Have you ever had a waiter refuse to take food back?
 

My friend and I went to Smith & Wollensky in Manhattan ($50/person steak place).

I ordered mine medium, and she ordered hers medium rare. When the food came out, mine looked and tasted medium, while hers looked medium to medium-well, and she said it did not taste medium rare.

The next time the waiter came around, she politely informed him that the steak did not look medium rare. He had the nerve to disagree. He said it is supposed to look like that, and that if we were inside, the lighting would make it look much more rare (we were sitting outside in the smoking section).

He left, and we were stunned that he refused to take the food back. She took another bite and said, "It just doesn't taste medium rare". A few minutes later another waiter came to our table (manager, head waiter, I don't know) and asked if there was a problem.

She repeated the problem, and he repeated that the steak looks fine to him, but he will take it back anyway. Later he returned with a steak that looked medium rare, and she said it tasted much better.

It was her turn to pay this time, and she always over-tips, so she left a $20 tip on a $112 bill. I would have left 25 cents for the B.S. they tried to feed us. Were I paying and the second waiter stood his ground and refused to take it back, I would have stopped eating and left, paying nothing in total. That is just ridiculous.

I thought it was a given that when the customer says something is wrong with the food, you take it back and fix it, and if warranted, also take it off the bill.

I had even worse service than that the one time I ate at that restaurant.

QL

One time, I ordered a medium steak but was given a well done piece of meat. I told the waiter and he took the steak back. The 2nd steak was just as overcooked. The manager came out and blamed it on the lighting of the restaurant. When I tasted a piece it was definately well done. I was pretty fed up at this point and my friend has already finished his steak. The manager reluctantly took the steak back but still tried to blame me for not knowing what medium is suppose to be like.

We leave and when I am pulling out of the parking lot, he chases us down and apologizes for overcooking the steak. His excuse was the lights in the kitchen are red so the steak looks pinkish when cut into :rolleyes: .The whole thing didn't make any sense. Weird.

Chefs (I don't know if S&W employ such animals) do not test cooked steak by color....Bad light in the kitchen???? Ever see a kitchen? All I have ever seen are very bright.

Steak is tested by touch.

Some compare to parts of the hand, others to parts of the face. The softness of your cheek, or the web between thumb and forefinger is rare, chin, or inside of hand below pinki is medium, and forehead/palm of hand is cooked.

not yet thankfully.

Rude service seems to be part of the Smith & Wollensky schtick. I'm told it's a New York thing elsewhere as, but back when I qualified as a native New Yorker, I never hit it much -- rather it seems to be something they reserve for tourists, and sadly enough, I've been in the P.R. of California long enough to give the tourist vibe.

I don't recall the steak being very good there, either, compared to Keen's (my standby when living in the city) or even Heartland Brewery.

I'd be curious who that was... in any event, it was fixed, and he did bring over someone with some authority. It seems odd to put the customer down by saying it "seems fine to him but he'll take it back anyway."

Given that the problem was fixed, I think not tipping would have been unreasonable, although $20 on $112 sounds a bit high for merely adequate service.

Bad form. "Chew and screw" can get you arrested. Besides, in that case, the manager really needs to know how bad his or her waiters are. The proper thing to do then is to ask to see the manager, immediately. If the person there was the manager, you ask to speak to the owner.

I've never needed to go beyond asking for the manager though; occasionally the waiter will fix the problem they hadn't wanted to simply by invoking the M-word... more usually, with legitimate complaints, the manager will be apologetic about the problem getting to their level.

Assuming the problem is indicated reasonably quickly, and before the customer's eaten half of it, yes. If you eat it, that's an indication that it's OK.

Considering how often steaks get mis-cooked even at better places, sending one back is not at all unreasonable. I've been told it's awful formal practice, but having the waiter confirm what a given done-ness should be (it seems to vary a bit regionally, which will confuse tourists, if nothing else) with the order seems like a good idea to me:
ie "how would you like your steak cooked?"
"medium well, please"
"that will be mostly cooked through with a little pink, is that alright?"
"yes, perfect."

That way someone with a different conception of medium well would be able to describe what they want BEFORE rather than after.

Sorta low-brow, perhaps, but it does seem to reduce confusion at the places that I've seen it done.

IMHO, a 25 cent tip is deserved because the *service* was terrible. Yes, the problem was fixed eventually, but getting what you order is part of the basic menu price, not the tip.

It was my second and last visit, I think, to Smith and Wollensky -
ordered three clams and three oysters (something like that); got
three oysters and three shrimp (something like that); brought it
to their attention, and the solution was attractive enough - got
to keep the shrimp, and they gave me my clams. Ordered the
steak very rare, got it medium-well; brought it to their
attention, got a nice replacement in the blink of an eye. I was
looking around for the Candid Camera guy by the end of the
meal. If ever I give them another chance I'll get the pork shank,
but with my luck it'll come blood-rare.

No, that has never happened to me.

I've been to S&W a few times and found their steaks to be adequate and their service to be rather mediocre. If that had been I and I had heard waiters challenge me as those two waiters challenged you, I would have asked for the manager to come to my table, tell him/her what had just transpired, and left the restaurant after that. If we had consumed anything, I'd give the manager money to cover it and then leave.

I am surprised you both put up with that.

The problem was fixed? Look at the ordeal it took to get a decent steak. They took care of the bill appropriately; they paid for the food and the level of service received with that food. Any coin would have sufficed.

I had a bad experience at Mas tapas bar in Charlottesville, VA. I ordered a tuna selection. Although I could be wrong, I don't recall the menu listing it as seared, or mentioning that the inside would be very rare. When it was brought to me, it was just that: seared on the outside but raw in the middle. I asked the waiter if they could possibly cook it a bit longer. He replied that he was sorry, but that is how the chefs there prepare it. He added that they would not compromise their food. I decided to not compromise my taste and didn't eat it. I would have made a much bigger fuss were it not for the people I was dining with. If it had been an entree, as opposed to a few bites of food, I think that I would not have acquiesced so easily.

If a chef who wants to present their food to me as a creative vision, that's fine. But when I receive it, and make it known that I do not like it undercooked, then they should throw it in the oven for a couple of minutes. After all, I am paying them. If they want me to come back then they should accomodate me, no?

It would be helpful to know the menu description. A typical ahi appetizer (or entree) would indeed be seared and raw/very rare in the middle. Well done tuna is not a treat IMHO. If the menu described it accurately, then I'd suggest the complaint is analagous to complaining your steak tartare is underdone.

That having been said, I think any restaurant with pretensions to "fine dining" would do what it could do please the customer, e.g. "Sir, we would be happy to provide an alternative for you."

Bon Appetit!

S and W is not fine dining IMOH... I would have made him take it back and yes comp my steak for all the trouble you caused mr Waiter.

Just do not go back and let everyone know how bad the service is.

My issue is that the waiter showed no willingness to please the customer. I didn't ask for my money back, I didn't ask for a replacement item from the menu, I simply asked for the food to be cooked a little bit longer. Since I wasn't going to eat it in such a raw state then it wouldn't have hurt to at least try cooking it to my liking.

I had a meal at Smith and Wollensky in Washington D.C. and the wait staff were all (with the exception of one person) snotty and rude throughout. Didn't have any problem with food, but I haven't been back to any Smith and Wollensky restaurant since.