Originally Posted by mecabq

On one or two occasions, I have walked out after looking at the menu and not finding anything I wanted to eat. (I rarely go into restaurants that don't post the menu outside, partially for this reason.) But in those cases I was apologetic to the server; no harm, no foul.

Only once have I walked out for service reasons. I was at the Capital Grille in Tysons Corner. (This was a decade ago, and this counted as treating myself to a nice meal after a successful week.) Sat down alone and waited for about 20 minutes. A few servers hustled by, made eye contact, but didn't stop. (I was, perhaps foolishly, not about to raise my hand or otherwise make a more overt attempt to get their attention.)

I finally got up and left. On the way out, the hostess asked how I enjoyed my meal, and I said, I didn't, no one bothered to serve me. The manager hustled over, apologized profusely, offered to seat me for a free meal, give me a bottle of wine to take home, etc. I refused; I left my business card on his request, and he mailed me a gift voucher.

Good service recovery on his part, but I never used the voucher and never have been back (in fact, never have been back to any branch).