Deal Breakers (What makes you leave a restaurant?)

Aside from the obvious like a large Golden M in the parking lot or rats/trash spewing from the kitchen what makes you leave a restaurant...actually:

1.) What would make you turn around before even walking in?
2.) What would make you leave after entering?
3.)...and is there anything that would make you get up and leave mid-meal? (aside from rodents/pests in food)

For the first time in years, I go into a McDonald's at breakfast time. 

I don't despise the Egg McMuffin and will eat one in a pinch.  I was in the middle of nowhere ...

My traveling companion wants a medium coffee ... I wanted a McMuffin and a Hashbrown ... I don't drink coffee, a sip of theirs would suffice.

I make my order and am told I'd have to get a small coffee instead of a medium ... "Why" I ask.
Well there is a perfectly "logical" explanation ... It seems the breakfast McMuffin SuperDuper meal deal (Egg MucMuffin, HB and coffee combination comes with a small coffee.)

Me:  "I see a medium coffee is twenty cents (or something like that) more than a small ... I'll happily pay the difference."

Server (and by now two supervisors): "Nope we have to sell you each thing individually ... YOU CAN'T HAVE THE SUPER DUPER MEAL DEAL WITH MEDIUM COFFEE."

The total was nearly $2 more for the tiny dollop of coffee I wanted.

Now, there are four supervisors, with headphones and untucked shirts gathered in a semi-circle around the kid who had the misfortune of waiting on me ... all glaring at me as if I was the biggest nincompoop to ever walk in the place.

Meanwhile, the line of locals is starting are to steam up behind me in line and I left telling the committee behind the counter "Thanks but no thanks."

Part two of the story is me, having to explain to companion why I wasn't "able to come to terms" while negotiating breakfast at McDonalds ...

EatingTheRoad


Aside from the obvious like a large Golden M in the parking lot or rats/trash spewing from the kitchen what makes you leave a restaurant...actually:

1.) What would make you turn around before even walking in?

Well, if it involves The Travelin Man, it's likely because the restaurant he arrived at is CLOSED!
 
However for
2.) What would make you leave after entering?
 
I have a knack for going to restaurants where a unique regional item  that I've had my heart set on, is either no longer on the menu or they're out of it. If there's nothing else on the menu that peaks my interest, then I would simply leave and consider plan B or plan C

 

It's always nice to have a plan B or C. I was in your neck of the woods and went to Jigger's for their johnnycakes....turns out they sell out over the weekend and Mondays are not a good morning to try and score some...I was devastated...I had been looking forward to them pretty badly...luckily Iggy's made up for the void in my belly I've got to get back out to Jigger's soon though.

wheregreggeats.com that's a great story. Where'd you end up?

I'd leave if the server had dirty fingernails.

This might keep me out of Junior's in Brooklyn for a while:
 
http://www.1010wins.com/PIC--Mice-Allegedly-Seen-Among-Junior-s-Cheesecake/5489733
 
 

It has to be something major:

1. Poor hygiene as evidenced in the servers, general look of the place, etc.  Seems to happen here and there when one is traveling. 

2. Rudeness (it's so rare and cannot think of a time it happened, but if it does...)

3. Way too pricey. I think charging a ten bucks for a bowl of consomme is CRAZY. 

I am polite, never rude, when I have to leave.  

I left a Moe's Southwest Grill after I saw it was cafeteria style, and read the stupid menu names.

I have left places because the wait is too long...

Pretty much anywhere I go is going to ba at least a reasonable experience. I rarely walk into a place I have never heard of before..

A long wait will make me leave too. There is no restaurant worth a long wait.

I travel a lot. I have no qualms about venturing into the unknown. I did walk into a restaurant in Pagosa Springs, CO and just before being seated decided to walk out because it just seemed too dingy on a nice day. Just decided at the last minute I could do better.

Not a problem in Minnesota but in other states I've gotten to the door and could smell excessive smoke and left immediately. Once you get used to a smoke free restaurant environment you get overly sensitized to smoke.

Once seated I did walk out of a restaurant just once. Their web site said they had a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich and the waitress said it was discontinued. There was nothing else there I wanted and I knew better places right down the street. They didn't have a BPT either but had better food.

There have been many a restaurants that I did not walk out but vowed never, never to return.

Turn around without even going in...restaurant full of children, restaurant full of kids obviously going to Homecoming or Prom, lobby packed with people waiting to be seated.  All things that also apply inside, but which can usually be observed through the windows.

After I enter the building...Chalk another one up for the long wait.  I had reservations once, and was STILL told it would be 45 minutes.  I told them to stuff it.

Waiting too long for a waitperson.  "Too long" in my world is more than ten minutes sitting at a table waiting for someone to meander by to see if maybe I wanted to eat or have a beverage, rather than having sat down with a menu because my feet were tired.  Ten minutes is relative...I understand that if the place is busy it might be a while.  But there is still a time limit under which the wait staff must make some reasonable effort to acknowledge my presence.

Ridiculously high menu prices.  I cannot and will not pay more than eight bucks for a burger, no matter how fabulous everything thinks it is.

Finding out the restaurant is non-smoking (applies only when eating alone, I am considerate of others in my party and would sit in non-smoking anyway).

  About the only thing that would make me walk out of a restaurant would be rude or poor service. Having to wait for my food for an excessive amount of time after I have ordered. Anything more than a half an hour is too much.

JMHO

David O.

1. never looking for a parking space if theres people standing outside & NOT  smoking.
2. waiting more than 5 mins. to get a drink or menus.
3. kids getting out of hand & their parents oblivious to it. and yes I DO say something to the parents on the way out. they don't care, I don't care.

 Before walking in... Long line at fast food place or a mother and 5 screaming kids in the line.
 After entering
 1. If traveling alone and I'm told  the wait is more than 10 minutes at a sit down place I leave
 2. If the lobby of the fast food place looks like the down dump.
 3. For some reason if it's noon or 5:00 P.M. and I'm the only person in a non fast food place (unless it's a local place I've eaten at many times) I'll leave.
 4. If it's a fast food place and my presence is not acknowldeged in one minute after approaching the counter I'm gone.
 5. Sit down place, if it's not busy and I'm not seated in less than @3 minutes I'm out. If it's not overly busy and I've been seated and have waited more than 5 minutes for a menu I'm gone.

What causes me to leave a restaurant is some idiot asking what causes me to leave a restaurant.

Numbers "in progress" like 10-6 (homicide) is a deal breaker.
 
Going into labor would make me leave a restaurant.

A room full of screaming kids.

Seeing my Ex inside.

A wait when I see a lot of empty tables,

I've never had to leave a restaurant. Luckily, nothings ever been that bad.

When my waitress is picking her nose and wiping her boogers on her pants,its usually time to say bye-bye.

I'd leave a Restaurant probably, if a huge fire broke out.

What REALLY rankles me though, is going into a Restaurant and bumping into someone who is leaving the Restaurant because some idiot asked them"what makes you leave a Restaurant"

We have a place downtown that specializes in wings. I love wings. I walked in, got a couple sniffs, said YECK! and walked out. I really wanted to try their wings too..

Many years ago my mom and i walked out of a Chinese place in Fresno. One of the cooks was back in the kitchen coughing, blowing his nose and hacking, a lot. We heard enough and left. Even though that place had always been good and was very close to home we never went back.

The wait. I am not waiting more than 30 minutes for a table. I HATE places that don't take reservations. Won't do it unless I know the place.

Because they SAY the wait is 30 minutes, but then it turns into 90 minutes. 4 hostesses who were standing around gossiping refused to tell a party of 2 to boot scoot it to the bar, that they were waiting to use their table to seat our party of 8.

Now I understand how someone might be offended, and yes, you have every right to have a longer conversation after a meal, but the manager should have realized we were waiting over an hour, and asked those 2 people if they wouldn't mind moving to the bar, with complimentary drinks or dessert.

This happened almost 4 years ago & I still hate my friends a little for not moving the party to another restaurant I called less than a mile away who had no wait, immediate seating.

Haahaa Mike, must be a Central Valley thing.  I was just coming here to post:

1.  cook having a cig outside and hocking a big loogey.
2.  cook chasing cat outside back door (j/k) 

Before walking in? Maybe a bunch of costume-wearing people waiting inside the door looking at me or tons of balloons.
After? Being ignored for several minutes after walking in; waiting too long at the table to be acknowledged; waiting too long for drinks.

I only recall leaving in the middle of the meal once. It was a then-popular Italian restaurant in Manhattan. I ordered baked clams as an appetizer. There were baby crabs infesting the clams; apparently, nobody noticed. If I hadn't, I might have ended up in the hospital; I am HIGHLY allergic to crabs. When I pointed it out, they made an offer: they would take away the clams, and not charge us for it. We said, "We'll just leave now, and we won't pay."

The restaurant was out of business inside of 3 months; must have been new management or something.

I won't eat in any restaurant that gives packs of hungry, bloodthirsty, rabid dingos the run of the place.  I know most people don't mind it, but all the barking, biting, and jumping on tables just takes away from the experience.  I'll typically avoid places if I see flames coming out of them or if someone's being held hostage in the restaurant.  Just my personal quirks.