Send It Back

by Mark R. Vogel

I must admit, seldom do errors of such magnitude occur at upscale restaurants. Most of the time they happen at your everyday eateries, particularly the chain restaurants. Sometimes your fellow diners will admonish you for your outrage and remind you that you're in a run-of-the-mill restaurant and not a fine dining establishment.

To some extent, the general public has come to accept below average standards from average restaurants. I believe it's precisely this resignation that enables them to wallow in their ineptitude.

The only way we as the dining public can do anything about it is to inform the manager or send the food back. Many people don't wish to "make a scene" or cause trouble. They suffer with their inadequate food and the establishment is never enlightened to its failings.

Ultimately it is the chef you wish to inform about problems with the food. The server is merely the intermediary. Some servers don't inform the cooks about their blunders.

They don't wish to create tension with a coworker via a "shooting the messenger" displacement of anger. Or they may not care. Returning the food has a far greater chance of getting the chef's attention than keeping it and merely informing the server of the error.

The server is then forced to have to inform the cooking staff. So send it back! And if it's a major problem, (like the aforementioned cockroach), I would definitely inform the manager.

Maintaining quality at any restaurant is a tremendous and arduous task. With so many meals being prepared at the same time, mistakes are sometimes inevitable. I am not suggesting you hassle your neighborhood eatery over minor slip-ups.

And yes, you can't accept the same standard of quality from the cost-effective family restaurant as you would from a four star establishment.

But I don't care how inexpensive or casual a restaurant is, there's no excuse for significantly over or under cooked food, spoiled food, or grossly impaired culinary judgment. Even as a child I knew you had to peel an onion before cooking it.

More than half of all new restaurants go out of business within two years. Without feedback they are likely to perpetuate their pitfalls.

Business slowly deteriorates as the management staff, ignorant to some of the problems, quizzically remains searching for the whys. So tell'em what you think and then be fair. Give them a chance to correct it and try them again.