No. If they have already been asked if everything’s fine, and been told it isn’t, to ask again is an insult, and perfectly deserving of an unpleasant response.
No he’s not an asshole. However he wasn’t too smart if he ate the food after sending it back. They probably spit in it.
I really don’t think you were an asshole for saying that. It was a completely justified comment. I hope you didn’t eat the food though.
Yeah, because everyone knows other people’s spit is toxic. :dubious:
I’m dubious in the first place that a relatively high-end restaurant would employ people so crass as to spit into someone else’s food, but then theoretically they would also employ people concerned with getting the order right and seeing to the needs of the customer rather than obeying management directives by rote. But even if they did spit and he didn’t notice, so what?
Ok. I guess you enjoy eating other people’s spit then right? GROSS!!!
Yes, that is exactly what I said.
The fact of 1 runs in direct contradiction to the last part of 2. It’s a chain. It is not, therefore, by definition, a “fine” meal. Fine dining doesn’t happen in chains.
The core of the restaurant server’s job is to accurately input the order, pick it up promptly, ensure that it’s correct, and serve it professionally. If you fail to do this with the entirety of the meal of one of two guests at a table, you’ve failed at your job. 42% of the order, but 50% of the party, either way, it’s not a passing grade.
It’s unnecessary to snap or be smarmy, but there’s nothing wrong with explaining the depth of one’s dissatisfaction when their meal is so spectacularly botched.
I voted Maybe. Not enough information. Did they quickly and graciously rectify the mistakes? That goes a long way in my book. Three mistakes in one order is pretty bad, I agree, but if they made it right, relax and get on with your night. Even if they didn’t, there are ways to voice your disappointment that don’t include insulting and demeaning people.
I also suspect JohnT may be exaggerating with regard to the frequency of the susbsequent interruptions. I find it hard to believe that somebody came to the table literally every 90 seconds… but I can see how it can seem like that if you’re already in a pissy mood and don’t want to be bothered.
However, there is a point at which things get so horribly out of hand that a person can be forgiven for losing his temper. It’s difficult to tell if such a point was reached in this case.
Bottom line, I dunno, I wasn’t there.
I agree with Bosstone. If I ate their spit, so what?
Though I will say in the number of years I did restaurant work (HS and college), I don’t ever recall anybody intentionally spitting in somebody’s food. Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen and I didn’t know about it, true.
At $150 for the meal for two people, I would expect very good service (and food), too, fine dining or not.
Can we not do the “spit in the food” debate again? It never goes anywhere and just de-rails the original discussion. (I hope that’s not too Junior Mod - I’ve just seen it too many times.)
Btw, I almost made it to the Pit. Perhaps I need to try this asshole-thing more? 
Voted “maybe” – totally depends on exactly how he said what he said, and how many times the staff really asked him How Things Were. I also agree that completely aside from the errors with the food, and no matter what Corporate says about scripts, there’s no need for staff to interrupt you all the dang time. **JohnT **“snapped” at staffers who were not directly responsible for the food mistakes, but those staffers were also being a PITA on their own account.
Good wait staff is capable of paying attention to the mood at your table before they interrupt and also of keeping a sense of how many other people have already asked. If the restaurant is so arranged that many staffpersons walk by a given table without having been able to see everyone that went before, or if that staff doesn’t know what each other’s doing for any given table, then there’s a problem. But good staff can adjust to problem restaurants – I see it all the time. Good staff do not blindly follow mathematical formulas for customer interaction, but instead use some normal human judgment in how they apply whatever nonsense Corporate handed down this week. I wouldn’t want to do their job for what they make, but people who do are just as capable of coping with adverse work conditions as anyone is.
I voted no. What he said was not assholish. Although it’s hard to tell if he had an assholish tone in his voice when he did say those things.
Only a few times have I had a meal with someone where the check was over $100 and everytime it was a great experience. The food was correct and really good and the servers were perfect. So if all the things that went wrong in the OP happened to me I would be pissed. I wouldn’t have gotten assholish as thats not my nature IRL face to face with another person but I definitely would have called for the manager and explained all that went wrong and how I expected better from such an expensive place.
$150 for two people implies that it’s a fairly high-end restaurant. It’s not McDonald’s, where you say “hold the mayo” and they hold the mayo. This isn’t assembly-line food. You don’t say “hold the butter” if the steak is prepared with butter. The steak is prepared with butter because the chef designed it that way. You don’t tell him that his recipe and methods are wrong. You order something you like instead. It would be like ordering the tuna tartare and saying “I want the tuna cooked”.
I do wonder about the “being constantly interrupted by people” part - that doesn’t happen at any fine dining restaurant I’ve been to. Bringing a dish that’s entirely incorrect is, of course, their error. But if they fix it quickly and apologetically I’ll let it go (but, again, this has never happened to me at a fine dining restaurant). It sounds like this place is expensive but not at all worth it. No need to be an asshole. I would just let the manager know that I was disappointed and I wouldn’t go back.
Just FYI, the butter was put on top of the steak, not cooked in it. We didn’t ask for the chef to prepare it differently, just not put the dollop of butter on the top when the steak was finished.
And, of course, we never went back.
I haven’t read the original thread, but “asshole” would be a little strong here. “Short”, perhaps, or “ill-tempered”.
IMHO, “asshole” territory begins with my ex-father in law, who probably got about 30% of his meals comped because there was something “wrong” with them.
I don’t see where anything said was out of line or undeserved. As related to us, there were no personal insults, no name-calling, no berating. I think an upscale restaurant that drops the ball that much has earned an unfavorable comparison to McDonald’s. I find it ridiculous that several people asked about the meal. The number who ask should be one, their server. Maybe the manager if it [the asking] is done right. Sounds to me like they got off easy.
My God, my stepmother (whom I think has a strong claim to the title of “Worst Person in the World who hasn’t killed anyone”) once got us kicked out of a restaurant because she was screaming at the manager, insisting that, get this, her tortillas were warmed in a microwave (as opposed to being warmed over open flame or something). He insisted his kitchen didn’t have a microwave, even offered to give her a tour (refused), but when she got even more belligerent, he kicked us out.
Aw, good times. 
OK, that guy is my new hero.
It is assholish, but apparently the service was despicable. So, if I was a nearby customer I’d probably dislike JohnT for being such a bitchy asshole. Until the moment the crew starts messing with *my *order…