Worse aspect of a bad dining experience?

[BarkingGhostar]

Everyone has their own pet peeves and I never really wondered about this until last night. The wife and I dine out a lot (>150/year). Those places that make us happy and do a great job see our repeat business. And while I'll typically warn friends about places they might want to consider avoiding and even some that I would leave feedback with their corporate office, I've never felt compelled to join Yelp and leave public feedback.

That of course has all changed. Last night the wife and I had a terrible experience. After doing some research and having a little reservation on trying this place we dines at a place purporting to serve deep-dish pizza. They even went as far to call themselves Chicago-style. Unfortunately, wouldn't couldn't challenge that as after more than an hour from our order being submitted we still hadn't received any food unless you count the diet Pepsi.

No silverware, no napkins, no plates and most of all no food. None. And this is one thing if it was a place that was busy (it wasn't), short on staff (had plenty of workers about) or if something went wrong in the kitchen (e.g. losing the ability to cook something), but none of that played into it.

We were sat immediately and our order given completely within 2-3 minutes and told the deep-dish that I had ordered would take 30 minutes. OK. Then 15-20 minutes after we gave our order I watched someone be seated and their order taken, with their waiter telling them 20-25 minutes for deep-dish. Then 25-30 minutes later they get their deep-dish.

Twice during this our space cadet of a waitress flew by our table muttering "lemme check on your order" but I doubt she actually did this. Another 15 minutes past and that other table was finishing up their meal and now the booth behind me asks for the manager, who is inept. He shows up saying, "I guess you didn't want to have pizza tonight" and gets a silent reaction from the family of four.

This other customer ordered a thin crust cheese pizza and they had been there well before the wife and I arrived and still hadn't gotten anything. And then they are told it will be another 20-25 minuets but its "on the house". No shit Sherlock! Finally the wife looks at her watch again and says, "its been well over an hour" now and agrees we are leaving.

I stop to talk to the inept manager and offer to pay for the diet Pepsi and our waitress lies and tells me she said 45-minutes, not 30. But it has been over an hour! She claims it hasn't been over an hour and I inform her someone arrived after us and has had their deep-dish delivered and they already finished eating it. The inept manager mutters to me while barely even turning to acknowledging me saying, "just go." I did.

Now my wife rarely externalizes her dissatisfaction in scenes like this and is very non-confrontational. When I told her about the waitress lying she went crazy. I do not think we've ever dined at a place and given an order and more than an hour later not gotten anything. I felt bad for the folks behind me as they were still sitting there waiting on a simple cheese pizza.

The fact that this absent in management, the incapable wait staff and the mystery kitchen staff only made me do one thing last night: Register on Yelp and leave them appropriate feedback. Now I've had bad meals before, but I've never had no meal served to me. Seriously, did this place had to start growing the vegetables or something?

 

[Muse]

The positive thing here is that you did something about it, joining Yelp. Now, don't be so long winded in your posts there, be succinct and to the point. You don't want to feel like you're wasting time posting to Yelp. Do it once in a while, not too often. You enjoy going out. Make your Yelp experience very positive on balance.

Your post reminds me of Roger Ebert's admonition to research the movies you watch so you don't waste a couple of hours watching something you should have known to avoid. Doing the same with restaurants seems to me about the same thing. Yelp should help you there. Yes, read between the lines, you always have to do that in reading reviews. I say this because I read a LOT of reviews. Seldom for restaurants (although I sure do when I go out), but I seldom eat out, very seldom. I did a few days ago to treat myself because I spent the last 6 months working on my garage and got pretty stressed finishing it before the rains came last week. My experience at this restaurant was OK, but I didn't like waiting for my food as long as I did and then waiting for the waiter to come with the check and then waiting for them to come back with my credit card. I decided that next time I order there it will be take out (I almost always get take out). This time I didn't read any reviews. I'd gotten take out from them once, a self pick-up for catering a large event. I drive past the place frequently. I went in for lunch on a hunch, just winging it. The place was almost empty when I entered but pretty full by the time I left. The service was pretty slow but nothing like the restaurant from hell experience you describe.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Cold Food.

Weird (non-food) odors coming from the kitchen.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The positive thing here is that you did something about it, joining Yelp.

...this is the first time in the history of humankind this has been said.

 

[sdifox]

Hospitalization

 

[squirrel dog]

that's why years ago , I learned to cook .

 

[brianmanahan]

i got food poisoning at a fancy restaurant in chicago.

i walked around the city all day feeling sicker and sicker but couldn't throw up when i found a bathroom.

eventually i vomited in a subway station drain like a hobo.

 

[ponyo]

It sucks but it happens. Bad waiters, problems in the kitchen, to messed up food. As I got older, I got tired of paying for mediocrity and learned to cook. Now I don't have to deal with the hassle of driving to someplace, getting waited on by people who don't care, paying for mediocre food and service, and driving back home. I get to relax in the comfort of my home, cook and eat at my own pace, and if I mess up I only have myself to blame. And as a bonus, since I control the entire cooking and dining process, I rarely get sick now. Think about all the times you've gotten sick from eating at a restaurant. It could be from sick person preparing or cooking your food, waiter who's sick, or diners around you who's sick. Not to mention unknown ingredients, not so fresh food, and unsanitary kitchen conditions.

 

[Muse]

that's why years ago , I learned to cook .

No lie. I do a lot of things in the kitchen that would work really well in gourmet restaurants. At first, I tried to emulate what the professionals do. I would follow elaborate recipes to the T. I can still do that but if I do it will be something pretty easy, not like before... that takes too much time and effort. I've found ways to save myself all that trouble. I almost never go out on my own. I get take out very occasionally, that's about it. I go out on special occasions with others once in a while.

 

[tynopik]

yelp isn't a reliable source of reviews because it's business model is extortion

if the restaurant pays up, your review disappears

if they don't pay up, all the positive reviews disappear

 

[BoomerD]

OP, Uno's? That was one of the worst we ever had. LONG wait tkme, terrible service by the wait staff, food served piss-warm...then to add insult to injury, we both got food poisoning...and that's bad because I can eat almost anything w/o getting sick...cast iron stomach.
For me, the WORST part of a bad dining experience that doesn't give you food poisoning, is when they want you to pay for their incompetence. Obviously, you HAVE TO PAY so you don't get charged for "dine-and-dash" defrauding an innkeeper...but it still sucks.

 

[Muse]

yelp isn't a reliable source of reviews because it's business model is extortion

if the restaurant pays up, your review disappears

if they don't pay up, all the positive reviews disappear

Is this true? Some evidence? I've heard stuff, but is it that bad???

If it's true, I'll never go there again.

 

[Schfifty Five]

I hate when your food is taking a long time and the waiter/waitress keeps coming every 10 min saying "I just checked on it, it should be just 3 more minutes". Yes, I know they are forced to say that to try and keep the customer waiting.

I also hate when waiters do not refill my drinks (water/soda) frequently. I understand it doesn't have to be filled the moment it goes empty, but 10min+ is too long.

But thankfully, I haven't had an experience like OPs.

 

[rh71]

Why don't they have waiters that can take care of any table like chinese restaurants? It works better for guests in my opinion.

Here we call them waiters but we're the ones waiting for them all the time.

 

[shortylickens]

Cold food arriving hot.
Hot food arriving cold.

 

[shortylickens]

Is this true? Some evidence? I've heard stuff, but is it that bad???

If it's true, I'll never go there again.

They actually got caught doing that once, several years ago. They've since stopped.
Or rather, the evidence they do it has stopped.

 

[tynopik]

Is this true? Some evidence? I've heard stuff, but is it that bad???

If it's true, I'll never go there again.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-yelp-ratings-20140905-story.html

The influential ratings website denies tampering with any reviews, but a federal appeals court ruled that it can if it wants to — saying it would not amount to extortion.

. . .

John Mercurio, one of the plaintiffs, said Yelp removed 14 five-star ratings for his auto repair shop in Santa Clara, Calif., after he declined a sales pitch from a Yelp representative to spend $500 a month on advertising.

Not only did the glowing reviews disappear, Mercurio said in a phone interview Thursday, but also a 1-star review appeared at the top of his Yelp listing. Sales for the business have dropped 30%, Mercurio said.

http://www.ibtimes.com/yelp-extorti...-action-lawsuit-against-review-bully-appealed

 

[dullard]

Please do us a favor and leave several reviews. One person leaving one bad review does nothing as we don't know your preferences, expectations, or tolerance level. But if you leave some glowing reviews, some negative reviews, and some middling reviews then we can judge your negative review in proper light.

A cranky poster with just negative reviews means that we don't know if the poster had a bad experience or is just a crotchety angry soul full of angst. Similarly, I ignore reviews from people that only leave 5 stars. Sorry but if that filthy gas station McDonald's gets 5 stars, then I am ignoring you 5 star review of the newest top restaurant.

 

[renz20003]

Worse aspect of a bad dining experience?

Having to get something else to eat after wasting my time.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

So what's the restaurant? Link to their yelp page?

 

[Rumpltzer]

C'mon! You need to at least tell us the name (and city) of this place.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Sorry folks, got distracted. Here. Seems a lot of others got bad service that same night and the next as well.

 

[bradly1101]

After seeing numerous cockroaches in the kitchen of one big nationwide chain (heading out of the terminal I was repairing and toward cooling racks of pies), and hearing from high school idiots who said that they put all sorts of disgusting things in peoples' food at another, I've given up on restaurants.

 

[MrSquished]

I'd rather deal with less than stellar service and great food than crap food but great service. All a matter of degree of the poor service.

 

[purbeast0]

My wife and I eat out a lot too, not as much as we used to. I've really only had 2 terrible experiences. Both of them I tipped $0 and one of them they ended up reimbursing me the full $130 price a few days later.

One of them involved taking over 45 minutes to get a child sized pizza out for my toddler, which was the only food we even ordered. We were there for drinks and decided to get a pizza for him since it would be quick. Little did we know. We heard other tables complaining big time too.

The other involved them simply not bringing my food out with the rest of the table (9 of us) and saying it would be a few minutes. Then that turned into 30 minutes, then they finally told me they were out of the tuna. Then they told me they magically had the tuna and asked me if I still wanted it, and it would be on the house. I said if it wouldn't take long to make it I'd have it and it finally came out and was terrible.