NEVER eat at the Rockenwagner Restaurant in Santa Monica.

imported_Tomato

Diamond Member
Sep 11, 2002
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Last night, I went out to dinner with my boss, my boss's boss, my coworker, and the finance manager of our department to celebrate making our numbers and all that good stuff. We went to a place called Rockenwagner, which was supposedly better than Cafe Del Rey, where we had originally planned to go.

High/lowlight of the evening: My coworker found a freakin' 1-inch shard of jagged glass in his mashed potatoes. As he was eating them, he suddenly had a strange look on his face, reached into his mouth, and pulled it out. All of us gawked at it, and I scraped it on the table (cutting the tablecloth) to make sure it was indeed glass. Had he chomped down on it, he would have cut up the roof of his mouth and his tongue. We called over the waiter, who looked at us with a blank stare as we presented him with the glass. "I don't know how it got in there, I'm just the watier." He brought my coworker a new plate of filet mignon with french fries, and at the end of the meal, we looked at the bill and saw that only his meal had been comped.

Now, if I were a restaurant owner and one of my patrons found a piece of GLASS in his meal, I would've been on my knees apologizing, and comped the whole table and then some. My boss's boss and my boss (both very aggressive, speak-your-mind, independent women... those easily intimidated might even think of a word that rhymes with "witch") couldn't believe it, and called over the owner. They thought more should have been comped (out of principle, not payment, which wasn't an issue), explained the situation, and the owner said, "I was told it was a piece of plastic."

Um, no. It was freakin' GLASS.

The owner turned to my coworker and asked, "Well, are you hurt?"

My coworker said, "Well, no, but I don't think that's the point here."

The owner said, "If you're not hurt, then what's the problem?"

O_O

All of us were incredulous. There were more words exchanged, including this quote by the owner: "I don't tell you how to run your business, so don't tell me how to run mine."

The owner of Rockenwagner handled the situation EXTREMELY poorly, with no regard for customer satisfaction or even basic decency/politeness. I was in shock the whole time... I couldn't believe the owner was actually on the DEFENSIVE, when it was his restaurant's bad. We finally said, "Just give us the bill and we'll go"... and we did.

So... moral of the story is, NEVER eat at the Rockenwagner Restaurant in Santa Monica. Unless you like shards of glass in your food.

Feel free to post your own restaurant horror stories (or recommendations, if you've had particularly positive experiences).


Cliff's Notes: Don't eat at the Rockenwagner Restaurant in Santa Monica... coworker found a piece of glass in his food, owner of the restaurant was indignant with an "If you weren't hurt by it, what's the problem" attitude.
 

z0mb13

Lifer
May 19, 2002
18,106
1
76
Originally posted by: Dezign

So... moral of the story is, NEVER eat at the Rockenwagner Restaurant in Santa Monica. Unless you like shards of glass in your food.

sorry but I find this statement to be extremely amusing....
 

TC2181

Banned
Nov 20, 2003
634
0
0
I would have expected the person who had glass in the meal to be comped, and maybe a gift certificate or something for the next visit, but their wasn't glass in your food. No harm no foul.
 

BeefJurky

Senior member
Sep 5, 2001
367
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yea, i went there once and ordered the glassburger. it had NAILS in it. i was MAD.

seriously, though, he should have put it back in his mouth and chomped down. never would have had to work another day in his life.
 

NutBucket

Lifer
Aug 30, 2000
27,033
545
126
That sucks. One more to cross off the list then. I should add I wasn't impressed at all with the food at Arnold's restaurant either (Schatzi).
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,414
8,356
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did you stand up and tell the whole place that you'd just found a giant piece of glass in the food and that the manager was being a dick about it?
 

dxkj

Lifer
Feb 17, 2001
11,772
2
81
Originally posted by: BeefJurky
yea, i went there once and ordered the glassburger. it had NAILS in it. i was MAD.

seriously, though, he should have put it back in his mouth and chomped down. never would have had to work another day in his life.

 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
Sounds like a dump. We found a fly in a plate of pasta at the olive garden. The manager came and offered us (party of four I think) that entree for free plus maybe a dessert. Shard of glass is way worse.
 

weezergirl

Diamond Member
May 24, 2000
3,366
1
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thanks for the warning. i eat at SM all the time but haven't tried that place...i will def. avoid it!!!! i hope you guys made a big scene!!
 

conjur

No Lifer
Jun 7, 2001
58,686
3
0
At a local chain restaurant here, someone found the tip of a thumb in their salad. I'm sure they got their meal comped but if I was at the table, I wouldn't expect mine to be free. They *are* running a business, after all. Just treat the "victim" nicely is all that should be required.
 

TheNinja

Lifer
Jan 22, 2003
12,207
1
0
Originally posted by: ElFenix
did you stand up and tell the whole place that you'd just found a giant piece of glass in the food and that the manager was being a dick about it?

Yup, that would have been the best way to get all the meals comped. Tell the owner/manager that if he/she does not comp the meals out of general principle that you will stand up and your whole table will make a HUGE scene about finding glass in your food. They will want to avoid that so they will comp you. Also be sure to mention that you know of a couple of newspaper and/or TV reporters that wouldn't mind hearing about this :)
 

imported_Tomato

Diamond Member
Sep 11, 2002
7,608
0
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In terms of making a scene...

Me being at the bottom of the totem pole, I sat there shocked and quiet, basically in disbelief of the scene playing out in front of me. I just couldn't see how the owner could remain so defenseive and aggressive... he didn't even apologize once for the mishap.

My boss's boss and my boss both raised their voices, and other patrons in the restaurant started looking over (it really wasn't that busy... it being a Tuesday night, only about 20% of the restaurant was filled). It got the point where my coworker repeated, "Let's just pay the bill and leave" until we did.
 

zbalat

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,501
1
81
I was in the same situation a few years ago (my wife bit into a rather large rock/stone in her sandwich). All we expected was for her meal to be comped and that's exactly what the restaurant did.

I did not for one second think that my meal should be comped as well in fact the thought never crossed my mind. Why should my meal be comped? My meal was fine. The owner in your situation could have been a tad bit more professional but I agree that only one meal should have been comped.
 

richardycc

Diamond Member
Apr 29, 2001
5,719
1
81
Is this place run by chinese? ;) One time we found a piece of glass inside of a dim sum, dont ask me how it got in there, so we asked to talk to the owner/manager, but of course they blew us off, so not only we didn't get a free replacement, they made us pay for the one that had the glass in it.

 

KGB1

Platinum Member
Dec 29, 2001
2,998
0
0
The real Moral of the Story:

Make your godd@mn food at home and bring it to where you are going to eat it. If need be, buy a beverage from the bodega or 7-eleven nearby.

rolleye.gif
Its so obvious people ;):p