Comment by dugmartin 10 months ago
A friend in high school that worked at a steak house chain called it “floor spice”. He said it was often intentionally applied when rude customers demanded their steak be cooked more. Never send back food.
The bad part about asking them to re-cook a steak (assuming it's over, and they have to start with a new one), is that you've had your bread, salad, appetizer, and by the time twenty minutes goes by and they bring you a new steak, everyone else is done eating, you're probably no longer hungry...so then you take your $65 steak home to eat the next day.
The only meal i can remember sending back was a steak I ordered rare and got medium well. It was $45 and the only thing on my plate besides some asparagus.
People make excuses about restaurants being afraid to cook meat rare. Don’t let me order it then!
Now I’ll only order steak at a steakhouse.
So you rather leave a bad rating for the business, affecting everyone working there by potentially turning customers away, because of someone's ("teenager", "young person", etc. pipapo) substandard work effort?
Solving problems like this is why God made front-of-house managers. Ask for one - politely, and with clarity that you're not blaming your server or indeed anyone individually for anything - behave yourself like a grownup in the resulting conversation, and it's amazing how well things can go.
I know, I know, the Karen stereotype. But that isn't about conversations on the quality of service; it's about nominal adults behaving shamefully childish in public. Median American public behavior, especially in restaurants, sets a bar so shockingly low that anyone capable of disciplining their emotions in the slightest degree easily excels it.
If a customer noticed and called a cook out for intentionally dropping their food on the floor and serving it to them i think that would be the death of the restaurant. Or at least cause the local health department to get very interested. What most likely happens is the customer doesn't even realize. If that's the case, then from the customer's perspective it didn't even happen so what's the point of doing it in the first place? You got revenge on no one.
Likewise even if the customer is a dick, you don't sabotage their food. Both sides are in the wrong.
Very true, I agree. Not trying to claim the customer is always right (lol), just that when preparing someone's food I feel there should be a bit more turning the other cheek when dealing with rude customers. It certainly sucks, I've been there, but I don't think doing something to their food is a good response.
Eh. It's been a minute since I worked even retail-adjacent, but nothing I've seen leads me to believe people have learned to behave themselves better in the interim, and especially not after the pandemic.
It'd be one thing if I could blame The Youth, I suppose. But mostly what I see is people my age and older, acting in ways my mother did not tolerate in me by the age of five, nor need; I had pretty well learned my manners by then.
I could credit an argument from incapacity, although I would find it as frightening as compelling. Other than that, I see no excuse, and I also had to learn young the sovereign counterargument to a bully. To see it applied in so extremely indirect and gentle a fashion, and in cases where some response evidently is due, outrages me not even slightly.
Your friend worked there to pay bills. Was hired to fulfill certain tasks, enabling that steakhouse to provide its advertised services to its clients. Adhering to certain quality standards, to sufficiently satisfy the client-business contract.
Never provide substandard work. Your friend simply showed (or at least witnessed) bad work ethics.
> Never send back food.
I like my steak rare. But if someone doesn't, and the kitchen messes it up, the correct response is to either choke it down, or leave a $65 meal uneaten on your plate?