Eat Alone or Refire and Wait

[jfood]

Anothe thread brought up an interesting question.

If two of you are eating at a mid-high resto and one of the entrees is delivered to the point that one of you either have to eat it in an unacceptable manner or have it re-fired, what would you do?

If re-fired, now one person has their entree and the other is watching. Should the custo have to eat solo while the other is being refired? Andthen the other person eats solo? Should the resto take both entrees back and re-fire both?

Jfood would want both taken back and then have both re-fired, please do not put under the heat lamps for 10-15 minutes.

But then if you expand the question to include tables with more than 2 people. If it's a 4-top, what should be done, what about a 6-top?

Jfood is interested in hearing how both custos and MOD's and servers handle this situation.

TIA

http://jfoodonfood.blogspot.com/

[Trufflebaby]

This happened to me a few months ago. We were at Georges Modern in La Jolla & there was a problem w. the dish I ordered - the mushrooms in my main course had a small stone in them - apparently they weren't rinsed properly!

They sent out some food to nibble on and a glass of wine on the house while I was waiting for dish to be re-cooked so that I could eat w. the rest of my group and had the new dish out in about 10 mins. They also took my main course off the final bill and couldn't have been nicer about it!

[dolores]

Well done, exactly what a restaurant should do. Too bad La Jolla isn't near Westchester.

[rednyellow]

sounds like a perfect solution

[Trufflebaby]

They took what could have been a negative experience and made it a positive one.

It's always been a favorite of mine when I'm out in California and l definitely go back to Georges the next time I'm out that way.

[rednyellow]

I like this post. This exact thing just happened to me. Five friends went to breakfast. My order was completely wrong, not at all what I ordered and I'm stuck with the decision to eat with everyone, or sit nibbling on bread then eat my breakfast after everyone is basically done. I just ate what I was given but told the waitress that it was wrong,, but I wanted to eat together. Messing up orders really blows.

[hotoynoodle]

we agree frequently, jfood, but not here.

you send your dish back, for whatever reason. we take it away graciously and assure you its replacement will be out asap. the chef gets pissed, the cook gets reamed. well-run kitchens with good cooks don't get many technical send-backs, but it does happen. whether or not it is the kitchen's fault, it messes up the dance back there. sneaking one plate back into the choreography is one thing. now 2 or 4 or 5 other perfectly prepared plates should go in the trash, and a whole table needs to be re-fired because mrs. smith didn't think her swordfish au poivre had pepper? nightmare. sorry. this also puts the brakes on the tables that were just coming up.

the nice thing to do is send out a small nibble to the disgruntled guest. a few bites quickly prepared so they're eating something. if something went colossally wrong, take the dish off the check.

[jfood]

jfood's point is to figure out something so that a 2-top is not eating 2-solo meals. It is not a dining experience at all to watch one eat then eat alone. As always, it appears that you have a workable solution with the nibbles, nice touch. In all the years this has been offered exactly once.

But if the kitchen screws up the for a 2-top figure out a way to assure that there is not a table with one-eater/one-watcher and then the reverse. At a larger table, jfood has no issue with a 1-plate re-fire but if it is one of those 20-minute to plate dishes please advise the table so they can decide to change for a shorter turnaround dish.

BTW jfood would never ask for a 4-top or larger to have the entire table re-fire. that's total lunacy. just looking for other opinions on what to do's.

http://jfoodonfood.blogspot.com

[hotoynoodle]

i agree the nibble thing should happen more frequently, especially as you're climbing up the price ladder. neither of us are owners, so que sera!

that being said, i don't believe you or i send back food very often, particularly in light of how frequently i think we both dine out. when i'm with friends i'm content to consider it a fluke and enjoy their company. dining out for work? i've never returned a dish. even when served something i didn't order, lol. nobody notices whether you're eating and i prefer to not disrupt everybody else's meal.

[tatertotsrock]

You know, I have to say, with some of the places I've been too, there is some amazing choreography going on in the back..I've been amazed when, while dining at Joel Robuchon at the Mansion, I ordered the 13-course tasting and my fellow foodie ordered only 5 items (he's about 6'4" and 200 and I'm barely 5'2" and 110-it was pretty funny)..they managed to make the service appear seamless..I dont know how they did it...but then again, this person is my favorite person to dine with because we both have a way to drag a meal out an extra 2 hours by really savoring each bite.
I was just at Bashan and a fellow solo-diner decided to sit with me and I had already eaten 1 of my 3 ordered items, Tfront and back obviously have great communication, because they sent out a little itty-bitty version of one of the fish dishes I had been dying to try, when they brought out the fellows entree since I had already finished my 3rd.
Pretty nice.
I always share food with the people sitting with me and don't keep company with "non-share-ers so there is rarely a chance for one person to not be eating...also, if there is good bread and butter, everyone's hands and mouth should be busy with something.

[smartie]

it's one of those interesting questions. I am a extra extra extra well done steak person, I always tell the server to tell the kitchen start my steak now and I like it overdone so please tell the kitchen and don't let me send it back and have my dining companions eat before me and then I eat alone.

Needless to say some restaurants serve me a bloody piece of meat or burger and back it goes. Leaving me dangling for my dinner and everyone embarrassed to eat without me. Steak goes back on grill and returns dried out due to reheating not due to being well done.

The other night I went with a friend to a pretty nice place in Delray. My dinner, the potroast was darned close to freezing cold. I really should have sent it back but I didnt want it microwaved and also leave my friend eating his fish alone. Had we sent both back his fish would have been ruined.

Restaurants should get it right first time. Perfectly possible if they pay attention.

[rockandroller1]

Since what a customer might consider wrong or incorrect enough to send a meal back is a matter of personal preference, not so much that the kitchen did anything "wrong," (for example, the person ordered their steak medium, it comes out medium but the customer's version of medium is more cooked than that (or less cooked, whatever), so they send the steak back even though it was prepared correctly), I don't think the kitchen should be expected to prepare a new entree for any other diners, be it 1 or 6, at the table unless their food also has a problem (real or perceived). Why should the kitchen have to throw away 1 perfectly good meal and make a new one just because the other person at the table thought their steak was overcooked?

The polite thing to do (IMO) is for the person who doesn't have a problem with their entree to offer to share with the other person who sent it back, and the person who sent theirs back to tell the other person to go ahead without them.

[SweetPea914]

So what you're saying is that the customer is never right? I prefer my food under cooked. If I say medium rare, I mean medium rare. You admit that regardless of the error being "real or perceived" the customer is at fault. I'm sorry , but if the error is real, why then shouldn't the restaurant return all dinners be it 2 or 10 so all can enjoy their meal together??

[dolores]

Wow. Never in all my years of dining with big parties have I seen a restaurant do that.

I couldn't even get a meal delayed until I wasn't shoving salad into my mouth at my nemesis, I can't imagine a restaurant that would gladly return 10 dinners. I have to just assume they're not in Westchester, NY.

[rockandroller1]

I'm not trying to argue with you, just offer my opinion. In my many years' experience as a server and customer, the vast majority of the time when something is sent back, it's prepared exactly as described and correctly, the customer just doesn't like it. If the restaurant does exactly what they're supposed to, why should they have to eat the cost of several other dinners that were also prepared correctly the first time, with whom nobody else has a problem, just because someone thinks "medium" means "well done" or "rare." By the same token, I allow for SOME error and don't expect perfection from everyone all the time on every visit. If my steak were to be under or over cooked and I wished it be be re-done, but everyone else's meals were prepared correctly, why would I think that a restaurant should have to a) throw away all the correctly prepared food b) pay for all new meals and c) make everyone as a group wait for new food just because my steak was prepared wrong. If this person sent back food more than a couple of times when dining out over the months of knowing them, I'd probably quit inviting them out with my group because it's clear they find fault where there might not be any and the whole group suffers. I don't think it would be a very profitable business if restaurants were continually throwing out all meals for every table just because someone at the table didn't like something they ordered. That's just my opinion, you're entitled to yours as well.

[SweetPea914]

I'm sorry, and I'm not trying to be argumentative, however I think you vastly missed my point.

In your post you stated,
"Why should the kitchen have to throw away 1 perfectly good meal and make a new one just because the other person at the table thought their steak was overcooked?"

What you appear to be saying is that customers simply ordered incorrectly and restauants do not make mistakes.
I don't consider myself difficult and have only sent back 3 meals in 35 years of life and many meals out. 2 x's it was "pan-seared" tuna. The tuna arrived at my table fully cooked through and in one instance over-cooked. Know I realize this is a very difficult dish to get right as it is easy to over cook it, but if you can't handle making it then please take it off the menu or call it a grilled tuna steak to avoid confusion.

It was not an issue in one circumstance because 2 of us ordered the same dish, and we both sent it back.
The second time it happened (different restaurants BTW) I was with immediate family and I clarified with my server, "the tuna will be rare in the middle right?" I certaintly did not expect all 4 dishes to be redone and would agree with you that it would be wasteful and silly. But now, here I am sitting and waiting for my dinner while everyone else is eating and asking me if I want some of their dinner, because they are also uncomfortable eating while I wait. I feel in those situations, the restaurant should do something above and beyond just re-firing the one entree.
I do however think that if it is 2 people dining, then every effort should be made for both diners to eat their meals together. I was being a little over-dramatic in my statement that all 10 should be refired if the kitchen makes such a mistake, but I was trying to make a point.

You also stated
"...if restaurants were continually throwing out all meals for every table just because someone at the table didn't like something they ordered."

Again, you are indicating that restaurants do not make mistakes, and that customers are the ones at fault.
Let's try 2 examples, I Love salad and I like my salad dressing on the side. I always order it this way because I know I can be picky about how much dressing should be used. My salad comes out and the dressing is on the salad. I have very right to send it back (I might not though if the kitchen knows how to properly dress a salad)
Now, let's say a customer orders "steak with Bearnaise sauce", they recieve it and say, "oh, I don't like tarragon". In that sort of case I agree with you, the customer is 100% wrong.

[KevinB]

"So what you're saying is that the customer is never right? I prefer my food under cooked. If I say medium rare, I mean medium rare."

Unfortunately, as a former server, I can't tell you the number of times I brought out perfect medium rare steaks (just a small streak of red in the centre), only to have the customers squeal "This steak is raw!". They THINK they want medium rare, but what they want is medium well. I noticed that some higher end steak houses now put definitions of what they consider rare, medium rare, etc., right on the menu. I think this is the right idea.

[meatn3]

As a customer,if I'm with my SO I wouldn't bother trying to have them redo both. We tend to play musical plates so I would just request an extra plate & we would start sharing our "first course".
From a resto perspective if they are serious about providing you with the best experience they can, they should offer to redo both if that is acceptable to the customer.
Bigger parties, it starts to get into gray zones there for me. Personally I'd urge the others to go ahead & eat. From a servers pov, I haven't ever seen a large table that wanted everyones meal re-prepared in order for all to begin the meal together.

[dolores]

'From a resto perspective if they are serious about providing you with the best experience they can, they should offer to redo both if that is acceptable to the customer.'

I agree. That's exactly what my nemesis did not do, and interestingly, there have been other complaints about them here.

So, based on my horrid experience there, I'd have to go with sending both back to be 'refired'. Never heard that term before -- what is 'refired'?

[babette feasts]

Most restaurants operate on an 'order-fire' system. The order for your food is given to the kitchen, but it is not immediately made and plated. The kitchen gets ready and waits for the server to 'fire' the course, meaning 'GO!'. The servers should know the 'fire times' for each dish, and know when to fire your entree based on how long it will take and how quickly you are eating your appetizer, if you need to leave to catch a play, having a leisurely romantic dinner, etc.. If you ordered your steak well done, the server will need to fire it a few minutes earlier than if it was rare. The server fires each course, then it is up to the kitchen to organize and get everything ready at the same time, so the meat cook will tell the fish cook how long that well done steak will take so the fish cook knows not to sear the ahi too soon. A re-fire is simlpy to re-make the dish in question.

[dolores]

Fascinating. Re-make as in re-make from scratch?

I am of the diner type who figures (cynically) that such a request will result in my food being spat in. Am I wrong? Do chefs and servers NOT look unkindly on such requests?

Keep in mind, I am in Westchester NY, where my nemesis restaurant basically told me to go to hades when I complained about being rushed.

Thank you, babette feasts. I don't treat such requests lightly, but as I've noted, I look on dining out as entertainment and expect to be treated as I would treat others.

[kimmer1850]

Dolores,
You are right about servers and chefs not liking to refire both plates but we usually will in the interest of customer service and satisfaction. But I can honestly say that in over 20 years is the resto biz (in all callber of places) I have never seen a server or chef spit in or otherwise adulterate anyones food.

[dolores]

Thank you kimmer1850. I or Mr. dolores would only send back a plate if there was a huge problem with the order -- one Italian restaurant in Cape May NJ made garlic and oil pasta with cream. Mr. dolores hates cream and I've never heard of it in that dish have you? -- and even then, I or he would eat my meal while he or I waited. Honestly, we really and truly try to think of the server and chef, I am not being disingenuous. Obviously, this is why I was horrified at the service from my nemesis.

But thanks on the 'adulterating', I like that term! I was being cynical, of course, but I've probably read somewhere that it happens.

I agree with you that good customer service and satisfaction is paramount to me in a dining experience.

[hotoynoodle]

i read it all the time on here. i have been a professional in the industry for 20 years. i have never seen it nor heard of it actually happening.

btw, mr. dolores hates cream, but doesn't mind being called "mr. dolores"? ;)

[dolores]

Thanks, hotoynoodle, I'm glad to hear it.

Luckily, he is faaaar more congenial than I!

[KevinB]

I worked at one of the Darden restos in Toronto, and while I never saw anyone do anything to a customer's food, one of the cooks literally hated one of the managers. When Eric (the manager) would order his steak for lunch or dinner, Steve (the cook) would smile cheerfully, and throw it on the grill. Then, after Eric sat down, Steve would take the steak off the grill, drop it on the floor, and stamp on it a couple of times. All the wait staff thought this was hilarious.

And of course, anyone who's read Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London" knows his theory on this subject.

[SweetPea914]

I really love these type's of posts!
I've only ever been a customer so can only answer to that pov, If it's just my hubby and and I, easy call, I would definitely send mine back, or encourage him to send his back etc. I do agree, that the server should offer to refire both entrees.

If the table is a larger group it gets murkier for me. For example if I'm with immediate family, I'd send mine back and insist everyone continue with their meal. I don't expect the restaurant to refire everyone's meal.

If I'm with a large group of, let's say, my husband's employees/work people etc; or people I'm not otherwise all that familiar with I would more than likely pick around what was edible. If underdone (wich would be prefered than over-done IMO), I typically bring most of my dinner home anyway, so looking on the brightside, it won't get overcooked if/when I reheat it for lunch tomorrow, if overdone, I guess I won't be bringing home anything anf it's lean cuisine for lunch :-)