Prorer way to send food back?

Whenever I dine out with my brother he never sends any food back that is not prepared correctly. I asked him why and he tells me that they might do something to his food. I tell him "that's ridiculous" that a restaurant could get sued if they did anything to your food. It got me wondering if anyone knows if anything like this ever happens and what is the best way to send food back. I remember going to a steakhouse once and hearing a customer chewing out a waitress for a steak that was too well done and I thought to myself I wouldn't want to be him when he gets his new steak.

I agree with you; I feel that it is a rare incident when "something is done" to your food .
but my last boyfriend felt like your brother did..........he always winced when I sent something back thinking my food was going to get spit on.......

I am always polite when I sent food back, so it should not have embarrassed him. (or the other 2 couples we were with during one of the "sendback" episodes....

Between that , and my place being cluttered, he had enough of me........

Plus I'm a "road food" connoisuer, and he was'nt......

Plenty of times, my steak is cooked more than I asked for, but it still tastes good , so I don't even bother sending it back...

ellen

I normally don't send food back. I just don't bother taking my business there anymore. However, my wife and I had theatre tickets and were enjoying a night out without the kids a few months back. We chose a local place a few blocks away from our normal "night out" restaurant. She'd been there before and was concerned because they have a semi-vegetarian menu and I'm normally a meat eater, but they had some intriguing mushroom based menu items, so I was fine. Oddly enough, she wound up ordering pork tenderloin medallions and they came only partially cooked. (SERIOUSLY rare!) Knowing that pork is not a meat to be eaten raw, she asked our waitress to return it to be cooked more fully. The waitress couldn't understand why and we got a bit of attitude from her, but I wrote it off to her being a complete freak of nature and not to the restaurant itself. They came back to the table looking decent, but my wife was still pretty cautious about eating them because of the stories she'd heard. If we ever go back, which isn't out of the question despite our experience, I'm pretty sure she'll stick to one of the vegetarian entrees. Polite, but firm would be my suggestion for how to approach the situation.

Over the years, I have heard many stories about employees spitting in food that was sent back. Many years ago, Merv Griffin told a story from his early days of performing in clubs, and he said that the chef at one restaurant would WALK on a steak (as well as spit on it) if it was sent back. If you look at the "Bitter Waitress" website, there are many references to the same sort of behavior.

As a result of the possibilities here, I hesitate to send food back. I would rather eat something that was poorly prepared than risk hepatitis or some other communicable disease. Hopefully, nothing would be done to the food, but I don't want to take the chance. If I have a bad experience with the food (or the staff), then I just don't return to that establishment.

I am not a big food-sender-backer because I find that, well meaning or not, the kitchen always seems to overcompensate.

I'll use the above reference to sending back something undercooked. I have found that rather than perfect, when you get it back it is beyond perfect, typically cooked 'til it is beyond dry. No point. No benefit.

Suffer. Don't go back.

hi again,
to elaborate more, I believe that most places do sincerely want you to enjoy your meal.
They want a customer to leave happy. That shows they care, and is a classy way to operate.

The worst experience I ever had was at Taylors Prime Steaks in Los Angeles..........it's probably even considered a "roadfood" place, as it offers prime steaks for reasonable money.
And I know it is in a lot of the tourist guidebooks.

1st time I went, it was good; had no problems...but don't really remember much...

went back again, and ordered my steak med. rare................when it came out , it was definitely med-well...(no pink at all)............

I politely asked for a re-do............next thing I know, a big , burly chef came out...
he was apparently real insulted..........and he kept insisting that it WAS cooked just fine...

I really thought I might even get beat up or something ! Mind you, I am a 5 foot, 1 inch female.........

he ended up taking it back, but the vibes I had were so bad, that I would never set foot in
that place again..........besides, the steak did'nt taste as "prime" as I remembered it , anyway....

My sister feels like some of you do, though.......she's not really a "send back" person...
she feels that the best revenge is just not to go back........

This is an interesting topic...I wonder what you guys would have done in my situation?
I really don't like to make a fuss about the food that is served to me, I guess because I am the son of a cook, and brother to sisters who were all waitpersons/bartenders, so I overcompensate, tending to avoid any hassles that my requests might cause the waitstaff.

However, my pet peeve is the following...waitstaff that ask you about sixty seconds after the food is placed in front of you if "everything is ok.." If you are having a conversation with anyone, there has barely been time to take a bite! This happened not long ago in a New York Italian restaurant which is really a tourist trap past its prime (I know...a glutton for punishment, I guess). I actually tried to gum down the inedible calamari (like erasers)to be polite, and had about 1/8 of the portion before I finally gave up. The accompanying spaghetti also tasted, after one bite, like Chef Boyardee; this in itself I could have tolerated barely, but not spaghetti that was boiled to the consistency of mealworms. When I called over the waiter to "gently" mention my concerns, he said abruptly "Well, I asked you before, and you didn't say there was a problem!"

Like I said, asking customers if everything is fine almost immediately after the dish is put down doesn't really help anyone. Of course, I don't mean to refer to those cases of unscrupulous individuals who would polish off an entire dinner, and then at the end, complain loudly, wanting to be comped....but the waiter should have known something was wrong when he took away two practically full plates of food..and of course, no offer of a complimentary coffee, or anything. This restaurant will surely not get my business again.

What would you all have done in a similar situation, if you did not realize early on that your meal was nearly inedible, and didn't mention this almost as soon as the food was served?

Quote: "Like I said, asking customers if everything is fine almost immediately after the dish is put down doesn't really help anyone"

If you think that practice is bad, you should have been with me in a little cafe in Michigan. The waitress (it could well have been her first day on the job) would instantaneously ask us if everything was OK as soon as she placed something on the table. (My glass of iced tea was placed on table, and before I could even begin to reach for the glass, she asked, "Is everything OK?". When my entree was placed on the table, the same scenario immediately ensued.) This was not a case of not waiting for someone who is involved in a conversation, but rather a case of asking the question before anyone could possibly even notice what was on their plate!

She was very sweet, even if she was a bit loopy (as I ordered each item, she announced, "I knew you were going to ask for that. I'm psychic"). I assumed that this was probably her first day on the job, or that somehow she missed the entire point of why and how to ask that question. Finally, in a very nice way, I told her that it might be more appropriate to wait until someone actually has a chance to taste something (or at least to examine the plate's contents) before asking the question.

I did not point out to her that if she was truly psychic, then she would not need to ask that question!

I always try to be friendly with wait-staff. I wouldn't want to be like my late grandfather. Once we were eating with him and when his food came, he said loudly to the waitress, "These eggs look awful!"

In a restaurant in Utah near Capital Reef Park that was once a Roadfood restaurant (I forgot the name), my wife got into a major argument with the chef over her chicken Marsala. The dish came in a cream sauce, which my wife insisted is not supposed to be the case with Marsala. The chef came out of the kitchen and told her she was wrong and didn't know what she was talking about.

Ohh it happens. Even when you think that you are in a fine dining establishment. All kitchens have a high percentage of turnover when it comes to staff, front and back of the house. Servers, especially cocky male ones can be brutal! I worked in a Fine dining restaurant and was amazed at the losers who would come in as line cooks and bring drugs to work ,get high etc. Sorry to say but sometimes in the time of need a body is a body. One time a cook showed up 2 hours late only to find out he had a hooker in his room in the hotel that the manager was nice enough to give him for free cause of a personnal problem and still he was not fired but was let go with a warning.

I worked as a server at a restaurant and I never heard anything about someone's food being spit on or anything of that nature. In fact, we did everything we could to make sure that we made it right. I'm not saying that occasionally the chefs wouldn't make a smart ass comment or roll their eyes but I never saw or heard of anything being done to food. If my food isn't prepared right, I always very nicely ask my server to make it right. :) And I always tip well.

I usually NEVER send anything back.

But a few months ago, we went to a local place that was supposed to be good, they have a variety of foods, and karaoke! I wasn't feeling great that night, but tried to eat a chicken "finger", which was pounded out & more of a cutlet.

Chicken is not supposed to be pink when you bite into it, is it?

This chicken was RAW. It had breading on it, and had maybe been in the deep fryer for a second or two.

The waitress (16, friendly girl) was BEYOND mortified. As was the manager. She comped our ENTIRE bill, except for the entrees (1 round of drinks, appetizer the raw chicken came from, and INSISTED that we take 3 desserts home with us).

My friends were shocked they would do that, but I explained that they did not want the word to get out that they serve raw chicken. They don't want us bad mouthing them around town, so they comped what they could. And we haven't.

But yeah, that would be the only time I'd ever send something back. Otherwise, you're taking your chances.

I am another one who hates being asked how everything is, 2 minutes into the meal. Come back when you see I need another iced tea & ask me then, please.