Do you complain?

melsb · **Do you complain?**

At restaurants? When you receive poor service? And how does it make you feel?

I usually don't complain unless something major comes up. But last week my husband and I (along with the kids) ate at the Olive Garden. The food was good and they were very busy as it was lunch hour. But for some reason all of our food was brought at once! Seriously, we had our soup and salads brought out and about a minute later they brought our main course. And about three minutes AFTER our main course they brought our appetizer! Yes, our appetizer was the last thing brought! We had so much food / plates at our table that we didn't have room. Instead of eating my salad on the plate, I was eating out of their big bowl! And our 9 month old reached over and grabbed my husband's very hot plate - that stuff is normally out of the baby's reach but we didn't have anyplace else to put it. Like I said, while our food was good, we didn't enjoy our eating experience at all since the entire time we were shoveling our food in our mouths in order to clear off our table a bit.

I didn't complain then. Though I probably should have.

I got home and wrote an email. I have to say that I am completely surprised by Olive Garden's response, (think I'm use to WalMart ignoring me

). The Olive Garden has been great! I've received emails and they even called me - which was pretty amazing as I gave a fake phone number (I never use our real number) so they had to call information!

Kind of feel bad about our waitress though. Other than bringing our food all at once, she was pretty nice. Of course, I didn't have our receipt and wasn't able to identify her and she evidently isn't talking. The manager that called yesterday and talked to my husband was trying to figure out who she was as they are using this as a "training idea" for their staff.

Oregano · 04-24-2008, 07:40 AM

I personally would not have complained in that situation...the waitress probably had little control over how fast the food was coming out. I guess the way I see it, is that would you rather you have it on your table...or sitting somewhere 'waiting' in the back until you were done with your salad and then possibly cold? She probably would have comped the appetizer if you were annoyed that it came out last.

I really don't complain unless something is really out of wack.

calimari · 04-24-2008, 08:12 AM

I would have complained. It's not a complaint about the waitress but it's a kitchen timing issue. I often don't complain in person but by phone afterwards and I usually get gift certificates, which is nice.

HAPPY2BAMOM · 04-24-2008, 12:26 PM

I would have complained. I hate bad service. What's the point on going out when those things happen.

skimommy · 04-24-2008, 01:09 PM

I would've contacted the manager after leaving.

I complained about the pick-up service at TGIF and they gave us a free dinner and dessert.

smilingangel · 04-24-2008, 01:59 PM

I would of called and spoke to the manager, we have done that before and we got a couple of free meals, not that, that was what we wanted. We just wanted to make them aware of the situation and how it wasn't a pleasant dining experience.