When Food Goes Bad. Then a restaurant serves it.

[Sorrel]

You go to a restaurant and order a meal, the first course is just about edible but the main course arrives and you take one bite of the meat, it tastes rank, you spit it out, run to the door an throw up in the car park.

The chef comes out and tells you ~ I'm sorry you think the meat was bad, it isn't, but we will knock the cost of the dish off the bill, but you're wrong.

Do you

1. Say: thanks I'm going home to brush my teeth.

2. Say: Fuck you I'm not paying for the dish that made me vomit or the first course I left in the car park with it.

3. Cock punch the ass licking fuckwitted toad licker and whilst he's on the ground stamp on his fingers so he can't poison anyone else for a few weeks.

4. something else.

Just curious.

[Manduck]

I'm going to say 4. something else. On multiple choice tests "none of the above" is the correct answer for at least one question, and since there's only one question on this test, that has to be it.

[silenus]

4. Call Health Department.

[figure9]

2. If he wants his money he can call the cops, I'll even wait for them to show up. During that time I'll be calling the health inspector. I would seriously consider #3, but I don't want to have to call someone to bail me out.

[wisernow]

2. Say: Fuck you I'm not paying for the dish that made me vomit or the first course I left in the car park with it.


But why would you leave the first course in the car?

[Sorrel]

But why would you leave the first course in the car?

ermmm the main course was bad and when spewing the first course came up to?

In the car park

[Sorrel]

too:smack:

[Rigamarole]

Uh, did this happen to you?

[needscoffee]

You say, "Here, you eat what I left on my plate, while I watch."

How were the parsnips?

[Czarcasm]

Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.

[Frank]

I'll pay for the meal if they insist; I'll not pay if they allow that.

The real result is that I will not go back to that restaurant ever again, and I will never recommend it, and if anyone asks for a recommendation of that type of restaurant I will, after my recommendations, add, "Oh, and don't even think about ...," and if anyone mentions that they are even thinking of going to that restaurant, I will urge them not to.

It's the least I can do.

[digs]

ermmm the main course was bad and when spewing the first course came up to?

In the car park

Which is English for "parking lot", eh, guv'nah?*


* See, I took an English class in Junior High... I mean, "during second form" so I can speak English, too.

[In Winnipeg]

The real result is that I will not go back to that restaurant ever again, and I will never recommend it, and if anyone asks for a recommendation of that type of restaurant I will, after my recommendations, add, "Oh, and don't even think about ...," and if anyone mentions that they are even thinking of going to that restaurant, I will urge them not to.

It's the least I can do.

Also: blackball them online if you can find a website like "yelp" that allows you to review local businesses.

[panache45]

You say, "Here, you eat what I left on my plate, while I watch."

This. If the chef is so adamant that there's nothing wrong with the food, let him prove it.

[Lynn Bodoni]

I'll pay for the meal if they insist; I'll not pay if they allow that.

The real result is that I will not go back to that restaurant ever again, and I will never recommend it, and if anyone asks for a recommendation of that type of restaurant I will, after my recommendations, add, "Oh, and don't even think about ...," and if anyone mentions that they are even thinking of going to that restaurant, I will urge them not to.

It's the least I can do. This is pretty much what I'd do. First, I'd complain to the manager. If the manager turns purple with embarrassment and offer to comp my meal, then I accept that it might be an honest mistake. I'll try the place again. I've never asked for the chef*. If the manager (or chef) insisted that the meat was perfectly fine, then I'd probably just cross that restaurant off my list, and let all my friends know that dining there was for the adventurous. If I got a bad meal twice, then I figure that the place has quality control issues, and I won't be back, and again, recommend that my friends stay away from it.

*There's one chef/owner that I know of who comes out and solicits comments from the diners, but I think that's just his style. When you only have a dozen or so tables, then you want to make sure every single diner is having an orgasmic experience. This guy handwrites Christmas cards to his diners.

[Baffle]

My wife got the world's worst risotto in a place in Calgary once. It was full of what seemed to be grains of sand. They tried to knock 10% off the price of the food she ate three bites of. We informed them they would be removing its entire cost from the bill. After involving the manager, they finally agreed.

If your food is so terrible it can't even be eaten, you don't pay. What are they going to do? Ban you?

[Markxxx]

I've worked in hotels almost my whole life, so I've seen this situation in resturants a lot. The fact is, food is cheap. It really is. I would be miffed if the chef took the price of the course off the meal rather than comp the whole meal.

All reputable places would give you a comp dinner and apologize. They are used to it. What if it's a scam? As I said, the markup on food is huge, so it's no loss and the resturant would take your name (in order to send you an apology letter or such) and now have it in their files. If it is a scam, you'd only get away with it once. Moreover hotels and resturants share the names and descriptions of suspected scammers

The one thing I learned from working with the public is if someone has a legitimate gripe they will always give you a chance to correct it. If they immediately start wanting money or free stuff then I say "forget them."

If I was in the resturant in the OP example, I'd ask for a new dish or simply say "I'm leaving and I don't expect to be billed." If they tried to call the cops, I'd pay by credit card then dispute the charge later on

[AWB]

Something like this happened to my family, but it was at a fast-food place, so the meal was already paid for.

My wife, daughter, and I had dinner at a Wendy's in Maryland. As we were finishing, my wife and I noticed my daughter had barely touched her milk. We told her to drink it. She did, then promptly vomited. I grabbed her milk carton; it was warm, and smelled bad. (My wife and I felt like heels for making her drink it. She'd obviously smelled it and avoided it, but was too shy about telling us.)

I went to the counter, and related what happened to the order-taker. I then looked at him; the ball was in his court. "Um... so?"

"So," I stated, "I want my money back."

"Oh, uh... let's see, a milk is 99 cents, with tax is..." he started.

"No," I explained, "for my daughter's whole meal. That she couldn't keep down because she was food poisoned by the milk."

"U-um... I'll have to get a manager," he stammered.

When the manager arrived, I re-explained the situation. He got a little authoritarian, then said, "We can refund the milk, but not the meal, since it was OK."

I then got my voice a little louder, so that the other patrons could hear, "So, in order to get a refund for the full meal that my daughter regurgitated because of the bad milk, I'll have to get the county Health Department here and explain how you're selling tainted milk to 4-year-olds and hoping they leave before they can pin it on you?"

Got our whole meal free. :D:D:D

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

I then got my voice a little louder, so that the other patrons could hear, "So, in order to get a refund for the full meal that my daughter regurgitated because of the bad milk, I'll have to get the county Health Department here and explain how you're selling tainted milk to 4-year-olds and hoping they leave before they can pin it on you?"

Got our whole meal free. :D:D:D
Grand pwnage.

[Hello Again]

5. Show the whole thing on national TV! (Is the OP Gordon Ramsey by any chance?)

If you watched "Kitchen Nightmares" you'd know that people make Gordon puke all the time then heartily deny any wrongdoing. Then he demands to see their food storage areas and yells "You're going to KILL someone!" I think he's only faking about half the time, because when you see the state of the walk-ins, you definitely *want* to puke.

[AClockworkMelon]

This. If the chef is so adamant that there's nothing wrong with the food, let him prove it.I wouldn't recommend this. Even if the food is bad, not everyone will have the same reaction to it. It might very well be bad and he'd manage to gulp it down with no immediate affects. Just refuse to pay him.

[Freudian Slit]

Gonna list the name of this place? I don't want to vomit in the parking lot!

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Wait a second. The chef said he would knock off the cost of the dish, so what's the problem? I also see no reason to accept the OP's melodramatics at face value. I worked in restaurants a long time and saw more than one freeloader trying to scam free meals by saying perfectly good food was bad. The OP is obligated to pay for what he did eat.

[Bosstone]

Wait a second. The chef said he would knock off the cost of the dish, so what's the problem? I also see no reason to accept the OP's melodramatics at face value. I worked in restaurants a long time and saw more than one freeloader trying to scam free meals by saying perfectly good food was bad. The OP is obligated to pay for what he did eat.And threw back up?

[AClockworkMelon]

Wait a second. The chef said he would knock off the cost of the dish, so what's the problem? I also see no reason to accept the OP's melodramatics at face value. I worked in restaurants a long time and saw more than one freeloader trying to scam free meals by saying perfectly good food was bad. The OP is obligated to pay for what he did eat.I think the idea is that the chef is still going to charge the customer for the other food that he ate there; food that the customer has vomited up in the parking lot because of the bad food.

If I go to Burger King and order a drink, fries and a burger and the fries are bad and make me vomit up my burger and drink, I'm not going to pay for any of it, even if only the fries were bad. Fuck that.

Edit: Bosstone beat me to it.

[Diogenes the Cynic]

And threw back up?
There are other things that make people throw up besides what they just ate. Maybe he had eleven or twelve margaritas. Maybe he was sick from something else.

Food poisoning doesn't happen instantly. It takes a day or so.

I don't know what happened, but I'm just saying my hard life experience in the restaurant biz taught me that it is entirely possible for customers to be either mistaken or full of shit. I'm not going to just take it as a given that this restaurant was wrong or that the meat was bad. It's easy to blame the thing you just ate -- post hoc ergo propter hoc -- but that doesn't always make it true.

And just as a general FYI to the thread at large -- Most places aren't going to quake in fear if you threaten to call the Health Department. The Health Department generally isn't going to do anything because of one complaint. If they get a pattern, they may come check some temperatures and dates, but they're not going to come running because some guy says he threw up in the parking lot.

[gonzomax]

I and my wife got food poisoning in a high class restaurant from bad clams. It was horrible. It also took a day before it showed. We bitched to the restaurant, but not immediately because we were too sick to deal with it. We went to a clinic and had proof. The restaurant manager denied it was his food, but it was the only food my wife and i shared. We went above him and talked to the main office. I believe he got canned. I felt badly, but all he to do was the right thing.

[Bosstone]

Food poisoning doesn't happen instantly. It takes a day or so.And food theoretically takes anywhere from several hours to a couple of days to fully traverse the digestive system, but I can trigger a pretty juicy BM on command by eating a particular spicy dish at a local restaurant. So I'm skeptical that food can't affect someone almost immediately.

[Guinastasia]

I doubt one bite though is going to give you food poisoning, which seemed to be the premise in the OP.

[Amblydoper]

If you go to a restaurant, order three courses, and claim that one was "bad," understand that "bad" has two meanings, and two different appropriate responses.

If "bad" means spoiled, rotten, contaminated, etc, then the appropriate response is to comp the guest's entire meal. I would not comp the entire table unless the party was still not satisfied with my apology and reactions.

If "bad" means unpalatable, flavorless, unsatisfying, etc, then I would only comp that one dish. Just because you didn't like something doesn't mean you get the meal for free. I'm only giving you that dish for free because you are putting up a fuss about it.

But what I do with the guest's check in either situation is only part of the story. In the first case, I am going to personally check the cook's station to see if the product we are serving is indeed spoiled. In my restaurant, I have over 200 prep items to keep track of, and its not uncommon for a spoiled item to slip through the cracks. I rely on my cooks to watch out for that kind of thing, and I expect them to bring spoiled food to my attention. If the food is spoiled, or even questionable, then I will take full responsibility and apologize to the guest, and of course discipline the cook appropriately.

In the second case, I'm still going to inspect the food. Just because one person didn't like something doesn't mean others won't, but I'm going to make my own judgment and decide if I should keep serving it. If a second guest complains about it, clearly I messed up somewhere, and the offending item will be 86'ed for the evening, unless I can correct the problem immediately.

Regardless of how I personally would react in either situation, consciously selling spoiled food is disgraceful, unethical, dangerous, and illegal. Any chef willingly doing so, and especially the one mentioned in the OP, is worth less than the cost of his toque.

[BigT]

There are other things that make people throw up besides what they just ate. Maybe he had eleven or twelve margaritas. Maybe he was sick from something else.

Food poisoning doesn't happen instantly. It takes a day or so.

I don't know what happened, but I'm just saying my hard life experience in the restaurant biz taught me that it is entirely possible for customers to be either mistaken or full of shit. I'm not going to just take it as a given that this restaurant was wrong or that the meat was bad. It's easy to blame the thing you just ate -- post hoc ergo propter hoc -- but that doesn't always make it true.

And just as a general FYI to the thread at large -- Most places aren't going to quake in fear if you threaten to call the Health Department. The Health Department generally isn't going to do anything because of one complaint. If they get a pattern, they may come check some temperatures and dates, but they're not going to come running because some guy says he threw up in the parking lot.

Well, if you're going to alter the premise, why the hell bother responding? The hypothetical is that the food did cause you to get so sick as to throw up.

As for restaurants: the whole thing is that the business is inherently in a position of power, and individual people have to fight to take that power back. No matter how often you've been scammed, all it takes is treating one non-scammer as a scammer as a scammer to piss them off enough to try to retaliate.

You don't want to take the customer's word? Fine. But check the food yourself. Do not automatically take the chef's side.

[OpalCat]

It doesn't have to be food poisoning to make you throw up. I once threw up at an airport because I saw a guy spit a loogie into a cup [of loogies]. Something can be so gross that it makes you vomit.

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Well, if you're going to alter the premise, why the hell bother responding? The hypothetical is that the food did cause you to get so sick as to throw up.
It seemed to me like it was a rhetorical hypothetical.
You don't want to take the customer's word? Fine. But check the food yourself. Do not automatically take the chef's side.
I'm not taking anybody's side. That is my whole point. I'm not just automatically going to take this customer's story at face value. It is possible that this chef intentionally served bad meat, but in my experience, it would be highly unlikely. In all my years in that business, I never saw that done. It would be suicide for the establishment and the career of the chef. Nothing is impossible, but I find it very implausible.

[needscoffee]

There are other things that make people throw up besides what they just ate. Maybe he had eleven or twelve margaritas. Maybe he was sick from something else.

Food poisoning doesn't happen instantly. It takes a day or so...


I doubt one bite though is going to give you food poisoning, which seemed to be the premise in the OP.The OP stated the meat tasted rank, causing him to vomit. Did either of you read it?

[needscoffee]

It seemed to me like it was a rhetorical hypothetical.

I'm not taking anybody's side. That is my whole point. I'm not just automatically going to take this customer's story at face value. It is possible that this chef intentionally served bad meat, but in my experience, it would be highly unlikely. In all my years in that business, I never saw that done. It would be suicide for the establishment and the career of the chef. Nothing is impossible, but I find it very implausible.I'm not going to automatically believe that you worked in the business. Just because you state you did I don't see any reason to take your claim at face value.

[Guinastasia]

The OP stated the meat tasted rank, causing him to vomit. Did either of you read it?

I read it -- but it could have been an instant reaction to the taste. Hell, I've SMELLED things that automatically made me gag. Didn't mean they were bad.

As the OP stated, this is a hypothetical.

[needscoffee]

I read it -- but it could have been an instant reaction to the taste. Hell, I've SMELLED things that automatically made me gag. Didn't mean they were bad.This is exactly what he is saying. The rank taste made him vomit. Just like if you glugged down a glass of spoiled milk and immediately vomited it up. Nowhere does he say he developed a case of food poisoning.

[Freudian Slit]

I'm not going to automatically believe that you worked in the business. Just because you state you did I don't see any reason to take your claim at face value.

Oh yeah? Well I don't see any reason to believe that you don't actually believe that he worked in the business. I'm not going to take this at face value. :)

In any event I don't think the OP should have had to pay for any of it either.

[tim314]

I'm not taking anybody's side. That is my whole point. I'm not just automatically going to take this customer's story at face value.Maybe the customer is full of it, but isn't it still better business to just comp their meal and let them go away reasonably happy? As someone up-thread suggested, most restaurants can afford to give away the occasional free meal.

[Freudian Slit]

Maybe the customer is full of it,

Not after his time in the parking lot he's not.

[Lynn Bodoni]

Maybe the customer is full of it, but isn't it still better business to just comp their meal and let them go away reasonably happy? As someone up-thread suggested, most restaurants can afford to give away the occasional free meal. Some people make a hobby of complaining about things, just in order to get a discount or comped item. The store or restaurant wants to make a customer with a real complaint feel better about the store or restaurant, but on the other hand, the habitual complainer should not be rewarded, because s/he will be back next week, complaining about a hair in the meal (which looks suspiciously like the customer's hair). There seem to be many more people who bitch about stuff just to get that discount than there seem to be people who have a genuine complaint. So the restaurant or store needs to take a good hard look at the complaint. If there really IS a hair in the meal, and it's not from the customer, then the manager needs to see which server or cook is shedding hairs into the food. And if the meat is actually bad, then the manager needs to find out whether the cook just grabbed a steak that should have been thrown out two weeks ago, or whether the fridge is on the fritz.

[Anne Neville]

5. Show the whole thing on national TV! (Is the OP Gordon Ramsey by any chance?)

Can't be. He (or she) wrote that whole post with no swear words.

[Lute Skywatcher]

It doesn't have to be food poisoning to make you throw up.My stomach once rejected some mac & cheese I ate in my high school's cafeteria, about two hours after eating. No idea what was wrong with it other than being very thin--like soup.

[Cat Fight]

It doesn't have to be food poisoning to make you throw up. I once threw up at an airport because I saw a guy spit a loogie into a cup [of loogies]. Something can be so gross that it makes you vomit.

I came close just reading this. Ewww.