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Yeah, you don't hear that much, but I felt it today. On Monday Evil Overlord and I went to lunch at a new seafood restaurant in town. Service was great, food was amazing, and we made sure the manager knew we were pleased and were coming back in the near future.
Move to today. Yup, we went back for dinner (it's that good!).
Service was still good (except for the fact that the girl was new and didn't eat fish, so she couldn't give any personal recommendations), but the food was not up to the previous standard. Not only did the kitchen get our order wrong three times (minor mistakes), but the waitress didn't catch even the obvious errors (like them sending us scallops instead of mahi mahi). So after the third mistake I asked to speak to the manager.
When he got to the table we were already done with our meal and had the check, which I had scanned to make sure that the waitress had placed the order correctly so I knew it was the kitchen making the mistakes. I calmly and politely told him what the problems were and that we were new customers and were disappointed that tonight's meal wasn't as good as our previous visit. I was very clear that we weren't wanting anything taken off the bill since we'd eaten everything, and that I just wanted to let him know so that he could get on the cooks so that they can work on consistency and paying attention to the orders. It was constructive criticism so he didn't lose customers rather than simply b!+ching over mistakes.
The manager/owner actually thanked me for telling him without yelling at him.
With the place being new and the cooks having an off night, he'd apparently had more than one complaint, and the others weren't nearly as nice as I had been. He kept trying to take something off our bill and we kept insisting that it wasn't necessary... but we did compromise and let him give us a single dessert that we shared.
Poor guy. He was looking harried. Starting up a business can be rough. He looked like he needed a hug.
Move to today. Yup, we went back for dinner (it's that good!).
Service was still good (except for the fact that the girl was new and didn't eat fish, so she couldn't give any personal recommendations), but the food was not up to the previous standard. Not only did the kitchen get our order wrong three times (minor mistakes), but the waitress didn't catch even the obvious errors (like them sending us scallops instead of mahi mahi). So after the third mistake I asked to speak to the manager.
When he got to the table we were already done with our meal and had the check, which I had scanned to make sure that the waitress had placed the order correctly so I knew it was the kitchen making the mistakes. I calmly and politely told him what the problems were and that we were new customers and were disappointed that tonight's meal wasn't as good as our previous visit. I was very clear that we weren't wanting anything taken off the bill since we'd eaten everything, and that I just wanted to let him know so that he could get on the cooks so that they can work on consistency and paying attention to the orders. It was constructive criticism so he didn't lose customers rather than simply b!+ching over mistakes.
The manager/owner actually thanked me for telling him without yelling at him.
With the place being new and the cooks having an off night, he'd apparently had more than one complaint, and the others weren't nearly as nice as I had been. He kept trying to take something off our bill and we kept insisting that it wasn't necessary... but we did compromise and let him give us a single dessert that we shared.
Poor guy. He was looking harried. Starting up a business can be rough. He looked like he needed a hug.
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