Last Sunday night, my family and I went out to dinner for my
Mom's birthday. My mom chose a Tapas restaurant that we had been to several
times before where we had always enjoyed good food and good service.
Unfortunately, such was not the case this time. While the food was still quite
tasty, the service was deplorable. Everything we ordered came to the table
after a really long wait, and there was a huge gap between courses. We also had
my niece with us, a 10 year old girl whose meal finally came just before dessert.
We're talking an hour and a half wait folks! Some of the sharing plates that
were brought to the table were dirty, even though they had been run through the
dishwasher, some of them were still wet. In my opinion, this is simply
unacceptable.
Now for the good news. Kudos to the manager for realizing
that something was wrong. Without being prompted, she came over to our table
and offered to comp our meal because of the inconvenience. Personally, I am not
one of those diners who complains about everything in order to get a free meal,
for I have worked in many restaurants in both front and back of house and
understand the numerous complications that can arise. Maybe a server doesn't
show, maybe one of the cooks isn't quite up to speed on the menu, maybe the
distributor is shorting the restaurateur because they are behind on their
bills. It could be any or all of these things, but let's get back to the last
supper. In an effort to minimize the damage, the manager did about the only
thing she could do given her situation. She was genuine in her remorse and
apologized profusely for the extensive wait we had experienced. She was also
smart enough to realize that if we ever intended to come back, she had to do
something to make things right. After talking to her, we found out the reason
for the kitchen delay. They had had a small fire in the kitchen earlier that
day and were trying to still do a dinner service despite the kitchen not being
ready to handle the orders that were piling up. Bottom line is that she comped
us for about $200 worth of food and it looked like she might have comped some other
tables as well, since we were not the only ones who seemed annoyed. I felt bad
for her, but these types of scenarios raise a more important question as to
when a restaurant should be open for business, or when they should just put up
a sign that says "
Sorry. Closed tonight due to unforeseen circumstances". Of course, she
would have to call all of her reservations for that evening and deliver the bad
news, but I wonder if she might have
been better off doing just that? When you factor in the negative customer
reaction, the dollars lost in comped meals, and whatever else that didn't go
right, she might have come out ahead by staying closed for the night and
reopening when the kitchen and staff were fully prepared to deliver the kind of
dining experience their regular customers had come to expect. Luckily for her,
I am the forgiving type and will probably give them another try sometime in the
future, but if they have a few more nights like last night, there's a good
chance they may not be around very much longer.
So, I ask you, my fellow diners, do you think she made the
right decision staying open? Or should she have just cut her losses for the
night and called it a day until things were up to snuff? Thanks for reading,
your feedback is genuinely appreciated.
Yours truly,
Michael
