Send it back! Or not? Diners, restaurateurs tell stories of good, bad and ugly reactions to menu miscues

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Send it back! Or not? Illustration
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Send it back! Or not? Illustration

What would it take for you to send a dish back to the kitchen in a restaurant?

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Mark Abernathy (left, pictured here in 2013 at the Governor’s Culinary Challenge) says he expects diners to be courteous when reporting service problems: “I am very protective of my staff and I know how hard my folks work and how much pride they take in what they do.”

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Capi Peck (pictured here at a benefit in 2016 ) says kitchen mistakes do happen on occasion: “We are human, and especially in a restaurant where everything is made from scratch, sometimes we will inevitably slip and undercook, overcook or season a dish wrong.”

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Mary Beth Ringgold (pictured here at a fundraiser at her Cajun’s Wharf restaurant in 2016) says, “Guest feedback is crucial to our operations. And, we will always try to go the extra mile.”

When the over-medium eggs are a little runny or the steak comes out medium well instead of medium rare, are you one who just grins and bears and eats it?

Or are you one of those pickier patrons who, if it doesn't come out of the kitchen just the way you want it, make those folks do it over until they get it perfect?

Perhaps you are among the great majority of diners in between, who have a firm but somewhat wavy line over which, when a kitchen oversteps it, you're prompted to finally, firmly tell the waiter, "Take it back!"

In an entirely unscientific survey via social media of restaurant customers, pretty much everybody, upon finding a foreign object in their soups and salads -- starting with a hair not theirs and up to and including a piece of PVC pipe, an example one diner cited -- would institute an automatic "recall."

Emily Sneddon recalls that at a nice Little Rock hotel restaurant, "I found a bristle from a pastry brush in the middle of a layer of my two-layer slice of cake. It looked like a long cat whisker, but since I bake, I knew what it was. I showed it to the waiter, who looked horrified and took it away. He told me I had correctly identified it as part of a pastry brush. They offered to bring me something else and comped my dessert."

Many say they'd certainly send back overcooked, undercooked or over-salted steaks, eggs, chicken, bacon and seafood. And not just because, in most cases, undercooked could represent a health hazard. "Bloody chicken and overcooked steaks!" says Wayne E. Simpson. "I now always warn them: 'You may always cook the steak more, but you cannot un-cook it.'"

Sometimes, a dish is just too, well, disgusting. Heather Keeton Welch, a Hot Springs chef who lives in Bryant, recalls "a 'filet' that was just hunks of meat held together with bacon. Grossness."

Some send the dish back only if they just absolutely can't eat it. Says Little Rock's Barbara Lensing, "I never send something back unless it is just not edible. Once at a Little Rock bistro she says, "I had to send back my iced tea because it tasted like coffee. Turns out they ran the tea through a filter they had just used for coffee."

Still others report returning things in which the ingredients didn't match what they wanted or didn't match what the menu described. Others have kicked stuff back if it came out cold, or in cases where a server misheard or misunderstood the order, or because somebody in the kitchen just plain made a mistake.

"I've sent my food back on a few occasions, either because it was not precisely as ordered, or, if the meat in particular was not well done (which is what I always specifically ask for)," says Stacy Pitts. "I'm picky, but not overly so; I just want my food the way I initially ordered it, and I'm not afraid to ask that it be redone in a better, more appetizing way."

Kristy Roberson says, "I can think of times that I have sent back a burger for not being cooked in the middle, getting the wrong side, but mostly I send things back because of onions. I don't eat them raw. If I have a salad or pizza that is full of chopped onions, back it goes. I just won't eat it."

After ordering a pizza without onions at a North Little Rock pizza restaurant, she reports, "It came to the table full of onions. The cook had just missed it on the ticket." Things worked out all right, she says: "They ended up letting us keep both pizzas (my father gladly indulged in the onion pizza) and gave us a 30 percent discount on the ticket.

"That, to me, was above and beyond. All I really wanted was a pizza I could eat. They got our sincere thanks and a good tip."

Most of the time, especially when it's their error, restaurant owners and wait staff happily and apologetically go the extra mile to take care of customers. And generally, customers understand and appreciate their efforts.

For example, Libby A. Smith of Little Rock recalls "when a great hamburger place first opened in west Little Rock. I always get my burger with 'mustard and pickles only.' Acoustics being what they are, the poor employee at the register heard 'MUSHROOMS and pickles only.'

"I took a few bites thinking it was great, but didn't have the same taste or texture as the previous time I'd eaten there. In fact, I couldn't taste the mustard, so I looked. Problem is, mushrooms are one of those things I've been told to avoid, at least in large amounts, due to allergies. I can safely have a few on something like a loaded pizza, but there were as many mushrooms as [there was] meat.

"I took it back to the counter and quietly explained the issue. The manager overheard me say 'allergy,' which caused a quiet panic ... and I had to keep explaining that I was fine, just worried about eating the rest. They not only remade the burger but refunded my money and gave me a coupon for another meal."

Candy Freeman Millwood says she sent back food at an American chain restaurant because it wasn't what she ordered: "The girl was really sweet and apologized and then admitted it was her fault because she clicked the wrong button. She went above and beyond the rest of the night then took our drinks off our ticket as well. When things like that happen and folks own up to their mistakes, I always tip them way more. ... I enjoy accountability."

Professionals respond

In an equally unscientific survey of area nonchain restaurateurs that have been in the business for at least two decades, just about all of them say they do want customers who aren't 100 percent pleased with their dining experience to let them know about it, tout de suite, and that they'll do what it takes to resolve any reasonable dissatisfaction.

"I believe that a customer is doing a restaurant a great disservice if they don't call our attention to a dish that is 'off,'" says Capi Peck, who owns and operates Trio's on Cantrell Road in Little Rock. "We can't correct a problem if we don't know about it. Unfortunately, lots of people are reluctant to do so. ... My philosophy is to take care of the customer, always. That means comping a meal if we can't make the customer happy."

Mark Abernathy, owner-chef at Loca Luna and Red Door in Little Rock's Riverdale, says "Good operators depend on honest customer feedback. Please tell us. It gives us an opportunity to make things right and it alerts us to what might be a bigger problem.

"There are so many things that can go wrong. I don't get upset about a complaint because I know it's impossible to serve hundreds of guests, day after day, and not make a mistake.

"One time I made a batch of cornbread and mistakenly substituted baking soda for the flour. It was really, glaringly awful and I didn't know it until customers started complaining. What really bothers me about stuff like that is, how many people tried to eat it before I found out it was awful."

Adds Mary Beth Ringgold, whose Capers Group owns includes Little Rock restaurants Capers, Copper Grill and Cajun's Wharf, "First and foremost, we want to make everyone happy and turn every guest into a new 'regular.'

"I think our secret weapon is the fact that we are independently owned and operated. So, at the end of the day, we are accountable only to ourselves. We won't get a call from Houston if our 'comps' are too high." (That's a likely reference to Landry's, a Houston-based chain that occupied the Cajun's Wharf space from 1993-99, between Ringgold administrations.)

"We have a very developed culture which starts with 'The guest is the focus of everything we do.' Those are not just words; we mean it. So, we are happy to have an opportunity to correct a mistake. Moreover, it is management's goal to visit all guests, if at all possible, and make every effort to ensure that their dining experience is going great."

Danny Troillett is the director of marketing and guest relations for Dixie Restaurants Inc., which operates the Dixie Cafe and, in some parts of the South, Delta Cafe restaurants. He says, "Our goal is that every guest be completely satisfied with their dining experience. In fact, we have a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee. We strive to provide the best food possible, but we can make mistakes and we are thankful for the opportunity to correct them when we do."

Always right?

Although the maxim proclaims that the customer is always right, sometimes, says Judith Tarver Doty, who worked the lunch shift at TGI Friday in the '70s and '80s when it was a brass-and-plant place at Third and Victory streets in Little Rock, customers abuse the privilege.

She recalls a group of three guys who "fussed and complained about their lunches. Kept complaining. [The manager] comped their meal." After a post-shift trip to the race track in Hot Springs, where one of her colleagues made a "freaking fortune," they stopped on their return to Little Rock at Cajun's Wharf for a celebratory dinner (with the fortunate colleague buying).

"Lo and behold, sitting next to us are the same three [keister-kopfs] doing the same thing! We told the waiter what we had experienced earlier in the day. We listened to them [complaining] about everything on their top-notch meal forever and finally had the satisfaction of watching them have to actually pay for it."

While Abernathy says he appreciates honest customer feedback, no business professional likes obnoxious customers or scammers: "We all have stories of the customer that ate all but a couple of bites and then complained that it was the worst thing they've ever had. The only time I respond negatively to a customer complaint is when they get nasty or treat my employees rudely."

Peck, after more than three decades in the restaurant business, notes that there's room for disagreements: "Not everyone is on the same page when it comes to an opinion of proteins such as beef or salmon or pork or tuna cooked rare, medium rare [or] medium. My idea of a medium-rare steak may be different from yours. That is an easy fix, unless it is perhaps overcooked to your liking; it takes [just] a little longer to throw a new steak on the grill."

However, "Tuna is tricky. We recommend, and we note this on our menu, that ahi should be served rare to medium rare. When a customer insists on tuna, or sensitive cuts such as lamb tenderloin or hanger steak, be prepared well done, our servers warn that the texture will be less than palatable and the dish will suffer. If they insist, though, we will cook such a cut well-done.

"But when the dish comes back to us with a comment that it is tough or unsavory, even though we have done what the customer asks, a manager usually goes to the table to basically say, 'We warned you.' I am reluctant to comp an entree when we have done what I believe is our due diligence, but I will offer a dessert or glass of wine or a gift certificate to come back."

And, Abernathy says, "It doesn't happen often, but there are times when we just see a passive-aggressive customer. I can remember at least two occasions when a customer complained about a steak, ate every damn bit of it and the told the server they didn't like it and wanted it taken off of their bill.

"We tell our servers to always have the manager or chef make a table call any time a customer is unhappy, and especially in a case like this."

Ringgold says, "Over 30 years in the business gives me plenty of 'material' for campfire stories where guests cannot or will not be satisfied.

"I still remember one experience from 1999 with a couple who almost did me in. They did not like a single item that we brought out to them. At first, I thought that it was a matter of tastes and preferences, so I took the challenge on myself. By the end, I personally cooked them six different entrees, none of which would they enjoy.

"Finally, the wife said, 'Maybe you should come over to our house some Sunday and I can give you some pointers. I am a pretty good cook.' Wow. That one I will never forget.

"But diners like this are far and few between. Mostly, people are making an investment by spending their time and money with you and they expect you to get it right. The goal is to exceed their expectations.

"Bottom line: If something is wrong, send it back. Good operators will make it right for you and maybe even do something serendipitous for you while you wait."

Style on 04/18/2017

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