Toward a Discerning Diners' Civil Code

[WHT]

I had a customer order a steak "pittsburgh " then send it back because it was too rare and he really wanted it medium-well, need I include a glossary of steak terms with my menu

I remember a night at the broiler station where a steak was returned as “Not being done correctly.” When I asked the server what she meant by that she had to recheck with the client, they wanted the steak Med. Rare, I looked at the steak probed the temp and in fact it was Med. Rare. What the person had wanted was MEDIUM. But this was after several go arounds. Sometimes it is communication that is at fault. In this case it was training!

Servers have to be able to do more than take orders. In this case one mans Med. Rare was not matching with what the patron wanted. Though I can tell horror stories about people that asked for one thing and had something totally wrong in mind, creative interpretations, “how it was done at X.” Eggs Benedict with cheese sauce comes to mind. Though I hate to use the “Perception is reality.” Card, in some cases it does seem to fit. Rather than argue over Med. Rare Vs. Medium, just tell me what the person wants.

In the case of the guy ordering mussels in white sauce and complaining that there was no red (Bell) pepper in it. Try and make him happy. Though I will admit that there is a small but vocal contingent that will try to see what they can get away with. But I think professional freeloaders and related morons are fodder for another thread.

[Pan]

Lissome:

I understand the restaurant was packed by the time you got the bill, but if I had been in your place (and this has happened to me before), I would have insisted on speaking with my waiter and, failing that, called over any other waitperson or other staff member who might have been able to get my waiter's attention. Unlike you, I would have assumed that the fish wasn't removed from the bill simply due to an oversight, but under no circumstances short of threats of violence or some other extreme irrationality would I have agreed to pay for a dish that the waiter volunteered to remove and give a substitute for. Had the waiter insisted and had it been effectively impossible to go over his head under those circumstances, I would have given him no tip at all, but I really don't think that would have been the outcome.