Restaurant complaint in California

[Chef Fowke]

My wife, Kathleen, and I just got back from a fantastic month of traveling down the west coast from Vancouver to Dana’s Point, California (with a small side trip weekend to Las Vegas). The hotels, food and service amazed me. On the whole everything was great (with the exception of the Burger Kings who did not understand ‘off the broiler’ or ‘cut in half’ {another post…. sorry}).

Unfortunately we did have one meal that was down right awful in Huntington Beach, California (Surf City). For anyone who has been to this region of Californian they will tell you that the restaurants, as a whole, are very good and consistent.

To keep this post from becoming too large I will stick to the details….

We entered a second floor restaurant across the street from the Huntington Beach Pier around 6:30pm on the second Friday of November. The hostess was cold. Ice cold to us. But to be fair we had traveled 8 hours that day and looked less then vagabonds. She sat us at a table one row back from the view. We asked to move and were told that all tables were reserved for the entire night (two window table remained empty our entire dinner à if you are going to be dishonest to me do not make it obvious!).

Kathy and I were laughing about the hostess at this time. Our server arrived and we ordered some cocktails and he adjusted the heaters to make us more comfortable. He was very personable and professional. It was turning into a good night.

We ordered dinner. I had a salad to start and the ‘Lamb Special’ from the wood fired oven and Kathy had the Prosciutto pizza with arugula.

The timing of the food was extremely fast. The food runner presented the food and listed the ingredients on the plate. I was really impressed.

Then I looked at my medium lamb. It was well done, crusted and oozing a dry blood crusted mass from sitting under the heat lamp. I tried to eat one chop but had to stop because of the dryness and the iron flavour produced from ‘boiled’, soggy protein.

Kathy’s pizza was like a soup cracker with Prosciutto and arugula on it. No oil, no sauce and no dressing. Unfortunately it was the best of the food we had. We drank our beer (only two because we never saw our server again) and ate the Prosciutto and arugula. I did not touch my plate after I tried to eat the first chop.

We are in the industry and can be really hard on other establishments. I know things go wrong at Joes so both Kathy and I had a sense of humour about our experience. But after 25 minutes of sitting at our table with no drinks and food we could not eat we were getting irritated. The server was in the ‘shits’ in his section and he had no management help.

He finally approached our table and picked up our full plates and asked how we liked our meals (I reiterate…the plates were untouched except for maybe 10%). I told him that I found the lamb to be inedible and the pizza dry. He called the busboy over and handed him our plates and told him to take them to the kitchen and tell the chef that we hated the food (quote).

He asked if we wanted dessert and I asked for the bill, stating that I was tired and just wanted to leave and go to bed. He brought the bill and the full charge for all our meals was on the bill.

This is where this discussion gets interesting. I paid the bill and left the restaurant mad. My wife told me to relax because the lamb was only $22. She asked me what I had expected for $22…..

If something is cheap should it be buyer-beware?

I will continue in the next week with the letter I sent to the restaurant and their response. Anyone have any idea the name of the restaurant?

[Katherine]

Yup.

A tourist town, they took one look at you and said to themselves, most tourists don't know the difference, and these people will never be back anyway.

[Chris Cognac]

Which side of the street was it...was it "Dukes"?...Or the rib place in the mall?...

[woodburner]

I will continue in the next week with the letter I sent to the restaurant and their response. Anyone have any idea the name of the restaurant?

Spark

ding. ding ding....

I win..

woodburner

[Chef Fowke]

Which side of the street was it...was it "Dukes"?...Or the rib place in the mall?...

I love going to Duke's! Even as a tourist destination they concentrate on customer service. The food is good as well.

[Chris Cognac]

Which side of the street was it...was it "Dukes"?...Or the rib place in the mall?...

I love going to Duke's! Even as a tourist destination they concentrate on customer service. The food is good as well.

So is the places underneath Dukes..Chimayo or something like that. I had a very enjoyable and reasonable price meal there with my wife a while back.

[Chef Fowke]

I will continue in the next week with the letter I sent to the restaurant and their response. Anyone have any idea the name of the restaurant?

Spark

ding. ding ding....

I win..

woodburner

Bingo!

Now that we know the place...what about letting a problem go just because the food was cheap? Is that a valid excuse for a restaurant to serve food that is awful?

I do not believe that the investors in Sparks want the public to think that the food is inexpensive and crap.....

[bilrus]

Now that we know the place...what about letting a problem go just because the food was cheap? Is that a valid excuse for a restaurant to serve food that is awful?

I do not believe that the investors in Sparks want the public to think that the food is inexpensive and crap.....

No, but it happens all the time. Restaurants often cook to cater to the common denominator. THis weekend I ate at one of the few non-chain, non-Italian or Chinese restaurants in our ittle corner of ex-urban DC. My entree was not bad, my wife's was not good. But it was a big restaurant with a lot of customers. THey don't need to do anything special to get people in the door and presumably to keep them coming back.

As for the investors - if the restaurant is bringing in good money and the customers keep coming back, or they have a tourist clientele that they don't need to have come back, why should they care about the quality?

Not that that makes it right.

[Hest88]

Thanks for giving me another restaurant to avoid.

$22 may be cheap for lamb, but it's not cheap overall. And the problem was not in the quality of lamb but in the cooking. I won't even go into the service issue...

I can't wait to hear their reply to your letter. ;)

[woodburner]

I will continue in the next week with the letter I sent to the restaurant and their response. Anyone have any idea the name of the restaurant?

Spark

ding. ding ding....

I win..

woodburner

Bingo!

Now that we know the place...what about letting a problem go just because the food was cheap? Is that a valid excuse for a restaurant to serve food that is awful?

I do not believe that the investors in Sparks want the public to think that the food is inexpensive and crap.....

The waiter dissed off all regard for you and your horrible meal, when he passed it off to the busboy. The most senior person up the food chain should have been summoned to your table immediately

Piss poor management is to blame, sending a letter to the owners and posting the information here, are good things.

If the hostess was ice cold, the service slow, the food overcooked, and not a once did anyone address your concerns I would be pissed too.

Twenty-two dollars is not the point.

If it were me, I would assure the owners by mail, that they should be prepared to kiss my ass in Macy's store front window on Christmas day, when all is said and done.

woodburner

[tsquare]

But after 25 minutes of sitting at our table with no drinks and food we could not eat we were getting irritated. The server was in the ‘shits’ in his section and he had no management help.

The whole experience sounds awful.

I think after 10 or 15 minutes, I would have gotten up and found the bad host, or a manager, and told them the problem. If they seemed uninterested or unavailable, just keep on walking.

Once, in a good hotel restaurant, I was served my meal just before a cockroach crawled out of the sugar holder. I just got up and quietly told the host what happened - hesitated, when asked if there was something they could do. When I said I had lost my appetite, they apologized profusely and bid me a good night. Wouldn't take $ for my beverage. Of course, I never went back, though I know it isn't a problem in that place only.

As for "cheap" food - pricing is their choice - it should be edible if they are serving it. For many, $22 is a big night out. It isn't really about the money. It's about receiving value on your exchange. A free meal isn't a meal if you can't eat it.

[Lady T]

they took one look at you and said to themselves, most tourists don't know the difference, and these people will never be back anyway.

Nope. They won't be back. After they leave, however, they'll also post the whole tawdry tale on an international gourmet website and make sure nobody, anywhere, who honors decent cooking and honest thoughtful service ever sets foot in the joint.

Some kinds of revenge are sweet after all.

[fresco]

You might consider sending them a link to this thread:

http://www.sparkwoodfirecooking.com/huntin...hb/menu_hb.html

[woodburner]

they took one look at you and said to themselves, most tourists don't know the difference, and these people will never be back anyway.

After they leave, however, they'll also post the whole tawdry tale on an international gourmet website and make sure nobody, anywhere, who honors decent cooking and honest thoughtful service ever sets foot in the joint.

Some kinds of revenge are sweet after all.

The information highway rules. Slackers, get out of the way.

You confirm my feelings, honestly, and completely.

woodburner

[hollywood]

You might consider sending them a link to this thread:

http://www.sparkwoodfirecooking.com/huntin...hb/menu_hb.html

Oddly, I've had several very good meals at Sparks Woodfire in Studio City.

[Chef Fowke]

You might consider sending them a link to this thread:

http://www.sparkwoodfirecooking.com/huntin...hb/menu_hb.html

Oddly, I've had several very good meals at Sparks Woodfire in Studio City.

To make it clear:

The room was beautiful, well laid out and inviting. The server (when we say him) was well groomed, friendly and informative. The hostess was hot. The food; I saw huge potential. Great ideas on an extremely well laid out menu that made me hungry!

I think this restaurant is probably a very good restaurant. It just does not have systems to manage it properly. They probably have really good days when everything clicks and all the customers are happy and other days (when the cook is hung-over, the servers girlfriend dumped him, etc) that the customer pays for it with a bad experience and the house doesn’t catch these deficiencies.

Case in point is the restaurant across the street called Dukes. It is not as clean looking, the menu is not quite as interesting and the servers not so slick. But, you always get a great experience. They have a valet as you pull up to the door, a group of host/hostesses (with a manager) meets you at the front door and ask the same three questions that guarantees you get the table you are looking for. A cocktail waitress appears at you table immediately to take a drink order. The server is not far behind to explain the specials. I have only been to Dukes three times and this exact scenario has been played out each time. At the end of the meal a manager personally asked how everything was.

Spark's should be ten times the restaurant of Dukes. They aren't but I think they think they are!!

[cinghiale]

The description of the pizza seems to square with your experience: "Imagine a delicious Arugula salad on a pizza." They didn't say "enjoy" or even "channel".

[Chef Fowke]

In the end it was the return email I got from the owner/chef that made me want to write this post. As I said earlier in this post I had traveled all day, I looked tired and crappy when I entered the restaurant and all I really wanted was a quick and tasty meal. Now, I am Canadian, so I know that I was never rude to anyone in the restaurant; Canadians never are. Its part of our heritage.

The email started by stating that if I hadn’t enjoyed my food that by no means should I have paid for it. It then went on to say that they usually get good feedback on the lamb.

The email ended with a request to try the restaurant again.

The second line blew it for me, first. What was the chef trying to tell me? That I was an idiot for not liking the way he prepared the lamb? I made it very clear that the lamb was below my expectation because it was over cooked and that I was upset because I never got a quality check when the food was served.

After I mused about the second line I began to re-read the first line. I shouldn’t have paid…was it my fault I paid? I complained, a bill was brought with a full charge, I was tired and angry, I paid and left…

I have taking a hard and long look at how I am going to respond to complaints in the future. What this chef/owner did, on the surface, was correct. He responded to the letter, apologized and invited me back.

It was only a $22 lamb entrée. Cheap for lamb…

[mighty quinn]

Spark's should be ten times the restaurant of Dukes. They aren't but I think they think they are!!

i think that this VERY ACCURATELY sums up the problem and really feeds in nicely to the "bad restaurant" thread. i couldn't quite sum up the worst quality in a bad restaurant, but i thinks it that pretentious feeling i get from some places. you expect it to be a good experience, then it really sucks, but they think that they can get away with it. sounds like alot of places around d.c.!

[Hest88]

Did you send the letter on your official restaurant letterhead?

[Chef Fowke]

Did you send the letter on your official restaurant letterhead?

No, I sent an email. The email was on my Executive Chef template because I had my work laptop with me on vacation. It was clear that I was 'in the business', my name and where I worked. The letter was extremely polite and was initially intended to just explain my experience; nothing more.

[elyse]

I can't believe you paid in the first place.

[Chef Fowke]

I can't believe you paid in the first place.

I was very tired and hungry when I left. If I had taken this matter any further that night I would have been a tyrant! My wife and I were on our vacation and my wife was trying to calm me down by saying “it's only $22 let it be”.

In hindsight, you are right. I should have demanded to see the manager, refused to pay, etc.

But isn't it the job of the restaurant and its management team to make the customers happy? I stated quite clearly that I did not enjoy the food while I was still in the building and nothing happened.

[elyse]

It is absolutely their job. I may have done the same thing as you. I actually did at the last Burger Club at Landmark Tavern.

[woodburner]

I can't believe you paid in the first place.

I was very tired and hungry when I left. If I had taken this matter any further that night I would have been a tyrant! My wife and I were on our vacation and my wife was trying to calm me down by saying “it's only $22 let it be”.

In hindsight, you are right. I should have demanded to see the manager, refused to pay, etc.

But isn't it the job of the restaurant and its management team to make the customers happy? I stated quite clearly that I did not enjoy the food while I was still in the building and nothing happened.

Whoa,

I beg to differ with the refuse to pay part.

What, jump up and down in the main entrance until a cop comes, and pulls you off to the brig?

The waitstaff ordered a busboy to the kitchen, to tell the chef, that the meal was not enjoyed. Nothing happened. No one appeared, the gentleman paid the bill and decided to handle the matter, without causing a spectacle to he and his wife.

I still chalk this up to poor training and lack of management, on the part of Spark.

In retrospect, the bill could be paid, most likely by credit card, and then disputed after you have left the premises.

The real poor part is the mail response. What a pitfull explanation, for a horrible experience.

woodburner