Sure, I’ll send food back. The last time was just a few weeks ago. The underside of the pizza I’d ordered was noticeable burnt. If it was just a slice or two I wouldn’t have complained, but the whole thing was burnt.
I once sent food back … boy, my mom got mad … scraped it into the dog’s dish and told me to go hungry.
See, I don’t get this attitude.
Why would you pay and suffer rather than get what you ordered? Do you think it makes you “look bad”? Do you think they talk fondly of you after you left? “Gee that man was so nice. We completely botched his order and he never said a thing, and still paid. What a nice guy!” Because they’re not.
I’ve sent food back that was made wrong, but if it was just bad, I didn’t say anything. People, especially on this board, say “don’t eat a chains. Eat at local restaurants.” The only times I’ve had botched orders is at chains, but the only trouble I’ve had unpalatable food is at local restaurants. You’d think that a family-run Mexican restaurant in NM would make excellent food. But they didn’t. I’d have been better off with a gas station burrito.
Exactly. When I was a waiter, someone who wouldn’t allow me to fix a botched order and insisted on paying without eating made me feel bad/guilty.
A botched order means I’m not coming back, and sitting there waiting while for a do-over is sometimes either impractical, impossible, or just a pain in the ass.
This. I’ve worked fast food and bar and restaurants for over a decade and I’ve never heard of anyone doing anything to food.
Perhaps if the food comes out cold I’d ask them to microwave it or something, but even then it’s happened maybe 3 times in my life. If the food sucks I eat what I can stand and just never go back.
agreed, I vote with my $$…piss me off and I will probably not return.
I have been in the food biz for 40 years (with a 5 year real estate appraisal sabbatical).
I have been everything from a cook, chef, server,bartender,general manager…I would fire anyone, on the spot, if I saw the adulterating a customers order.
DP
I never send food back. Mostly I’m not that picky and have been lucky, so it hasn’t been a problem. But otherwise I figure if they can’t make it right the first time then I’m not going to ask for them to do it again. I’d rather just vote with my wallet and not come back than ask them to redo it. I also don’t want the people who are making and serving my food to be annoyed with me.
And I hate going to dinner with someone who sends food back, it throws the whole meal into disarray. I’m there to eat, not hear negativity and complaints. I have hot fresh food in front of me, do I eat it or do I need to wait for their repaired food to come back? Is the waitress going to be annoyed at us and spit in the food? It’s just not fun.
I’m more of the mind of, if something is wrong, give them a chance to make it right. Then see what happens and judge accordingly. Everybody has an off day or an occasional fuck-up. How they handle it is what is important to me.
Once time we were at a nice casual place. Our food had just arrived, including soup for Mr. S, when he got a phone call about an ongoing family situation from his sister. He had to take it, so he went outside. I continued eating, and the waitress came to check on us. I explained that he was dealing with the family thing, and we were fine, he’d eat when he got back.
Well, it was a long phone call, and by the time he got back, his soup was cold. We asked the waitress if she could just zap it in the microwave, and she said they didn’t have one because “we don’t reheat food,” and said she would be happy to replace it with a fresh bowl. We said that wasn’t necessary, since it was our fault it got cold, but she insisted. 
A nice thing on a difficult day. She got a very good tip.
If it’s that bad, you shouldn’t pay. (Make sure the manager or owner is aware of your objection.) Hell, I’ve demanded and received my money back after a counter order, for what proved to be inedible mess.
I only have a couple of times.
Once it was a kitchen mix-up and they sent me out the wrong order. I might have considered eating the wrong order anyways if it had looked good but it was full of green bell peppers and I despise those. So back it went. Waitress apologized, she had gotten her tables mixed up. No big deal.
Another time years ago I was out to lunch with my now ex-husband and I got raw chicken from a fast food place. I took one bite, noticed it was raw, and I went to go back up to the counter to ask for a replacement. My ex started ranting at me for overreacting. He was sure it was fine. :rolleyes: I said, “You eat it then!” and slid it across the table to him. He takes one bite and runs off to the bathroom retching and gagging… and I was overreacting. I take the chicken back to the counter, employee apologized profusely, I get a new (different) meal for free, no more chicken for me for a while.
Generally only if it’s egregiously bad, neglected, infested or dirty.
I mean, I wouldn’t send something back if it’s just the wrong dish- I’d make the best of it, but if I ordered something with ice cream, and the ice cream’s all melted, I’d send it back. Just getting my steak off a doneness level wouldn’t bother me- I’d just as soon eat a properly prepared medium-rare or medium-well done steak than make an issue out of not getting my preferred medium steak. I’d probably even just make-do with a rare , if it came to that. Not sure I’d do so with a well-done steak though.
My thinking also. I don’t like to send food back, but I will if necessary. If my medium rare steak comes out rare or medium, fine. Once it hits medium well, cook a new one. But if I say no pickles on my burger and it has a pickle because the cook sleep-walked through the preparation, I’ll ditch the pickle and power through the residual pickleness.
Yep, but I’m nice about it. If it’s cold when it’s suppose to be hot, when it’s too salty or otherwise inedible. Sometimes I will give the kitchen a complement or critique. They can’t fix it if they don’t know about it.
The only time I sent non-fast food back was pretty much word for word what you said, except mine was (a) at an Outback, and (b) was an order to go, so nobody in management asked me if I was satisfied.
Fast food happens often to me, mainly because I order a burger “plain” (or a burrito without salsa) and they forget. Of course, there was the time I ordered a bacon cheeseburger, and they remembered the bacon and the cheese, but left out the meat (and no, it wasn’t a Wendy’s, although I was tempted to say, “Where’s the beef?”).
Sure I will. I wouldn’t bother ordering special if I didn’t actually need it that way. If I could just take whatever it is off then I would just do that rather than make their jobs any more difficult.
Now, other problems are different. If it’s just a steak that’s under- or overcooked, I’ll eat it if I can. If they gave me the wrong side but I still like that side, I might eat it. But that sort of thing makes up maybe 1% of the time they get it wrong.
I find that hard to believe. If you did that, you’d soon run out of restaurants. Everyone messes up now and again.
It’s also kinda shitty to give people exactly one chance and not allow them to try and fix it. That’s actually the sort of thing used in movies to prove someone is a bad guy.
And, you, my friend, are not a bad guy.
Everyone might mess up now and then, but I am not very picky. I’m talking about places where we order a bottle of wine with the meal, and are considered regulars.
By “botched order” I mean inedible. The only time I’ve had that happen was right after a major change in management or kitchen staff. And yeah, we’d been wanting to check out the new tapas place, so that took over as part of our regular rotation.
(Since I got my sous vide cooker, I no longer order beef in restaurants. I can buy some custom cut filet mignon, cook it to perfect rare, then do a 30 second sear. A restaurant broiling beef can maybe match what I do at home, but it would be difficult.)
ETA: anyone else getting hungry?