Restaurant Stakeout. Anyone here watch it?

[firecat88]

There's a new-ish show on Food Network called Restaurant Stakeout. Its basic premise is this guy I've never heard of before, but who apparently owns restaurants in New York that have the best customer service ever, goes to restaurants that are in the toilet and sets up hidden cameras to see what the staff is doing. A lot of it I do agree with: Not drinking on the job, not eating off of people's plates when they've been taken to the back to be boxed up, not giving someone free drinks and apps and everything just because they're hot, that sorta thing.

Something about the guy in general bothers me, though. He openly admits to having a 'the customer is always right and you must kiss their ass no matter what' attitude. He even goes so far as to say 'Even if you think you're being scammed, comp them anyway and hope they don't come back'. Makes me wonder A) how he stays in business, B) how many times people scam the hell outta him, and C) how he'd handle some of the SCs encountered by people here.

ETA: So I did a little research on this guy's steakhouse chain (Uncle Jack's Steakhouse) and found something interesting. There were a *lot* of 3, 2, and 1-star reviews on Yelp for each restaurant. The two biggest complaints? The crappy steaks and the crappy service.

[Aethian]

Never knew about it.

[kpzra]

That show is great. Hubby and I laugh at it when we watch it.

[Sonoma]

On my DVR, but I won't be able to watch until tomorrow.

[taxguykarl]

I caught a few episodes. He sends operatives to act as SC's...as if the staff doesn't have enough to deal with. Yes there are legitimate shenanigans, but I find it hard to believe that the management does not know about it.

[Palsgraf]

I enjoy it. It's on while I'm at work, so we put it on in the bar!

I like the waiting 8 to 10 minutes to be greeted at the door, and waiting another 8 to 10 minutes to be greeted at the table.

The only time I walked out of a restaurant was when we'd waited 17 minutes at the table. No one ever greeted us. I would have waited longer - just to see how long it actually took for someone to greet us - but my wife doesn't have that much patience. (She was furious, and I just thought it was hilarious). We both love the food there, but service experiences at each location have ruined it for us.

[Redbeard]

Watched a few minutes of it, and I see a Donald Trump wannabe pushing this "the customer is always right" shit that puts me into a murderous rage.
You can have good servers and good service without playing mind games on your staff - Although the occasional stress test is good to gague reactions but offer compensation like a bonus for handling it right, not just "You did well on this fake situation, you're not fired"