Eating out

We don't eat out that often, but because of some activities we had planned, we ended up eating in sit-down restaurants twice last week.

The two experiences were quite different, with the first one definitely being the worst. The lesson we took home from it: Don't be afraid to mention that the food was not up-to-snuff. Now, I'm a very non-confrontational person, and hate doing that type of thing, but there are occasions where it's necessary.

It took forever to receive our food, the potatoes tasted weird, the steamed veggies were practically raw (and I like lightly steamed veggies- these tasted like they'd only been shown the steam), and Mr S's potatoes were stone cold. The only saving grace was that the steaks were pretty good.

When the manager made his rounds, asking if everything was ok, instead of the standard 'sure, it's fine', we told him no, and explained what hadn't been good. He immediately offered to take our bill and bring us a new one. I think he gave us a 10 or 15% discount.

Now, it did help that others had complained before us, and he seemed to be in damage control mode. So it wasn't like we were complaining just to get a discount. Apparently they were short on kitchen staff that night, and the food showed it.

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm normally very non-confrontational, but I had had very little to eat all day, was very hungry, and was not in the mood to be generous and let things slide. We were polite when explaining the problem and made sure to thank the manager when he brought us our discounted check.

I wouldn't make a practice of asking for discounts for frivolous reasons, but if the food was not up to expectations, don't be afraid to say something. Restaurants are a service industry, after all- here to serve us.