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Turns out a mouse had fallen from an exposed pipe about 10' overhead, hit one girl on the shoulder and bounced onto the table, landing smack on her plate... dead.
What makes or breaks a restaurant - IMHO - is how they handle those screw-ups.
That is the major difference between good restaurants and cheap restaurants.
Is it cheaper to appease a customer or tell them to take a hike?
The waiters will shout abuse at you, throw menus at you, slam a teapot on your table. Once they took away a plate of food because somebody else had ordered it first. A couple who threatened to complain their behaviour to the tourist board were told to "go home and make love"
Some years ago, there was an incident when a group of yuppies complained about the food and asked to see the chef. The chef came out with a massive meat cleaver and slammed it hard onto the table so it stuck. He then shouted "Who is complaining?" The yuppies sat in a stunned silence.
It is a well known fact many of their customers go there to be abused or see others abused. This just goes to show that if prices are cheap enough, people will put up with anything!
lawman
She knew we were ticked, as she wrote her own tip on the bill and retotalled it with a red pen. She said the gratuity was automatically added after 10pm. My date's dinner was on the bill twice, and we couldn't get her to come back to straighten it out. So, I just left enough cash for what we did have, plus about a buck for the tip.
In the parking lot on the way to the car, she ran out of the restaurant after us yelling, "Sir, you didn't even pay for your food!" I told her we paid for what we received, and we just left.
I called later to ask the manager about the gratuity after 10, and of course there was no such rule.
Applebee's offered to mail me 4 coupons for free dinner to make up for it. In telling a couple of friends, we told them we'd take them when we went back.
We did get the coupons, but they only sent 2. We decided to go to the applebee's across town for a (hopefully) better experience. I tried to order the recent special they had advertised, but was told they had run out of it. Fine, but while waiting on the main course, I saw a waiter delivering the special I had been denied to another table. I caught the mananger as she was walking by, and they had plenty of the special.
At that point, it was just plain funny. We just weren't meant to be Applebee's patrons.
Yes. *ducks head* Having to wait on people like all of you part time for almost 10 years:)
I'm sure all of your stories are legit. But for every one horror story you come up with, anyone who's worked in the industry can come up with twenty to match it...
Added: Ap*&*bees is the worst restaurant in the world, service, food, everything...
fortunately that day I decided to get the kind of burger where you flip open the box and pour your fries into the other half.
i almost never do that.
i pour the fries, including a big fat juicy deep fried moth.
i take my meal back to the counter and discover a wonderful big M policy, to never offer money back unless the customer asks, very specifically, for their money back, no matter how awful a thing happens. I, being stupid (aka, principled) steadfastly refuse to grovel for my cash, and obviously refuse replacement food. would you eat at that point?
did i go there again? of course, there's crack in the cheeseburgers, but never the fries. never the fries...
When it was time for us to leave, couldn't find our waitress for 15 minutes.
Finally grabbed another lady and told her how bad our meal was and how we had to be getting on with our evening. She was very polite and apologetic, and left to get our check.
But we never saw HER again, either! Almost had the feeling we were on Candid Camera.
lawman
heh, after my mcd's experience I really can't be too picky though.. and I enjoy a nice can of plain tuna, so my standards aren't too high.
but I admit.. I hate bad service. It bugs me. It also bugs me that waitresses can earn so much less than minimum wage and be expected to make it up on tips, and get taxed on those tips. Anyway, </rant>
The worst thing I can remember is finding a caterpillar (or something that looked like one) crawling through my salad at some unknown restaurant in Winter Haven, FL. I was there for a softball tournament and I don't remember much of anything about the place, except that everything seemed to close by like 6p. It was weird.
They were embarassed, but never offered me a free coffee,
or dessert or anything.
Two guys are sitting on the terrace outside, having lunch, when a jeep just pulled up outside the restaurant. One guys leaps out of the jeep, stabs one of the two guys, leaps back into the jeep and drives off.
The joint got trashed - everybody just started throwing tables and chairs around. Good food tho'!
Or of course, the infamous time when the singer at the restaurant was quite annoying - he lisped badly, so we asked him to sing "Red Red Wine". He did, with gusto.
Reminds me of a incident when I was living in Hong Kong. An English Dancer came out to do a stint at the Acadamy of Performing Arts after which he did a quick tour of Tibet. He was a vegetarian and only spoke a few words of Chinese quickly taught to him in HK before his departure and so decided to try these on the local restaurant when he arrived in Tibet. He knew Egg (Dan), and Boiled Water (Kai Shui), and so asked for a Boiled Egg as "Kai Shui Dan". He was server a glass of boiled water into which an Egg was broken and swirled around. Not a bad effort I thought.
Onya
Woz
Broke and studying hard for finals at uni....
look up at girlfriend (I am actually a man?!)...."shall we get out of here and grab a decent bite to eat...."
downed the books and off we went
I said we were broke... "lets go to Chinese pick 1 dish each, our favourites... and tap water.."...
Anyways ended up ordering delicious King Prawns in Black bean sauce, and saying how good they were but that they had an aftertaste of Pork.
My GF had had sweet and sour pork so I guessed they had been fried in the same oil.
On closer inspection at least 50% of the Prawns were beautifully carved bits of pork fat....
Cheque pls!
Dave.
