Sending food back from the table in a restaurant - when to do it... and when not to
Restaurants are known to be prone to the occasional culinary faux pas. One of them is serving food or drink which you the customer discovers is not what he or she expected – be it by taste, or food that is under or overcooked or even too salty. It could be for a number of reasons and can be very unsettling. It’s certainly not the ideal culinary moment-of-truth any diner has patiently waited for – especially when others at the table are already tucking into their meal with relish. Sometimes getting an incorrect or messed-up order is an occasional hazard of dining out. The reality is that it happens, and it can happen to you – even in the best of dining venues.
Dining experts agree that paying customers raising issues about food and wanting to send a meal back to be replaced is justified – as long as it is done by following a kind of unwritten public dining social contract. What this means, is that when you want to raise issues about your food, do it… by obeying certain norms in a professional and courteous manner.
If something’s wrong with your food or it’s not what you expected, make sure to speak up as soon as you can. The staff can’t correct it unless you speak up. An alert server may already be able to anticipate when you don’t like your food or drink. Good restaurants have servers who diligently follow the ‘3 by 3 by 3’ rules, where the customer is asked within three sips or three bites or three minutes at most, “How is your food (or drink)?” This though, has lost its way due to the acute labour shortage experienced currently by the hospitality industry, and is seldom heard nowadays.
Don’t go after the waiter with a loaded gun
However, speaking up doesn’t mean being impolite or using hostile and excessively critical language. Try to remain non- confrontational. Remember that the server who brought the food was not responsible for cooking the food. If you snap at your waiter or are aggressive when communicating the issue with your food or drink, things could go downhill. When that happens, it’s been known for someone or another to spit on the replacement meal.
At the end of the day it’s just food and it’s not the end of the world if something is wrong with it, unless there is something like a worm in it. Urrgh…!
When is it not appropriate to send back food or drink?
Diners who devour most of the food on the plate and then complain about its taste or quality are the most hated by restaurant staff. If the soup is salty on the first mouthful, take a couple more at most, and then bring it to the notice of the server. Don’t eat it all up and gripe about it been excessively salty. Anyone who eats nearly all their food and then want to send it back are less likely to be taken seriously by the servers or kitchen staff.
Trying to send your food back, because you noticed that the same dish at another table across the room looks better than yours is simply no reason to send something back.
Most servers are more irritated by passive-aggressive guests who hide their dissatisfaction than those who are forthcoming about it. Those who feign that everything was alright and then go on to later complain about their experience on social media are the most disliked.
Remember, above all else, “Treat others how you want to be treated”. And if you are one of those don’t like your food and yet, prefer to sheepishly sit through your meal, worried that the server will hate you if you speak up…let your plate with uneaten food speak on your behalf. Sometimes that works – if not, you risk paying for the price of leaving hungry.
Ilzaf Keefahs is a freelance writer who enjoys focusing on hospitality related matters that he is passionate about, and likes to share his views with hoteliers and customers alike. He delves into the heart of hospitality to figure out both customer service and consumer trends that impact the industry
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