I need to vent about a horrible restaurant experience that I had last night, so I figured what better way than to start a thread......
Sorry for the long OP....it just kind of got away from me
Our 7 year wedding anniversary was a couple of weeks ago. We waited until my mother-in-law arrived for a visit (so she could babysit) so that we could go out and celebrate. My wife made reservations for Saturday night at 8:30pm at a nice little French restaurant in the area. We don't get to go out just the two of us much because of our 2 year old, so we were really looking forward to this night out.
We arrived at the very busy restaurant just before 8:30 and checked in. The owner/host told us that we would be seated in 10 minutes, and pointed to a place for us to wait. 10 minutes isn't unreasonable for a busy restaurant, so we waited. I can understand that they may not be exactly on time because they can't fully control when people get up from their tables so they can seat the next customers.
So 20 minutes goes by, and at this point I'm staring at the host with my arms crossed. He walks in our general direction, and when he passes, he says it'll be a few more minutes. I remind him that he told us it would only be 10 minutes and that at this point it's already been 20. He shrugs and sort of says sorry, and walks away.
Finally, it appears that we're next, and a nice booth for two is being cleared (presumably for us). The only other people waiting is a couple who just arrived (at around 8:55pm). The table is ready and......he directs the newly arrived couple to that table. WTF?
When he comes back, I ask him why he gave them our table.
Him: "Their reservation was before yours."
Me: "No it wasn't. Ours was at 8:30, and they just got here. We've been waiting for 30 minutes already."
Him: "You made your reservation today."
Me: "No we didn't, we made it 3 days ago, and what does that have to do with anything?"
Him: "They're regulars, so.....y'know."
Me: "I don't care if they're regulars. We have a reservation. Why do you take reservations? And, anyway, how do you know that we weren't going to become regulars? Is their money better than ours?"
Him: "Just wait another 10 minutes. I'll give you free drinks or dessert."
Me: "Sorry, that's not going to make up for how you've disrespected us."
Him: "I didn't disrespect you."
Me: "Yes you did. Don't take reservations if you aren't going to honor them. We will not be dining here and giving you our money. You don't deserve it for treating us like that. And I will be sure to write unfavorable reviews about this so other potential new customers will go somewhere else."
Him: "So what." <- that's basically what he said here, I don't remember the exact words.
Once we were outside, my wife was so upset by how we were treated, that she said that she was going to cry. I decided to let the owner know that....so I told him that this was supposed to be a night to celebrate our 7th anniversary, and instead of celebrating, he made my wife cry. He shrugged. That was all.
Fortunately, there is a happening Greek restaurant next door, so we went in and asked for a table. I told the manager about what happened, and he rolled his eyes and said that he's not surprised- we weren't the first ones to come to his restaurant after something like that happened next door. We enjoyed the food, the music, the singing and the dancing there. After the meal and after I paid, the manager asked us if we'd like coffee and dessert on him. We declined because we were already really full. But that's class.....it wasn't even his problem, but he still wanted to make it up to us.
I think that the only way we would have stayed at the French restaurant would have been if the owner had apologized and admitted he made a mistake, and if he offered to comp our entire meal. But of course, that didn't happen, and I'm glad that we have the integrity to not take crap like that from anyone. Obviously, we will not be going back there.
Even though our night was salvaged, it still really bothered us that we were treated that way. So that kind of hung over the entire night. We know it wasn't anything personal, it just sucks to be on the receiving end of that.
Also, I understand that you have to treat your loyal customers well, but there is a time and a place for that. When you know that you have new customers (read: new money) patiently waiting 30 minutes past their reservation time, you don't seat other people who clearly arrived after the new customers. That just shows how little you think of your customers. All he needed to do was to tell those people that he needed to seat us because we had been waiting for a long time, and that they would be next. Since they are regulars, and know him and the restaurant, they would have understood.
tl;dr we were treated like crap and decided to take our business elsewhere.
Feel free to use this thread to vent about any bad restaurant experiences that you've had.
Sorry for the long OP....it just kind of got away from me
Our 7 year wedding anniversary was a couple of weeks ago. We waited until my mother-in-law arrived for a visit (so she could babysit) so that we could go out and celebrate. My wife made reservations for Saturday night at 8:30pm at a nice little French restaurant in the area. We don't get to go out just the two of us much because of our 2 year old, so we were really looking forward to this night out.
We arrived at the very busy restaurant just before 8:30 and checked in. The owner/host told us that we would be seated in 10 minutes, and pointed to a place for us to wait. 10 minutes isn't unreasonable for a busy restaurant, so we waited. I can understand that they may not be exactly on time because they can't fully control when people get up from their tables so they can seat the next customers.
So 20 minutes goes by, and at this point I'm staring at the host with my arms crossed. He walks in our general direction, and when he passes, he says it'll be a few more minutes. I remind him that he told us it would only be 10 minutes and that at this point it's already been 20. He shrugs and sort of says sorry, and walks away.
Finally, it appears that we're next, and a nice booth for two is being cleared (presumably for us). The only other people waiting is a couple who just arrived (at around 8:55pm). The table is ready and......he directs the newly arrived couple to that table. WTF?
When he comes back, I ask him why he gave them our table.
Him: "Their reservation was before yours."
Me: "No it wasn't. Ours was at 8:30, and they just got here. We've been waiting for 30 minutes already."
Him: "You made your reservation today."
Me: "No we didn't, we made it 3 days ago, and what does that have to do with anything?"
Him: "They're regulars, so.....y'know."
Me: "I don't care if they're regulars. We have a reservation. Why do you take reservations? And, anyway, how do you know that we weren't going to become regulars? Is their money better than ours?"
Him: "Just wait another 10 minutes. I'll give you free drinks or dessert."
Me: "Sorry, that's not going to make up for how you've disrespected us."
Him: "I didn't disrespect you."
Me: "Yes you did. Don't take reservations if you aren't going to honor them. We will not be dining here and giving you our money. You don't deserve it for treating us like that. And I will be sure to write unfavorable reviews about this so other potential new customers will go somewhere else."
Him: "So what." <- that's basically what he said here, I don't remember the exact words.
Once we were outside, my wife was so upset by how we were treated, that she said that she was going to cry. I decided to let the owner know that....so I told him that this was supposed to be a night to celebrate our 7th anniversary, and instead of celebrating, he made my wife cry. He shrugged. That was all.
Fortunately, there is a happening Greek restaurant next door, so we went in and asked for a table. I told the manager about what happened, and he rolled his eyes and said that he's not surprised- we weren't the first ones to come to his restaurant after something like that happened next door. We enjoyed the food, the music, the singing and the dancing there. After the meal and after I paid, the manager asked us if we'd like coffee and dessert on him. We declined because we were already really full. But that's class.....it wasn't even his problem, but he still wanted to make it up to us.
I think that the only way we would have stayed at the French restaurant would have been if the owner had apologized and admitted he made a mistake, and if he offered to comp our entire meal. But of course, that didn't happen, and I'm glad that we have the integrity to not take crap like that from anyone. Obviously, we will not be going back there.
Even though our night was salvaged, it still really bothered us that we were treated that way. So that kind of hung over the entire night. We know it wasn't anything personal, it just sucks to be on the receiving end of that.
Also, I understand that you have to treat your loyal customers well, but there is a time and a place for that. When you know that you have new customers (read: new money) patiently waiting 30 minutes past their reservation time, you don't seat other people who clearly arrived after the new customers. That just shows how little you think of your customers. All he needed to do was to tell those people that he needed to seat us because we had been waiting for a long time, and that they would be next. Since they are regulars, and know him and the restaurant, they would have understood.
tl;dr we were treated like crap and decided to take our business elsewhere.
Feel free to use this thread to vent about any bad restaurant experiences that you've had.
