“It was crappy food but there was plenty of it” would be appropriate to include in the review.
To the best of my knowledge, trip advisor doesn’t do this. It depends on reviews to let people know that a restaurant, or motel or whatever, has got worse. (Or better.) So post a review.
Unless they actually lied about the price if someone bothered to ask anyone who fell for that has only themselves to plain.
While I agree with you in principle, there’s a whole swath of grey area between “top chef substituted for fry cooks” and all of the other changes in staffing and management that might happen.
Even chefs take vacations and sick days. An established restaurant still has to replace their staff occasionally. Many changes in management will have no perceptible difference to the customers. It seems unreasonable to expect that every change that might be relevant will somehow be posted.
The OP can only complain about fraud if the new management was intentionally being deceptive.
Any other complaint should be handled by sending food back, asking for a refund, getting up and leaving, etc. Those are your guarantees that you get what you expect.
I agree. Caveat Emptor and all that.
I brought it up because it does happen that there are predatory restaurants out there who purposely gouge. Our group had actually been to this restaurant before, but it was under new management the night we were grifted. And like the NY Times article about Nello, once the check came the waiter ran and hid. When we finally grabbed him, he explained that the appetizer was $150. Three at our table had ordered it, so the bill was probably $400. higher than expected. This is at a restaurant where appetizers are $10 to maybe $30. We paid and told everyone we encountered about our experience, and heard the same thing happened to a few others who had been there under this “new management”. They lasted about 8 months before closing.
Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever had dry gravy. Salty yes, but not dry.
That is a huge issue. If something is offered as a daily special, appetizer or main course, you would expect it to fall within the price range of items already on the menu. At the very least, I would expect a mention if the price was 5 -15 times higher than other items.
Agreed. This place is in for some difficult times if they are going to disappoint the established customer base like this, but they don’t owe you anything beyond that because of their past reputation.
I recently had an expensive but mediocre meal at a restaurant owned by Wolfgang Puck. What made it worse was the server failed to bring something we ordered after being reminded, twice. We were not charged for it and the manager came over to apologize. Which was well and good, but the food was simply not so fantastic to warrant another try. There are better options.
It’s completely understandable to be disappointed when a restaurant you’ve frequented and enjoyed in the past suddenly changes for the worst; Whether that’s due to change of management or cooking staff. Restaurant quality often declines over time - I’ve experienced this myself on a few occasions as well. Fortunately, new restaurants open all the time. Also, you can do some research about the previous owner/chef that you liked. Chances are he or she has gone on to open something new in the area. So there is a way to continue to enjoy his or her food in a new location.
Having said that, I’m finding hard to see where the OP can legitimately claim to have been tricked or defrauded in some way. Did the restaurant intentionally set out to give you a bad meal experience?
Give them a bad review on Yelp if you want. But try not to frame it as if some sort of nefarious trickery is at play meant to bilk customers out of money.
My impression is that some jurisdictions have laws prohibiting or at least limiting this sort of surprise gouging. If the price is not given, it can’t be more than, say, three times the typical price for something comparable.
“This gravy is salty and dry!”
“Madam, that’s salt.”
I’m currently shopping for an old Jeep. I’ve found 3 or 4 for under $600. 
No, I’d blame the restaurant for implementing a deceptive practice like that, and if I heard about anywhere near me pulling that trick I would not go there, derecommend them to anyone I know, and see if what they’re doing is actually illegal. If I got suckered in by the scam (and it is definitely a scam) I might even set up camp on the nearest public property and warn people approaching the restaurant about what they did until I felt like I got my money’s worth of pissing them off.
Something pretty similar happened to me last week, but in my case I had seen reviews on Yelp that said the place had gone downhill. Thus it was entirely my own fault due to magical thinking. (“This is the place I picked, and it WILL be good.”)
On the plus side, when I sent back a glass of zinfandel which was undrinkable, they didn’t charge me for it. Should have known it was bad when the only zinfandel was the cheapest thing on the wine list.
We did have a good time anyway, though, because magic.
If the appetizer had something really expensive in it, like caviar, I could maybe see it otherwise, why not send a letter to the local police and district attorney inquiring about the legality of such practices with a copy to the restaurant. I’d bet you’d get a refund really, really fast.
If that doesn’t work trash them on social media.
Sorry, that’s deceptive. Pricing an appetizer at three times more than the average meal price is ridiculous. It is an expectation that the daily specials will be more or less in the range of the regular menu items, if not a bargain. I have (fortunately) never encountered a restaurant where this was not the case.
If I was in this situation, I would have bailed after the terrible appetizer.
Friends meeting friends sounds casual enough to me. I would say to the friends, “wow. This place has really gone downhill since I was here last. Are you guys ok with the food or should we head elsewhere?”
Chances are, since you were picking up the tab, your friends aren’t going to say anything to be polite.
The way I see it, if the appetizer is terrible at an expensive place… Well, you’ve been warned about what to expect for the main course.
Regardless, if your food had been ordered by now or not, I’d say something to the waiter. No need to make a scene. Just state firmly but politely that the appetizer was really sub-par. If you feel that would be making a scene, I can respect that, but any time or money spent after this is by choice.
I agree. But since the price isnt listed, I’d simply flat out state that the waitstaff said it was “$x” where x= price of most expensive appetizer.