My Sticky Chinese Restaurant Adventure

[Barbara L]

My fortune from my cookie today: "Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed." Love it!

Ok, I went out for Chinese food with Susan, Tom, and Kaity. Food and company were great. Then the server went to remove some dishes from the table. She dropped them right in front of me. I left with 1/4 cup of bright red (and sticky) sweet and sour sauce down the front of my shirt and pants. Yikes! Susan and I had planned to do some grocery shopping after lunch, but we ended up having to go back to her house and wash my clothes first.


Barbara

 

[CharlieD]

I hope they at least gave you a free diner.

 

[Barbara L]

Nope. She apologized and brought me a wet cloth.

Barbara

 

[CharlieD]

You are way too nice.

 

[Barbara L]

I will take that as a compliment!

Most of the restaurants around here do offer a meal if there is a problem, but the few I have noticed that do not offer a free meal when there is a problem are the buffet style Chinese restaurants.

Barbara

 

[buckytom]

geez, barbara. they should have at the very least offered you a free meal, especially since it's a buffet. i mean, they crank out troughs of food everyday, so it's not like they'd take a loss in any way if they did. really, they should have offered to pay to clean/dry clean your clothes.

chuck d's right: you are too nice to have not said anything.

 

[Barbara L]

I'm pretty sure it was family run. I didn't have to pay for the meal (my friend's company paid for it), and it would have embarrassed him if I had made a stink. It was an accident, and she was truly apologetic. Fortunately my clothes came out spot-free.

Believe me, I have spoken up in many restaurants, including one where the server said (about my over-cooked steak), "Oh it's those Mexicans in the kitchen again." I asked for the manager and let him know exactly how I felt about such a racist remark. No free meal there either, btw. (But they did bring me a new steak).

Barbara

 

[Claire]

The over-cooked steak issue -- you know, if your beef is undercooked, they can take it back and in a few minutes you have a more well-done steak in front of you. IF your steak is way over-done, guess what? If you send it back, you get to eat your meal when everyone else at the table is ready for desert. The absolutely best service when it came to an incorrectly cooked meal was one where my husband ordered pasta. It was long, tubular spaghetti. It had been sitting in cold water, then heated up by immersing in boiling water. Sometimes that works, but this pasta was still full of cold water! The cold water was running out and diluting the sauce, making a cold mess. My meal was perfect (that rare steak I love so well). When hubby sent his meal back, the owner came out and gave us both meals for free, all we paid for was our drinks. Hubby didn't want to order another meal, because by the time he'd get a meal, I'd be sitting there watching him eat because I'd had enough. And you all know how oversized meals are! So we split my dinner. But the owner said that if one of a couple has a bad meal, the other has had a bad meal as well, and that he'd fix the problem.