Restaurant etiquette

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Had a discussion with friends last night over how best to act in the following situation:

Say you were in a restaurant and you decide to try something for the first time (tabouleh is my case). Even though there's nothing wrong with the preparation/presentation you just don't like it. Should you just leave it, or send it back for something else, and expect for it not to be billed?

My thoughts are that you shouldn't expect another item FOC, but others disagreed. What's your opinions?

Chattastrophe!

I'd probably send it back and order something else if I was hungry enough, but I'd expect to be paying for both meals.

ted1

You order you pay.

It's like tasting wine, your only testing to see if its corked not if you like it or not.

timthumbni

I would expect to pay for something else if it just wasn't to my personal taste.

I get around this issue by ordering sausage and chips in every restaurant I eat in. Hence never disappointed. ;-) if its not in the main menu simply look for the kiddies menu and hey presto cowboy supper is always there.

Annasopra

If there is nothing wrong with it - then you just have to pay and no way should you expect a free of charge replacement

Rosy Posy

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

Had a discussion with friends last night over how best to act in the following situation:

Say you were in a restaurant and you decide to try something for the first time (tabouleh is my case). Even though there's nothing wrong with the preparation/presentation you just don't like it. Should you just leave it, or send it back for something else, and expect for it not to be billed?

My thoughts are that you shouldn't expect another item FOC, but others disagreed. What's your opinions?

If you just don't like it you can't expect it to be replaced at the restaurant's cost. You're perfectly entitled to ask for and expect to pay for something else and most places would be decent and take it off the bill but its your responsibility to order something to your taste. If there's nothing actually wrong with it and it is as described you really have no grounds to demand a free replacement.

ted1

ted1 wrote: »

You order you pay.

It's like tasting wine, your only testing to see if its corked not if you like it or not.

Yeh a couple of times I've seen waiters pour screw cap wine for tasting, does my head in :P

If you don't like something but there is nothing wrong with it - you pay for it.

stampydmonkey

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

(tabouleh is my case)

Don't see how a restaurant would even consider giving you a second order for free. You ordered it not them. so what you do with the tabouleh? And what the hell is tabouleh?

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

I agree with all the posters above, you order you pay. It was a side, incidentally not a main. But yet I was in a minority last night, everyone seemed to be of the opinion that I should've returned it

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

stampydmonkey wrote: »

Don't see how a restaurant would even consider giving you a second order for free. You ordered it not them. so what you do with the tabouleh? And what the hell is tabouleh?

Cold, soggy, rice-like thing with chopped peppers or something in it. Don't recommend it.

spurious

Tabbouleh shouldn't have been soggy.

oldyouth

I'd be adventurous enough when it comes to food. On a recent holiday, I ordered a main which was listed as 'roasted young goat' in a Portuguese restaurant. When it came out, I discovered it was basically bones and ribs with a bit of fatty meat on them.

There was nothing wrong with the dish, it was just not to my liking. In hindsight, I don't know what else it could have been, so it was my mistake. I just got on with it and made the best of it that I could.

If the majority of your friends think the restaurant should foot the bill for an error of judgement by the diner, well I don't really know what to say about that. Personal choice comes with personal responsibility

blue note

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yeh a couple of times I've seen waiters pour screw cap wine for tasting, does my head in.

Screw cap wine can still have reacted with the air. I believe it's less common than it would be with corks, but a restaurant should give customers the opportunity to check it.

P. Breathnach

spurious wrote: »

Tabbouleh shouldn't have been soggy.

Yes. If it was soggy OP could reject it and expect not to pay. But OP didn't really know what to expect, he or she could hardly go down that route.

Some restaurateurs, particularly in higher-priced establishments where the margins give them some scope, would make a concession. But the customer is not entitled to it.

P. Breathnach

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeh a couple of times I've seen waiters pour screw cap wine for tasting, does my head in :P

Why? Not every problem with wine is due to faulty corks.

martinedwards

blue note wrote: »

Screw cap wine can still have reacted with the air. I believe it's less common than it would be with corks, but a restaurant should give customers the opportunity to check it.

correct.

you're tasting for the condition of the wine.

screw cap bottles can be off

and as to the not liking it......

go into KFC, order a zinger meal and then after you've taken a bite ask for a refund because youre a vegetarian.

go into a petrol station and fill up your petrol car with diesel.

you are paying for it.

nothing wrong with the food, you're paying for it. this is my business here!

blue note

blue note wrote: »

Screw cap wine can still have reacted with the air. I believe it's less common than it would be with corks, but a restaurant should give customers the opportunity to check it.

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Why? Not every problem with wine is due to faulty corks.

Well that put me in my box!

Wine tastings I've been to they've said that you should only be asked to taste wine with a cork. Seems I know feck all about that then :pac:

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

martinedwards wrote: »

correct.

you're tasting for the condition of the wine.

screw cap bottles can be off

and as to the not liking it......

go into KFC, order a zinger meal and then after you've taken a bite ask for a refund because youre a vegetarian.

go into a petrol station and fill up your petrol car with diesel.

you are paying for it.

nothing wrong with the food, you're paying for it. this is my business here!

It's an exchange my friends were discussing, not a refund.

oldyouth

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

It's an exchange my friends were discussing, not a refund.

But you're still returning a meal that the restaurant cannot re-use. It is the same as a refund

super_furry

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

It's an exchange my friends were discussing, not a refund.

But what are they meant to do with the item you send back? Its not like Argos where they can just put it back on the shelf.

Yellow121

Has your mother never told you to eat what you know?

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

oldyouth wrote: »

But you're still returning a meal that the restaurant cannot re-use. It is the same as a refund

But it's not. The restaurant sells an item at a profit, therefore refunding you leaves them at a loss. However an exchange means they keep your money, although the profit margin may be reduced or eradicated.

ted1

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

But it's not. The restaurant sells an item at a profit, therefore refunding you leaves them at a loss. However an exchange means they keep your money, although the profit margin may be reduced or eradicated.

Not always , its the drink where the genreally make a profit

Johnny Electricity

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

But it's not. The restaurant sells an item at a profit, therefore refunding you leaves them at a loss. However an exchange means they keep your money, although the profit margin may be reduced or eradicated.

Sounds like you're starting to think your friends might be right?

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

ted1 wrote: »

Not always , its the drink where the genreally make a profit

Fair enough. But to any retailer an exchange is preferable to a refund, they are not the same.

BeerWolf

Why shouldn't you pay for something you didn't like, that has no issues with the dish other than ''you dont like it'' ? They wasted their time and ingredients to cook it for you, you sure as hell are going to pay for it!

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Sounds like you're starting to think your friends might be right?

Im actually not. But I do want to challenge the point that an exchange and refund are not the same.

Rosy Posy

Tabuleh should definitely not be soggy- it's some kind of grain- traditionally bulghur wheat but can be cous cous or rice etc with lots of mint, lemon juice, salt and pepper and optional extras of raw onion/cucumber/peppers. It's delish with hummus or yogurt.

super_furry

You're asking them to refund the price of your order and write it off as a loss on the promise that you'll order and pay for something else.

osarusan

Can't really see why you would expect a new dish without paying unless there was actually something wrong with the first one.

So you should have gotten one of your friends to pull a few hairs from their head (or elsewhere:eek:), mixed them into the dish, and called the waiter over.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

super_furry wrote: »

You're asking them to refund the price of your order and write it off as a loss on the promise that you'll order and pay for something else.

Correct, an exchange. As opposed to cancelling the order and taking your money back, which would be a refund.

osarusan

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

Correct, an exchange. As opposed to cancelling the order and taking your money back, which would be a refund.

As you presumably wouldn't have paid until the end of the meal anyway, it wasn't ever going to be a refund.

P. Breathnach

Deleted User wrote: »

Well that put me in my box!

Wine tastings I've been to they've said that you should only be asked to taste wine with a cork. Seems I know feck all about that then :pac:

To be fair, the chances of a screw-top wine being off are less. Not merely because of the stopper, but also because many of the screw-top wines are bottled by operations more like chemical plants than small or medium-sized businesses producing a natural organic product.

As for wine-tastings ... I don't consider myself an expert but I know a few wines that I like - mostly French, because I visit France fairly often. We buy wine from producers in the Loire Valley. I once went to a tasting of Loire wines in Ireland, and found that the expert knew less about the wines than I did. She disparaged one particular wine because the appelation is not highly regarded by wine writers The consensus among our group was that it was the best wine of the day. What the writers and the expert did not take into account is that there is a zone in the area where the geology is different, and wines produced in that zone are different from (and superior to) the bulk of the production.

super_furry

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

Correct, an exchange. As opposed to cancelling the order and taking your money back, which would be a refund.

No. You've cancelled your initial order, don't want them to charge you for it - taking your money back before you hand it over - and are now proposing to buy a different product with the money that should have paid for your initial order.

You're proposing to get two items but pay for one, you're just throwing the first one away.

In my experience well-off people do that more commonly. I have one friend that's mad for getting money back and apologies from staff any time he feels like it.

One time, I ordered a cocktail and it turned out I didn't like it, he took it off me and demanded a different one for me at no extra cost - I was mortified (although I didn't like the one he ordered for me either!). I gave out to him and he threw me something along the lines of "service staff want to make you happy, it's their job". Eugh, even the way he talks about staff makes me cringe.

suicide_circus

OP, your first mistake was ordering a salad.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

osarusan wrote: »

Can't really see why you would expect a new dish without paying unless there was actually something wrong with the first one.

So you should have gotten one of your friends to pull a few hairs from their head (or elsewhere:eek:), mixed them into the dish, and called the waiter over.

but then they'd bring me a new one and i'd have to eat the feckin thing

DoozerT6

To hell with the whole exchange/refund tit for tat here.

OP, you ordered it, you pay for it. Unless it was something actually wrong with the DISH, not your palate.

You weren't at your mammy's house.

lau1247

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

Correct, an exchange. As opposed to cancelling the order and taking your money back, which would be a refund.

Exchange: You order something, didn't like it, send it back for exchange, order another, pay for the latter only.

Refund: you order something (assuming the situation you've paid), didn't like it, send it back to get a refund, order another, pay for the second order.


Whether you want to call it Exchange or Refund, both come out to the same conclusion, you order two things, send one back and pay for one.

OP, in this case if you order it, you pay for it whether you like the food or not..

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

DoozerT6 wrote: »

To hell with the whole exchange/refund tit for tat here.

OP, you ordered it, you pay for it. Unless it was something actually wrong with the DISH, not your palate.

You weren't at your mammy's house.

Can you read?

DoozerT6

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

Can you read?

Very well, thank you.

Maybe you need new friends.

oldyouth

The minute you order food in a modern restaurant, it is charged to your table. If you return it, the bill is credited (refund). When you order a replacement item, that is charged to your bill.

The first item is worthless to the restaurant and raw ingredients can be expensive

Marcusm

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

Cold, soggy, rice-like thing with chopped peppers or something in it. Don't recommend it.

If that's what you got you should have returned it; real tabbouleh is 75-80% parsley, and the balance a mix of chopped tomato, uncooked bulgur wheat (not cooked cous cous) and olive oil, salt, lemon juice.

What you got sounds like a crap salad prepared by someone who has heard the name but never understood the dish. It's a parsley salad not a rice or cous cous salad.

Feathers

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

But yet I was in a minority last night, everyone seemed to be of the opinion that I should've returned it

What was their justification that you should get something else for free? Would love to hear how someone can argue that it's up to the restaurant to make sure every diner likes every dish on the menu!

minidazzler

true-or-false wrote: »

In my experience well-off people do that more commonly. I have one friend that's mad for getting money back and apologies from staff any time he feels like it.

One time, I ordered a cocktail and it turned out I didn't like it, he took it off me and demanded a different one for me at no extra cost - I was mortified (although I didn't like the one he ordered for me either!). I gave out to him and he threw me something along the lines of "service staff want to make you happy, it's their job". Eugh, even the way he talks about staff makes me cringe.

He's right though, at least for me, I work in a bar, and I want to have you walk away saying "He's a really good bartender, he's really nice." I don't want you doing it at the cost of making me feel like I'm sh1t just because you didn't like the drink you ordered though.

If people aren't sure what they want to drink in the bar I work in, I'll move offer just a sweet liqueur that we have called Zaconey because I've yet to see someone who dislikes it.

MadsL

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeh a couple of times I've seen waiters pour screw cap wine for tasting, does my head in :P

If you don't like something but there is nothing wrong with it - you pay for it.

Deleted User wrote: »

Well that put me in my box!

Wine tastings I've been to they've said that you should only be asked to taste wine with a cork. Seems I know feck all about that then :pac:

*adjusts monocle*

If I am the 'host' of my table (the sap paying for dinner) and have ordered the wine for my guests; offering the wine for my inspection is part of the restaurants recognition of that role as well as ensuring satisfaction.