Terry Foster: When To Send Your Food Back At A Restaurant?

By Terry Foster
The Family Deal

Traverse City – The West Bloomfield High School girls soccer team hit downtown here for a post-game celebration after its 2-0 victory over St. Francis High School.

We ate dinner at a restaurant/ brewery where players sat at one table and the parents and coach at another. You all know the ritual if you are a parent of a youth travel player. You order your meal and give the wait staff the number of your son or daughter to keep the bills separate. It was an evening to unwind, talk and drink a few beers.

I ordered the ribs only because I saw them at another table and they looked great. I took one bite and I knew it was a mistake. There was no taste beyond the cherry red barbeque sauce they were baked in. One other couple ordered the ribs and had a silly look on their faces. The ribs went 0-for-3 at our table.

During our meal the waiter came over and asked how the food was?

Don't we always say the same thing, even when the food is bad? We kind of nod our heads and say the food is good. It is an instinctive ritual that most of us do. The waiter moves over to the next table and we complain privately.

I decided not to do it this time. I asked the waiter to return when he was finished with his business.

When he returned I asked him to step away from the table.

"I know this is not your fault, but the food has no taste," I told him. "I think what happened is the kitchen baked the ribs and slathered it with a bunch of barbeque sauce. It looks great but the bottom line is this does not tastes good and I am disappointed. I just wanted you to pass it along to management to help them in the future."

I did not yell. I did not belabor the point.

We moved on.

The guy apologized and thanked me for the feedback.

I ate about a third of the ribs before giving up. I was hungry.

Here is the question. Was I entitled to a discount or is that just the business of restaurants? If you order a bad meal you are out of luck?

No discount was offered. All I got was an apology.

And this is probably a place I will never go to again because of this.

I should have complained after the first bone, but I thought the meal would improve at some point. It did not. My wife said this fiasco is my fault.

"You were not in Memphis. You were not in St. Louis," she said. "You are in Traverse City. What did you expect?"

I could not argue.

We go out to eat quite often and I very rarely complain. The food is at least decent most of the time and there is no need to send the food back. Sometimes you guess wrong as a patron and sometimes a restaurant has a bad night.

Let me tell you another story. My sister-in-law had a wedding rehearsal dinner in Las Vegas at a Motown theme restaurant. The food was terrible. I knew she was disappointed so I asked the manager to come over.

I told him the food was cold and did not taste good.

He said no one else complained about the food.

I told him that I would give an extra tip if he thought the food was good, but I wanted him to be honest.

He took one bite of a rib and an onion ring and gave us 25 percent off the bill.