Ever send food back in a restaurant?

[breadsammich]

I have a pretty strong stomach when it comes to food issues. If there's a hair in it, I usually discreetly remove it and just continue eating. Unless the cook/waiter had some kind of hair disease, I see it as more of a weak-stomach issue, which I don't really have.

I've only not been able to eat the food once. One time I ordered a burger and when I bit into it, the little wax cheese-divider thing was still in it and it burned the crap out of my tongue. The waitress was hilarious about it--she came back after we were almost finished eating and she was like "would you like me to box that up for you?" We all had a good laugh.

 

[EricKei]

I've only ever sent back food if I ordered "item A" and received "item B7" -- which has been really, really rare at anything other than fast food places. One time I regret NOT sending the food back was at Friday's when I ordered a chicken fried steak, and it came out hot and crispy on the outside but still frozen in the middle -- this was, apparently, shortly after they made the shift from mainly fresh dishes to flash-frozen and thawed crap dishes. This was...say, 14 years ago and I've never been back.

I suppose I've just lucked out (at real restaurants, anyway) and seldom gotten anything done improperly. At burger joints, yeah, if I ask for "x only" I mean "x only", not "the works"...I don't feel as bad having them remake it if the entire process takes less than a minute ^_^

 

[KingofallCosmos]

I think you get better with practice; after a stint of weekly dinners I can now send anything back if it's not up to par. Hey, you pay for it right? when I say bloody I mean bloody you koks! (dutch for chef).

 

[Joshimodo]

Hell yeah I do. I also send back anything that looks unclean.

If I don't plan to eat it for any reason other than hunger or taste, I send it back.

 

[Darkmantle]

I've only done it once, at subway while they were making it a fly flew into my sub, and the lady didn't notice, so I asked her to make me a new one But hten again, at subway I can wach to make sure no one spits in my food

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Usually, especially for steak, if it is not cooked the way I asked, I just tell them that it needs to be cooked longer. I mean, I am paying $15-$20 for a steak dinner, might as well get my money's worth.

 

[Guffe]

I've never done it.
If it was really bad I would but I've never needed to.

 

[Excludos]

There has to be something genuinely wrong with the dish for me to send it back. If the food just tastes bad, I eat it and rather refuse to come back.

However, once, I ordered a beef entrecôte, and sent it back because I had payed half my salary for it, and it was undercooked from what I ordered. The chef sent out a filet instead

 

[Spizami]

You obviously don't understand steak. If my steak is overcooked. You bet I'll send it back. Politely of course, But steak needs to be bloody and pink.

 

[Jbrock868]

I, personally, make it a policy to only send food back if it is the completely wrong thing (fish instead of steak, etc)

 

[direkiller]

it was late and the mash potatoes were cold(they stuck them in the microwave)
i dint send it back so much as ask them to stick it in for another min

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

My Grandpa once took me to an expensive restaurant for my high school graduation. He told me I could order anything on the menu. Well I don't like spending too much money (especially other peoples money) so I got the duck.

Well it came back drowned in orange sauce. I tried eating it, but the orange sauce overpowered the duck to the point where it tasted like I was biting into a rather meaty Orange.

Thats the only time I've ever sent anything back.

 

[Jfswift]

No, because I have an irrational fear about someone spitting in my food.

 

[dyre]

Yeah, they gave me the wrong pizza at a restaurant, so I sent it back. I was real polite about it though, to try to make sure my next one didn't have waiter saliva as a topping.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I have a few times. Once because it wasnt cooked the whole way through, once cause the fish wasnt any good, and a couple other times for various reasons. I was always nice about it though, tipped the waitress an extra dollar and gave her two dollars to the cook who made my food as an apology.

really, the only one that was bad was the fish, and thats cause the manager was a dick about.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

If I send something back, I tend to go with it as most places I eat have the open kitchen bar at the back. I like to watch my food being re-prepped. I also find the manager on duty.
This comes from waiting/bussing experience, and I don't trust waitstaff all that much (even though I'm usually extremely nice to them). However, I don't believe in mandatory gratuity. If you don't show some hustle, muscle and bustle, you don't get gratuity.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I have never done so far because I don't eat out very often, but I wouldn't say I'm afraid to send back food. A single hair in my food I will simply pull out and eat because 90% of the time it's not someone else's fault.

If my steak has no pink in it what so ever though, I would send it back.

Tell you what folks.
Pro Tip: Don't eat out at busy times, go in the afternoon.

The only dishes I've had to send back are a few improperly cooked steaks. If it's like boot leather it goes back. That one's something of an unwritten rule, I think, though.

Where I work, some people like their steaks like that, stupid if you ask me.

 

[Ris]

I'll send it back if there's something incorrect about the order, if it's cold or if it's burnt... stuff where it would be hard to argue that something wasn't wrong. The odd hair doesn't really bother me, nor does shoddy presentation or anything like that. I think once or twice I've asked for a Coke to be taken back because the machine was running out of syrup and it tasted just like soda water.

There was a woman behind us last week who sent her meal back because her mashed potato "tasted bland". Lady, you've had potato before, right?

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

I don't have the balls to do it. I think even if my food were crawling with giant spiders, I would still just eat around them and suck it up. Besides, if I do send it back, it might come back with something even WORSE hidden in it.
What about all of you?

I once had brown prawn sludge that tasted like cat foot at the local socialist batcave. I was afraid they'd accuse me of racism or elitism or anything along those lines, so I bravely swallowed it all and just regurgitated it quietly into the shrubbery out back. Not a single frown was given that night.

I tried both canned cat and dog food after this - none of which tasted as foul as the brown prawn sludge. Not sure what went wrong there.

Yes, in some establishments I'd expect some behind-the-scenes tampering. In others, where I can see what's going on and how the food I buy is handled, I'd dare point out faulty food. Thing is, there's usually nothing ever wrong there.

A couple of weeks ago, a local Kebab place got shut down, because one/some of the kebab assemblers added some very personal salty sauce to the meat and the sauces. Yeah, we've all been casually impregnated by late-night sperm. Can't imagine what greater evil they would have come up with had we actually complained about, say, soggy bread, cold meat or hairy hands.

 

[winter2]

As a proud Brit I will sit and moan about it to all I am dining with (never to anyone else around! I don't want to talk to them, and they have no business interupting my evening by talking to me!) and then when the waiter comes and checks on us, I will smile and say it is splended, thank you! Then I won't tip. This is how it is written in the big book of British Etiquette.

Snort.. ok.. that was funny. LOL!