We've all been in crazy situations, and I want to know how you handle entertaining fiascoes and bad restaurant behavior. I'll present a situation and you tell me what you would do. Here's this week's scenario:
You're at an incredibly popular marketplace deli late in the afternoon. The place is neither crowded nor busy. You wait in line, order food, and sit at one of the many empty tables outside. Your food arrives promptly. You grab a fork, take a bite, and are shocked to find out that it's totally and completely cold! What would you do?
To see what I would do in this situation — true story, it happened to Fab! — read more.
I would walk back to the counter where I ordered the food and kindly let them know that it was cold. I would politely request that they heat it up. If they refused to heat it up, I would let them know that I don't want the food and will not be returning anytime soon to the restaurant.
How about you? What would you do?
Source
Jimmy Choo
Meltin Pot
Robe Di Firenze
Request a new order, even of the same things. They would probably just heat up the food in a microwave and return a rubber resemblance of what you ordered. If I did not have the time to wait, request a refund.
1I'd just point it out to the staff and ask to have it redone, hot this time. Like chiefdishwasher says, it's likely they'll just microwave it, but at least it'll be hot.
I might be a bit wary of going there to eat again, though. That kind of thing just puts me off.
2it's happened to me and my husband and i politely asked the staff for a new dish (keeping the old dish on the table). when they brought us the new food, we exchanged it with the cold stuff!
3I would point out the error to the server (or counter help)and ask it to be heated up, but I wouldn't ask for a brand new portion. The assumption being they just forgot to heat it and everyone makes mistakes sometimes. If there was any resistance to my request I would go up the food chain to speak with the manager. If they take care of it right away and with grace I don't see what the problem is. To me, how they handle the situation is how I would judge the place, not the original mistake.
4I'd ask them to reheat it, too. And I'd know that deli counter anywhere - Joan's on Third is my faaaaavorite restaurant!
5This happened to my husband before. His meatballs were FROZEN. After we told the waiter they brought him a new dish and didn't charge us for his meal.
6I agree with lisabarn.
7I'd assume that a step was missed somewhere along the way and give them the chance to correct it.
It's hard to imagine anyone refusing to correct the problem--they should be happy to do so.
My main concern would be food safety, as somewhere along the line a step had been skipped or mistakenly missed. And reheating/nuking will not give me the quality that I had payed for and expected. Like some other posters have said, I would request a new order or a refund. If the response was a gracious apology, replacement or refund, I wouldn't rule out going back at some other time. Mistakes happen.
8I can't imagine a scenario where they wouldn't at least nuke it at the customer's request. ALTHOUGH...
I DO have a funny story that happened to a guy friend of mine who is "fledgling foodie." He relayed a prior happening at a restaurant where he said his soup came out cold. He asked the waitress to cook it, since he actually found it flat-out cold. He said she looked at him funny but did not deny his request. Then I asked what type of soup it was, worried he may have caught food poisening or something, and he replied, "Cevich - Cevichay...something like that."
We still laugh about it today.
9Never (unless you have frozen meatballs of something completely inedible) NEVER EVER order another plate. I have worked in restaurants before... and some arent as clean and friendly behind the scenes if you know what I mean.
Bottom line, just be as nice as humanly possible.
10We were at Joan's On Third when this happened. The funny thing was they refused to heat it! The waiter flat out said they never heat anything. Although, something makes me believe that if Katie Holmes had been asking they would have heated her asparagus.
11Depending on what the food is and if it is uncooked. But for arguments sake... if it is just cold pasta, reheat it, no tip.
12I would flat out ask them to make me another, if they refuse ask for your money back and leave.
I once went to a popular japanese cafe to eat and ordered my regular "spicy tuna" salad, which is raw ahi tuna, wakame salad, spicy sauce over top of greenleaf, and romaine lettuce with carrots and cabbage. They give it to me and its just the tuna, sauce over (gasp) ice berg lettuce that looks old. So I say, "did this change" and the waitress says "we are out of alot of stuff" so i say "than i dont want it" and she looked at me like i was crazy. they gave me my money back ,and we left
I wasnt out of line, the menu described it one way, they ran out of ingredients and should have told me, instead they just substituted (and not very well) and expected me not to care......
13Ugh--I'd be so annoyed, CaterpillarGirl. Don't think you were out of line at all.
I am so glad I had sushi for lunch today, so that your description doesn't make me hungry for it now
14joans on 3rd, huh?
15whoops, sent that too fast. joans on 3rd is way overrated i think... and WAY WAY overpriced!
16I'd just tell them it was cold and see what they would do. Most of the time they'd be so scared of losing your business that they'd make you a new one as fast as possible and not charge you any extra.
17If my food arrives cold and it is supposed to be warm, I very nicely ask the waitress to re-heat it. I'm constantly afraid of a disgruntled kitchen staff doing something gross to my food, so I am ALWAYS very nice to the staff. Not to mention, it's just nice to be nice
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