Dining Disaster-What would you do? (Extremely long)

[greensinestro]

I've had a few exceptions to not leaving a tip, being I find it very low when one finds a way out of it altogether. In your case, you did the right thing, although I think leaving something like twenty-five cents would have hurt more than nothing at all. Sure, she providing poor service by not checking up on you or getting the drinks wrong. However, it is also possible she was at fault for the food. I have been in situations where we sat near the kitchen, and I could see our food was ready. Yet, the waitress, for some reason, would be so busy that our food would sit maybe five, ten minutes before she got it, and by that time it was getting cold.

[Luna Baby]

I'm in the process of composing my letter to the owner of the restaurant. I am taking my time with it as I don't want to come across bitchy or as if this was trivial or even as an SC to him. I want him to be able to feel from my letter exactly what I felt that night. I've never been good with writing and have discovered that I can write intelligently if I take my time and gather my thoughts before spouting off at the mouth.

I should have his letter to him by Monday.

Side note**We've had another restaurant open up in town, owned by a local doctor's wife. It is Italian and absolutely lovely. We ate there Wednesday evening with our friends and it was well worth the $80 (not counting the tip we left) for the 4 of our party. Our waitress was great, attentive and very friendly when we had questions. They had run out of a couple of things that are homemade and are in high demand, but what she offered in replacement was delicious and ended up, we liked the replacements better.

[Peppergirl]

I used to wait tables, and as I was reading through this I kept thinking "...and tell the management.". Now that you've done that, you've handled it perfectly.

Seriously, there is no excuse for penalizing the server when bad food/disorganized kitchen situations happen, but this server TOTALLY fell out of that particular category. She added to the already bad situation by effectively proving she didn't give a shit, and was there to socialize and play, rather than work.

[Peppergirl]

The only place I order pizza from is literally across the street from me. I could walk there in 2-3 minutes. I don't walk there, because I'm paying a delivery fee to them for the privilege of not having to. While I do realize that I may be just one delivery among many and the driver does others first, the fact remains that it's still just a 2 minute walk.

Also keep in mind that in about half the cases, the store is keeping most (if not all) of the delivery fee. Why penalize the driver for attempting to do their job in the most efficient way possible? Particularly with gas prices nowadays.

I live about 1 mile from the store I order from. I tip well and therefore ALWAYS get my food well before the quote I'm given on the phone.

Food for thought.