It is your first time at a new (to you) restaurant:
So you are on a date. You go to a nice restaurant. Dress is casual. It has a nice atmosphere. The food is great. Not cheap but worth the price. Service is impeccable. Basically it was everything you hoped for and more.
Or…
Almost the same restaurant. Everything about your experience is the same. Food, atmosphere, price, staff, everything is great. Except a mistake is made. Maybe they forgot one persons dish. Or brought the entree out before the appetizer. The waiter realizes the mistake and does everything he can to rectify the situation all the while apologizing. Then the manager comes over and gives his sincere apology. He also knocks 15% off the bill. Other than the one mistake everything else is perfect.
So which restaurant would you more likely recommend? The one where your experience is flawless or the one where they bent over backwards to take care of you after a mistake? Or does it not matter? Poll to follow.
I would be slightly more likely to recommend the restaurant that got everything right.
A flaw, even a small one, is still a flaw.
Look, take two identical restaurants and experiences, but in one, there was a smudge in the paint on the ceiling, or there was a typo in the mneu, or its parking lot is two spaces smaller. To that degree, I am going to be less likely to recommend it.
It’s easy to get everything right.
But not nearly as easy to make a mistake right. I’m voting for the place that fucked up, but owned it and made it right.
Plus, going forward, they will remember you. And if you keep going back, you’ll get even better service.
It wouldn’t really matter to me. I don’t sweat small mistakes unless they aren’t handled well. Nice restaurants should have skill at fixing various mistakes even if it wasn’t really their fault (e.g., someone doesn’t like the wine they picked even though there is nothing wrong with it).
The fact that one of these restaurants had the opportunity to handle a mistake and the other didn’t has no relevance based on a single visit. All restaurants make some mistakes so I would assume that the other would handle it the same way if the tables were turned.
OTOH, if it became a repeated pattern, I would recommend the mistake free one over the one that offers apologies and discounts for their follies. Small mistakes aren’t a big deal to me but I couldn’t take someone like my stepfather to one that makes them frequently because he has a habit of going ballistic and making a scene when the service isn’t perfect.
I choose E, I regard both the same. There is no place that gets it perfect every time. The place where you had the perfect experience is going to mess up with someone else at some point. Given your description of them as doing everything right, I’m going to assume they will also handle mistakes correctly, the same as the second place.
I wouldn’t necessarily favor either one, if the overall experience was positive. why?
Restaurant #1 isn’t flawless, it’s just that you didn’t see anything go sideways while you were there. It’s staffed by human beings, so occasionally things won’t be perfect.
Restaurant #2 made a mistake and bent over backwards to set it right.
as far as I’m concerned restaurant #1 and #2 could be interchangeable depending on how busy they are, who’s working that night, the phase of the moon, etc.
Further, I can’t be perfect, and I don’t dare demand perfection from others. I certainly wouldn’t expect (and sure as hell wouldn’t demand) a discount or free stuff just because of a minor thing like a forgotten side or late appetizer.
I remember years ago a few of us from work went to a local, not-snooty but not a chain restaurant. one person asked for a steak cooked a certain way, and shortly before serving everyone the waitress came by and apologetically said the kitchen overcooked said steak and asked if she should hold service or bring the (new) steak when it was ready. we agreed on the latter and there wasn’t even any thought given to docking the tip or asking for a discount/refund.
Pretty much my thought process. I’d recommend both, but I would probably praise the one that made a sincere and friendly attempt to correct a minor error just a little more effusively.
However that is based on one visit. If I visited them both six times and the first one remained flawless, while restaurant b screwed up four times out of six ( but still corrected the error nicely every time ), my answer would flip in the other direction. Both still recommended, but a caveat on mistake-prone b.
Exactly. Mistakes are inevitable, and we have more information about the one with the screw-up. I’d recommend the one that recovered from the error with aplomb.
Now, if it happened three times in a row, well, that would be STILL more information!
Mistakes are frustrating. I’m much more likely to return to a restaurant that didn’t annoy me.
For instance, I eat at a certain place once a week. Twice in forty trips, they have screwed up somehow, or served me bad food, and made it right. I’ll keep going back.
I try a new place twice. They screw up twice. I’m not going back, no matter how free my food was. It’s just not worth it to face surprises and disappointment.
I eat out a LOT. And I work in the food industry. Mistakes rarely happen. If they’re happening more than rarely, something is wrong.
If I’ve only been to each restaurant more, then the second one ranks a bit higher for me.
My reasoning is that every restaurant makes a mistake now and then - the mistake itself isn’t a black mark. Knowing that Joint B is going to bend over backwards tells me a lot about their staff and managers act under less-than-ideal circumstance. Joint A did great, but I still don’t know how they’re going to treat me when they inevitably screw up an order.
I would recommend either one. I myself would continue to go to the one that didn’t screw up the first time. When or if they ever did screw up, I would have to reevaluate after I’ve seen how the other place handles mistakes.
I’m always a little wary of restaurants that screw up on my very first visit. It gives me the impression that they screw up a lot.
If restaurants, on average, mess up 1 of every 1000 (pick your number) meals, it seems uncommon. But if it happens to you once on your first visit it seems like it happens all the time and that’s a fallacy. If I were recommending, I would say it was good, not sure if I’d mention the mistake or not, but would downplay it if so.
Honestly, these mistakes are all minor. But getting your entire order forgotten is the worst, especially when you’re staring at an empty table for an hour. If they forgot the extra quiche or whatever, meh. Hell, if they brought out the entree first I would joke about it, as it means the first course, whereas appetizer means the same thing except you’re drinking heavily.
If it’s a date I’d be more concerned about how she reacts, and possibly thankful to get the opportunity to observe. And if the date was already going bad, I might not like the delays that postpone a hasty exit.
An assembly line that is flawless and turns tables on a dime without giving much thought to you is still just an assembly line, no matter how well trained.
A restaurant that recovers from a mistake? That’s a story. Maybe its not for everybody, but some people LIKE having a first date story. Its a bonding experience.
“So, how did you guys meet? What did you do on your first date?” - Like this conversation never happens
One hopes this thread does not become commonly known to restaurants: they’ll make a deliberate practice of small mistakes, corrected swiftly and courteously!
