Bad Restaurant Experience

[Big Cliff]

Cliff,

 

A few years ago (2004 or 2005) I ate at a Italian Restaurant in Fenelon Falls....it was a bit small and if walking from the canal it was on the right side of the road...pretty sure it was a family run place.....it was by far the best Italian food I ever had....don't know the name but I'm hoping you do....and is it still there as we would like to go back someday.

 

Bob

 

As you walked from the canal in which direction? Going East on the right is Cow & Sow, they have super ribs and stuff but aren't known for much else than their beer.

 

Going West there isn't much, Texas burger, a couple of small places but nothing that I can think of that stands out, not on the main street anyways. Now just off the main street there are a couple of good places.

[mercman]

Wow. Life's too short Billy Bob.

 

Go fishing.

 

 

wow.....lifes too short NOT to enjoy a good meal with familly and friends. Not wanting to seem out of place here bud, but theres more to life than fishing.A good balanced life should definately include fishing, but should also include familly outings to a local eating establishment or a movie.

Edited January 14, 2011 by mercman

[SmokestackLightnin]

 

 

We were invited to Restaurant X for dinner with 8 other couples. We were very excited to go because of our previous experience with the restaurant. My husband and I had been there before and had very good food and service. Unfortunately, food and service change when management changes. We sat down for our reservations at approximately 7:50 and ordered shortly afterwards. Appetizers and salads came out slowly. However, our dinners did not even begin to be served until around 9:50. One of our guests had to leave because of family obligations and took his dinner home in a to-go container. Dinners slowly trickled in at about 9:50 one at a time. We could not all eat together because not everyone had a dinner. Six guests had order fillets but did not get them prepared as ordered. They were very tough and not cooked to their request. Two of our guests never got their dinners! It was only after about 15 minutes after the last dinner was brought out (approximately 10:30) that the server came back to ask about the dinners. This is when they were told that the final 2 dinners were never served. Unfortunately, the owner/management never came out to make amends. He stayed in the back and let his servers deal with the unsatisfied customers. He never came out to apologize or offer any complimentary drinks, appetizers to hold over the guests who did not get their dinner, or any money off the bill. Two dinners and one dinner that was sent back, were taken off the bill only after one of our guests requested it.

Obviously, the kitchen and staff were not prepared. Several times during the evening the servers stated that they were going through a transition. Transitions happen but bad customer service is unacceptable. As much as I enjoyed my visit to Restaurant X for our couple dinner, I would never go back because of the change in owners or management which made this experience very disappointing.

 

The screnario above describes a dinner with 16 people. I have 2 kids in hockey and what that means is travel tournaments. We learned early that it is not wise to go out as a large group. Most places are not prepared to handle a large group along with other patrons in the restaurant. Buffet restaurants excluded. Now we just divide and conquer.

 

Cliff mentioned Chinese restaurants, once again I was disappointed by a Chinese restaurant. Not from the food. But the fact they were not open. We spend almost three weeks in Temagami each summer. My kids go to a camp on the lake and my wife and I rent a cottage down the northeast arm just before the Skull Narrows. Two of the last three years the Chinese restaurant has not been open in the summer. We enjoyed boating there and having lunch....hopefully this year.

[irishfield]

Too stuck up to stop in for a drink SSL ??

 

Helen and Terry pick some dumb times to go on holidays... but they took their son to China this summer so he would't miss school if they did it another time of year. The other year.. they couldn't get a single person to work for them to wash dishes. I told them to do take out only.. but they closed instead.

[Beans]

I bought some chinese food from a local Lindsay restaurant one time, previous experiences had been quite good. When I got home with my order, the food was lousy, no, it was REALLY bad. I went back the next day (1/2 an hour drive each way)with the food and asked to see the manager, he wasn't in so I asked that he call me.

 

He did call the next day and I explained that we had got food there many times before and it was always excellent but this was just not up to the standards we had come to expect from them.

 

He apologized and told me he had all new staff from Toronto and was having problems with them and if I would come back he would give me replacement food. I told him that I would love to come back but that I would appreciate it if he would call me when he had his staff straightened out because I really didn't want more of the same. He promissed he would. That was two years ago and I still haven't heard from him nor have I gone back again.

 

Unfortunatly if you want good chinese food in Lindsay I would suggest you go to Fenelon Falls! Now there is quality!

 

Don't know if this is the same place Cliff...

 

 

Just before we moved up this way, my old Chrysler station wagon blew a head gasket in Omemee...Maribeth got a ride back to Richmond Hill (dog needed food etc) and I stayed at my bro and sis-in-law's place in Lindsay for three days...I offered to buy a Chinese take-out for supper one night for their family and I went to the buffet place on Hwy 35 just below Hwy 7...Everything looked very good on the buffet and our take-out was great...

 

Fast forward a couple of years and for our anniversary that year we went to the same place for their buffet...BIG mistake...everything with any meat (wings,ribs) were hard and dried out...even the chicken balls and shrimp spring rolls...veggie dishes were soggy and mushy...Dessert was good...(had to say sumpin' nice) I doubt we will ever go back there again but if you do...order off the menu...

 

If I couldn't cook Chinese better than that (and I can...ask Meely and CPH)(my first father-in-law was a graduate Chef of Hong Kong University) I would close up shop...

 

Too bad this happened as we don't get to eat out very often...usually just anniversaries and birthdays ...

 

 

 

[HTHM]

One thing to bear in mind that if one refuses to pay for a meal, quite often the server is stuck with the bill. IE: Dine and dash. As well, if you send it back to the kitchen, it most likely will get messed with.

The worst experience I had was a business dinner where we had exceptional service and exceptional food, (we were a party of 9 with a bill of $1200.00) and a boor at our table who slipped the server a c-note and his hotel room key as we were leaving.

He boasted about it on the way back to the hotel, and it was all I could do to not deck him.

[Roy]

All y'all come over to my place. I'll serve you something decent we don't accept tips.

[Joey]

All y'all come over to my place. I'll serve you something decent we don't accept tips.

 

I can attest to that, best place to eat in Quebec by far

[Beans]

I can attest to that, best place to eat in Quebec by far

 

Yep...especially if'n you likes PAELLA !!!

 

Sorry Roy...I couldn't resist...

 

 

 

[fishing n autograph]

All y'all come over to my place. I'll serve you something decent we don't accept tips.

 

yeah, but Roy, do you where the Hooters uniform

[skeeter]

i will add just one of my bad experience's.

 

Pizza Hut at birchmount rd & ellesmere scarborough.

The wife and I go there for dinner.

We were the ONLY customers in the place.

We order our diet pop's and a pizza.

Waitress comes back with the pop's.

All the employee's are standing at the bar having their stuff chat.

An HOUR later the waitress brings us our bill.

I politely asked her if it was normal to bring a customer the bill before they get their dinner?

Her reply was, you already had your dinner.

I politely said that if we did have our dinner wouldn't we still have the pizza tray and the plates still on the table?

She then said , i don't know what kind of bull crap your trying to pull but your not leaving till you pay the bill.

I said , then you better get the manager over here now.

She went to the bar, talked to the manager, he stomped over and said why are you trying to get out of paying for your dinner.

I said , if she had actually brought our dinner i would pay for it but since she didn't I'm not paying for something i didn't get.

Well you got your drinks so you have to pay for them or i will call the cops.

At that point i had, had enough and said , then you better get on the phone while you still can .

We have not been back and never will.

[mercman]

yeah, but Roy, do you where the Hooters uniform

 

 

Roy has hooters now theres a scarey image

[bigugli]

Business lunch and meeting in T.O.

The meal was their chicken dinner special. Service was prety good. Food was good. All but 3 of us had the chicken.

3 hours into the meeting, the meeting was called on account of salmonella. We weren't paying the bill, they threatened to bill the company. We called the health inspector from the Emerg. Had to be about the worst 12 hours of my life

Restaurant gone byebye.

Edited January 15, 2011 by bigugli

[irishfield]

You sure it wasn't what you had for supper the night before, or early breakfast, Bruce...

[lew]

 

The meal was their chicken dinner special.

 

3 hours into the meeting, the meeting was called on account of salmonella.

 

 

Bruce, we had a similar experience at a wedding reception in Kingston 10 years ago. There was a choice of roast beef or chicken and everyone who ordered the chicken became extremely sick. Fortunately everyone in my family ate the beef.

 

Sure did put a damper on an otherwise fun night.

[mercman]

never had a bad experience in a restaurant.As long as theres food, im happy

Love it when they ask if i eat desert. I say "Do i look like a man who doesnt eat desert !!!" Mostly they just smile and hand me the desert menu...

[bigugli]

You sure it wasn't what you had for supper the night before, or early breakfast, Bruce...

6 different people from 6 different offices, having the same item on the menu? And no, the 6 of us were not members of the "nicely dressed guy" fraternity.

Besides the health inspectors confirmed the findings.

[crappieperchhunter]

I myself am guilty of either not reading the complete post or not comprehending what others have written. So I ask you to go back and read it again because as I said...."Here is just a EXAMPLE (BELOW) of a bad restaurant experience I have read somewhere else".....that was not my experience......I just wanted some advice on how others handle a situation similar to what I have read.

 

BTW great post by everyone....

My point was...oh never mind

 

wow.....lifes too short NOT to enjoy a good meal with familly and friends. Not wanting to seem out of place here bud, but theres more to life than fishing.A good balanced life should definately include fishing, but should also include familly outings to a local eating establishment or a movie.

My point was...oh never mind

[nofish4me]

Had two cops show up once, because I refused to pay the additional cost for the rotten cottage cheese that was not eaten. They gladly watched the hockey game, while I finished my two beer. Then the three of us left the place together. I don't know about them, but I've never been back to that place.

[John Bacon]

After spending a considerable length of time (in my 20's/30s) in 'the biz' and working up to a senior management position, I've pretty much 'seen it all'. So unfortunately, I feel a need to take exception to the above post.

"20 minutes, 2 smokers there was lots of stray ashes around the ashtray"

"but 4-5 fries fall off the plate and into the stray ashes"

"I completely lost it on that stupid waitress."

"she just got fired"

So some 'stupid waitress' lost her job because you left lots of stray ashes??????? There would never be any room for that type of manager in one of my restaurants.

 

"but 4-5 fries fall off the plate and into the stray ashes, she reaches over grabs the fries and puts them back in my plate"

 

You missed a key point. I certainly wouldn't be too happy about the waitress picking up the fries from the ashes and putting them back on my plate.

[mercman]

At least we now know how the short and curlies got in the meals..

 

 

[Cookslav]

So some 'stupid waitress' lost her job because you left lots of stray ashes??????? There would never be any room for that type of manager in one of my restaurants.

 

She would most certainly would have been releived of her Duties had she been working in any of my restaurants, or Conference facility.

She Picked up food that was spilt on the table and put it back on their plate????....nevermind the ashes

That is simply discusting, unsanitary and unacceptable.

You drop a guests food you replace the food and appologise profusely.

The ONLY time you tell a guest they are wrong, is when you don't want their business...and the only time you don't want someones business is because they are either disrupting the atmosphere for the other guests, or they are litterlly and legally speaking....harrassing your staff.

 

Billy,

I'd write a letter, e-mail or even give the Manager/ownership a call.

Any reputable establishment will make it right, and treat you to a decent meal that will make you WANT to return and pay.

Sometimes restaurants make mistakes...and sometimes its as simple as someone calling in sick that sets a series of unfortunate events into action.

Its how we learn from the poor experiences, and what we do to recover our guests that sets us appart from the hacks out there.

 

At the end of the day....

In Hospitality our job is to exceed the guests expectations, and if we fail...try and try again.

 

One thing I do recommend for a group of 16 is to definatly make a reservation.

Most restaurants are in the business of Nickles and dimes....if they don't expect a busy night they will send staff home early or short schedule to save on labor.

Giveing even an hours notice can allow them to prepare, or even call in some help.

[John Bacon]

I have never refused to pay for the meal but I did leave without tipping once. I tried in vain to flag the waitress down to get some water for my wife before a customer from another table took pity and gave us their water piture.

 

On a more positive note; I ordered a medium steak from Kellseys at 401 & Morningside and received a well done steak. The waitress both replaced and credited the meal and gave me a complimentary dessert as well. I was actually glad that they had messed up my order in the end.

[wallyboss]

After spending a considerable length of time (in my 20's/30s) in 'the biz' and working up to a senior management position, I've pretty much 'seen it all'. So unfortunately, I feel a need to take exception to the above post.

"20 minutes, 2 smokers there was lots of stray ashes around the ashtray"

"but 4-5 fries fall off the plate and into the stray ashes"

"I completely lost it on that stupid waitress."

"she just got fired"

So some 'stupid waitress' lost her job because you left lots of stray ashes??????? There would never be any room for that type of manager in one of my restaurants.

 

First of all get off your high horses and reread my post. She picked up the fries off the table and put them back in my plate????? Is that the kind of waitress that you would keep around??????

[canadadude]

First of all get off your high horses and reread my post. She picked up the fries off the table and put them back in my plate????? Is that the kind of waitress that you would keep around??????

only if she's hot & dooable thats how the business works