Things that ruin your restaurant experience...
 

The worst thing a restaurant can do short of making me sick is when I can taste soap, or even worse, 'hand sanitizer' on the food.

A hair, or half a bug http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/eek.gif

I think service would be my biggest issue:

if my water glass or drink is low, the server should fill it up or ask if I'd like another.

Remove finished/dirty dishes from the table

If I'm dining solo, speed up the pace of the meal

If I've asked for the check, bring it, then pay attention to if I've put the $ or credit card in the folio

pay attention to requests, make sure it is done right

Excessive noise, whether it be from loud talkers, cell phones going off, unruly children, crying babies, or from other sources.

Bad and/or unattentive service.

Improperly cooked food, either undercooked or overcooked, too salty, etc.

Room temperature of the restaurant is too hot or too cold.

Seeing an insect in the restaurant.

IME, I usually have a restaurant experience ruined when I am with someone that is overly critical of the restaurant. I am pretty easy to please, and it just ruins it when someone I am with nitpicks about every aspect of the restaurant. I guess I am just the type of person that looks for the good parts instead of the bad...? http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...um/biggrin.gif

Snotty and inattentive waitstaff.

Overly solicitous waitstaff.

Music that's too loud so that I have to practically shout to talk with my dining companion.

Thai places that don't make the food hot enough for my palatte.

Paper napkins.

I did say short of making me sick. http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/wink.gif

Mopping under the table with an ammonia-based cleanser always wins me over. I've had this happen *twice*. Once (years ago) the mopper asked us to raise our legs so he could mop under the table as we sat there.

1. Mobile phones
2. Smoke wafting over from the smoking section
3. Unattentive waitstaff (Europe)
4. Obtrusive waitstaff (US)

Definitely loud music. Harsh lighting. Not getting exactly what I wanted (within reason).

Bad tasting food!

I had a restaurant experience ruined today by an arrogant maitre'd and indifferent manager. Took out-of-town relatives for lunch at Barney 's New York in Beverly Hills "Barney Greengrass". The reservation was for a party of 6. At the last minute, my niece called to say she could not attend. The five of us arrived at the table set for 6. Matire'd arrogantly told us that he would have to remove a table and squeeze the 5 of us to a table for 4 as that was their "policy."Please note that there were many many empty tables. Then, after one hour, the check was literally thrown on the table with an 18% gratuity automatically added and the maitre'd kept hovering giving us withering glances. We won't be returning there anytime soon.

OIt is amazing how many restaurants play rock music with scratchy treble and high bass with low middle ranges on bad speakers during dining hour.
WHole Foods in FtLauderdale had such irritating music, that it was not comfortable to shop. A recent report showed, that Beethoven, Mozart, etc helped customers buy more goods at higher prices.

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My wife and I had previously eaten at a restaurant in Newcastle, Wyoming, about a year earlier, before it changed management, and had quite enjoyed it. This time however ...

We walked in, and I noticed that the restaurant was divided into two rooms, both with tables. I assumed that the second room was nonsmoking, and so I asked for us to be seated in the nonsmoking section. Turns out BOTH sections were smoking. Stupid; the place was much less than half full, and several diners did not appear to be smoking, so it is not like it would have been a big deal for them to segrate their two rooms.

We ordered; I ordered the ribs special and my wife ordered a pasta dish. Both came with salads, and they were brought quickly. We got done with the salads, and waited, and waited, and waited...

I am addicted to Survivor, and expected that the meal would get done in time to for us to watch it. It became obvious, about ten minutes prior to the show start time that this would not happen, since the main dishes had still not been brought. There were several tvs in the room, all of which were tuned to a program on the USA Network that was ending. My wife asked if the channel could be changed to the CBS station. Nope, it couldn't (despite the fact that no one seemed to be watching the tvs). She informed us that the manager controlled the tvs, pointing to the man who was at the bar. Well, I hadn't thought that she carried the remote around with her! I asked her if she could check with the manager. She said she would, but nothing ever happened. I was bored waiting for the food to arrive, and so I watched her wander around. I never saw her talk to the barkeeper.

In this restaurant, I noticed that the cook, who was wearing a tanktop and looked none too clean, put dishes under heat lamps until the servers took them to the tables. About the time of the tv change request, I noticed that the cook put plates under the heat lamps that looked much like ribs and pasta. And those dishes stayed under the heat lamps for about ten minutes. Finally, our server noticed that dishes were under the lamps, and took the pasta dish to my wife and an empty plate to me. The server said to my wife words to the effect of, "our cook can't read! Would you mind splitting this while I have him cook up your husband's meal?" Huh? I hadn't ordered pasta; I had ordered ribs, presumably the ribs that had been under the heat lamps for over ten minutes. Turned out I was right ... the cook could read and had prepared our orders correctly ... it was just that our server couldn't remember what it was that I had ordered; she thought that we had both ordered pasta. So I finally got my ribs. Mid-way into our meal, the cook and the server got into an argument about what to do with the extra serving of pasta he had just finished cooking...

FINALLY, we were done and were ready to get out of there! The restaurant displayed the standard credit card logos on its door, but when came to the counter to pay, the women that was stationed there did not know how to do a credit card transaction. She called over one of the two servers, who also did not know. They called over our server (who may have had alzheimer's when it came to remembering orders, but did know how to do a credit card transaction).

The ribs were pretty good, and my wife enjoyed the homemade rolls. But for some reason, we did not leave a tip.

Another things that ticks me off is when the waiter comes to remove the dirty dishes from the first course or appetizer, they purposely do not remove the dirty untensils and put it back on the table for you to re-use. Why can't they just bring a new set of utensils?

If an establishment uses paper napkins instead of cloth (I prefer cloth, but using paper is not a big deal for me), I hate it when the establishment is stingey with the paper napkins. Mostly this happens at low end establishments, one that is notorious in this regard rhymes with "Ubway." They give you one lousy napkin, what's up with that? Would passing out a few more napkins really cut into profits that much? http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...m/rolleyes.gif