone bad (fishy fish).

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I'll send food back if it's cold or not cooked to the temperature ordered. We ate at Narcoosees in February and it was taking an inordinate amount of time between our appetizers and entrees so we flagged down our waitress to ask if our food was coming. By the look on her face is was evident she completely forgot about us. She went to the kitchen and immediately came back with all of our food which was stone cold. Basically $300 worth of stone cold steaks and seafood. No way am I paying for that! We sent it all back which meant we had to wait a total of 45 minutes for our entrees. My poor DS7 was starving. At that point the a manager and chef came out to apologize. We finished our meal, paid and left. This was our second disappointing meal at Narcoosseees so it's very unlikely we will ever go back.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Yes, and I have no problem or feeling of guilt doing so.

I am paying for it, the items on my plate should be as I ordered.

I have noticed a trend of restaurants placing "surprise" ingredients in some of the dishes now a days.

When I very clearly ask the waiter if there is anything served on the plate or in the dish that's not listed on the menu, I don't expect any other ingredients to be on the plate or in the meal.

When the waiter replies, no, there aren't any hidden/secret ingredients, than when I receive my (example) salad, it should not have black olives, diced tomatoes, sardines on top or covered in blue cheese crumble.

When I have ordered the exact same plate 10 times from the same restaurant, printed from the same menu, over the last 3 years, it should not all of the sudden be covered in balsamic glaze, because the chef of the night decided he wanted it on my chicken/fish/pork chop, when it doesn't state that on the menu.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

Having worked in food service, I will NEVER, under any circumstance, allow my food to leave my sight once it has been served to me. I wait until our table has received all our food, then complain to a server. If the problem is just that the food is undercooked I will simply ask for a container and take it home and cook it right. If they offer me a replacement meal I decline and ask for a gift card. Mostly we don't eat out though, because I don't feel that most people know how to handle food properly. I'd rather pick my own ingredients and prepare them myself so I can do it right. Even on vacation I hate eating out.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Having worked in food service, I will NEVER, under any circumstance, allow my food to leave my sight once it has been served to me. I wait until our table has received all our food, then complain to a server. If the problem is just that the food is undercooked I will simply ask for a container and take it home and cook it right. If they offer me a replacement meal I decline and ask for a gift card. Mostly we don't eat out though, because I don't feel that most people know how to handle food properly. I'd rather pick my own ingredients and prepare them myself so I can do it right. Even on vacation I hate eating out.

Do the restaurants oblige and have you pay for bad food, then give you a gift card as reimbursement? I've never heard of someone doing that before.

 

[FeralCatRogue]

I've only ever sent food back when it was inedibly bad. One year at pop I was given a corn dog that broke my knife cutting into it thatwent back, I've also sent back undercooked meat before,by undercooked i dont mean rare i LOVE rare. Beyond that if i just dont enjoy it i eat what i can. I actualy had a waiter ask me why i didnt return something I didnt like and i told him its not the cooks fault it wasnt what i expected he ended up compingit so i gave him a larger tip since it was quite nice of him to do.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

Do the restaurants oblige and have you pay for bad food, then give you a gift card as reimbursement? I've never heard of someone doing that before.

I can only think of 2 times that I've ever been unable to eat my food and complained. The food has to be completely inedible for me to complain. If I take a bite of the food and it's bad in some way and inedible, I leave it on my plate and wait to complain until everyone at the table has been served their meals. Then, when the waitress asks whether my food is OK (because all good waitresses will notice when someone is sitting there with a full plate in front of them and not eating it) I will explain to the waitress why I can't or won't eat the food. Inevitably they will ask if they can get me a replacement meal and i decline, asking instead to have the cost of the meal put on a gift card to use another time. I think I fed them a little white lie about not wanting to hold up my family waiting for another meal to be prepared for me, but really it's because I don't want to risk my food being tampered with. Both times the manager has been happy to do that. No, I wasn't charged for the meal either time so I guess you'd say it was comped. But really, it's a good bet that if they comp me one meal at a family restaurant I'm going to come back with my family and we'll spend more money so I don't feel too badly about it. These aren't expensive restaurants, it happened once at Eat n Park, and the second time was at Red Robin, so we're talking about meals that probably cost somewhere between $10 and $15.

The funny thing is, when we went back to Red Robin to use my gift card, for some reason the kitchen took over an hour to get our food to us. Now, the restaurant was pretty busy, but I believe it was about an hour and a half between ordering and the food being set on the table in front of us. We had been busy entertaining our son and enjoying some family time so my husband and I really didn't notice the delay too much, and we weren't bothered by it, when our waitress showed up with our food, apologizing profusely. We told her it was no problem, kept shutting her down when she apologized, but then she came back to the table with the manager, who comped all the meals for our table and presented us with a $100 gift card, even though we assured her repeatedly that there was no problem with our service or food. So I have to say that of every chain restaurant I've eaten in, Red Robin has the best customer service. It's been years since that incident but we still think highly of the service we received there and we probably favor Red Robin over the other family restaurants because of that incident. Well, and also because our son still loves cheeseburgers and french fries.

 

[SouthJersey]

I'll send any meal item back if it's not what I ordered.
Whether it's sunny side-up eggs for $4 that come out yolks hard or a $55 medium rare filet that comes out medium well, it's getting sent back.

I can't imagine why someone would just take what they're served if it's not what they ordered. You ordered it a specific way because that's how you like it, correct? You're ordering it that way, willing to pay your hard earned money for it, the way you ordered it?
"Ehhh I'll just eat it" and literally force something down to avoid having to speak up is a display of submission.

Now what I won't send back, is something that was cooked properly and I just didn't happen to like it because I wanted to try something different and just want a fan.
I'm against ordering something to be different or try it and then not liking it and wanting to change it. I HATE that. A restaurant doesn't exist for you to try something new and should you not like it, have them take the loss and provide you a different item. I can't stand those people.

 

[JOE DELL]

Best way to send a message that food/service was bad is your tip, if the restaurant is share tips and the food was garbage but service was on point call over the manager and explain (you may/may not get a comp) but make sure to tip your server especially if you frequent that place, if the service sucks but the food is good let the manager know and that you want your tip to go to the kitchen and not your server.
This is one reason I stay away from low end chain restaurants (out back, Applebee's, Friday's) it just becomes all to frequent to deal with that every time.

 

[Stubbzilla]

Having worked in food service, I will NEVER, under any circumstance, allow my food to leave my sight once it has been served to me. I wait until our table has received all our food, then complain to a server. If the problem is just that the food is undercooked I will simply ask for a container and take it home and cook it right. If they offer me a replacement meal I decline and ask for a gift card. Mostly we don't eat out though, because I don't feel that most people know how to handle food properly. I'd rather pick my own ingredients and prepare them myself so I can do it right. Even on vacation I hate eating out.

Same for me. The food is not leaving my sight.