Evil restaurant gods

[Beavs]

No matter where we eat dinner (in a restaurant that is) my SO's order is always messed up:

1.) they flat out forgot about him

2.) they are all out of whatever he wants the wait staff comes back and days.."Sir, we are out of blah blah blah" Sometimes this happens two or three times to the point that he is either really mad or just starts laughing.

3.) they otherwise mess up the order (they forget something, bring the wrong item) etc etc

He is one of the kindest, most patient souls and I feel really bad. We've kept tabs and in the four times we have gone out in the past two weeks (we've been really lazy about hitting the store and cooking) one of the above has happened each time! Maybe I should order for him and thwart the evil restaurant gods. Did a waiter put a hex on him? I want to being him to a new vegan cafe opening up soon which he is not terribly eager but will humor me--I can hardly wait to see what happens there! Does any else out there suffer from this culinary affliction? :7

 

[marcy]

My DH took me and my whole family out to dinner for my birthday a few years ago. Everyone's dinner came except mine. Everyone finished before they even brought mine. I don't know if they forgot about me or my order took longer to prepare. Needless to say, we never went back there again.

Marcy

 

[Beavs]

What a stinky b-day present...and I bet they didn't even give it to you on the house.

 

[crazystepr]

Beavs,
That sounds like a bunch of sucky coincidences. What a bummer. I remember when I used to waitress at a little pizza place in highschool that one time that happened to a table of mine. One of the women's dinners (there were four of them) didn't come out until everyone else had finished. Partly the kitchen's fault for being morons, partly my fault for bringing out the other dinners when all of them weren't done at the same time.

Your poor SO. There is nothing more frustrating. My SO can be really mean to waitress' about stuff like that. Bad service=incredibly crabby SO and even more awkward situation in general. Like you said, they should at least comp something (the meal) or give a free dessert, etc. when stuff like that happens. Good service is so important for a restaurant's reputation.

Perhaps since it's Halloween you could put a temporary curse on those restaurants. Nothing crazy. Just a little somethin'......

Allison

 

[kathryn]

I have a horrible time with meals at conferences I go to. I request vegan, and end up with anything from veggies grilled on a grill that obviously was used for meat (they go back, with a request for a more suitable meal), to plain steamed veggies (which I eat, then go to my hotel room for a supplementary feeding of a protein drink that I brought along, or some soy jerky). This last week, I got steamed veggies for every lunch (not even a portobella mushroom, which is a menu item!), and LOTS of broccoli! (They didn't have much imagination---but I had carted in a LOT of supplementary food because it was a drivable distance).

I think my favorite (which was actually quite good) was a place where the conference organizers had me talk to the hotel liaison. I gave her suggestions for some things that would be good protein sources to add to my meal--tofu, lentils, portobella mushrooms--things I'd seen on the menu--and I had to laugh when I ended up with a lunch of lentils, tofu and a portobella mushroom...with some steamed broccoli on top. It looked very '70's vegetarian' (think 'brown and green') but tasted delicious! I'm just glad I didn't mention something that wouldn't have tasted good together!

 

[Beavs]

I've actually worked on that issue with some conference planning. We had a few vegans, one person on dialysis, and one person on a very limited diet because she can barely swallow anything. They worked with us to make sure they understood what the dietary requirements were. Aside from a meat and potatoes diet, many conference hotels have difficulty understanding various dietary restrictions. I guess I would think people with culinary training would also have exposure to various dietary requirements.