Giving a restaurant a second chance

[jhlurie]

I may give a place a second shot if the trouble I encountered was a service problem and not one with the food. Or occasionally if the majority of the food was excellent but one item really sucked.

Occasionally--rarely--I've gone to a place repeatedly ONLY for a single food item. It has to be really exceptional though.

[tanabutler]

Never mind. EDITED to conceal heavy drug use and idiocy.

Edited November 24, 2004 by tanabutler (log)

[palo]

I recently went to a Chinese buffet restaurant and was disappointed. We arrived at 7:00pm and the restaurant's closing time was 10:00pm. Most of the choices seemed to have been sitting on the steam tables much too long. No dishes seemed to be replaced with fresher versions. The fried calamari had the consistency of over cooked pasta. We left around 9:30pm and we were the last patrons of the night.

Would I return?

Yes, as there were lots of reasons for the food to be sub par.

As buffets work, there needs to be copious amounts of food to be prepared and presented to diners who may or not partake of it. Presumably from their experience they gauge their cooking/quantity requirements based on previous observations. The timing of my visit probably played a part in my negative experience.

If when I returned at a time more likely to yield fresher food and still wasn't satisfied then, I doubt I would return.

p

Edited March 30, 2015 by palo (log)

[liuzhou]

 

I recently went to a Chinese buffet restaurant and was disappointed.

 

What did you expect? 

 

Chinese food is not suitable for buffet service. (Yes, I know lots of American and UK restaurants do it.)

 

Chinese food should, on the whole, be freshly prepared to order.

 

That said, I've never had calamari/squid in a Chinese restaurant in China that wasn't overcooked

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Chinese buffets are notorious in these parts for being subpar, so your experience, palo, doesn't surprise me at all.

 

Fried food especially, to be at its best needs to be served hot and right out of the fryer, otherwise it gets soggy, gross and totally unappealing.

 

I especially seek out fried items that are prepared to order. In my area places you can get this are disappearing, but I make it a point to seek them out and try to support them as best I can.

[lindag]

Of course you should give the restaurant another chance!  Since you used to go there frequently and were always pleased, aren't you kind of cutting off your nose to spite your face?  That was an unusual evening if they had a huge party coming in.  It was just your bad luck to pick the wrong night.  Go back, and if your really feel you need to, speak to the owner about it.  Me?  I'd just write it off as a one time thing.

[MattyC]

I do think restaurants deserve a second chance, provided they aren't just a flat out shithole to begin with.

 

You've been there a million times and they fuck up, of course they deserve a second chance.

 

A place has great reviews, friends say it's great, you go, and your meal is crap. I'd give it a second chance.

 

Front of the house doesn't check up on you in your silly timed amount of time, but your food is great. Second chance.

 

I could keep going, but at the end of the day, 90% of people don't understand what happens behind the scenes with most restaurants. They like to think they do from reading forums, watching shows, etc, but they don't. Restaurants are run by humans. Shit happens to humans. Humans have bad days.

 

You buy something from a highly rated, highly recommended electronics company, but it's defective when you get it - do you bitch about it online, and never even give it a glance again? Or do you exchange it for a new one, thinking that the first was just a fluke? Most people would exchange, and that's something, for the most part, stamped from molds and machines, with less chance of error - yet a business that can be temperamental due to everything from weather, a local sporting event, time of day or year, or even public transportation, gets a one-off?

 

I'm not saying every single restaurant deserves that, and I'm not saying all of that as an excuse for those that don't deserve it - but what I am is that people have this black and white view of their food and restaurants, when it can't always be like that for those busting ass to make it for them.

 

A second time trying a place out isn't the worst thing in the world. It sucks again, so what? You aren't giving up a kidney, and is an hour of a random evening that important? If it turns out great, you may find a new favorite spot, you never know.

[palo]

My comments were driven by other Chinese buffets at which I'd eaten. I enjoy Chinese buffets and will continue to do so. The comment about Chinese buffets being "subpar" needs to be qualified by comparing apples to apples. I believe it is a style of cuisine on its own.

 

p

[suzilightning]

I've just encountered this...

 

great new restaurant but two things in the last two times I have gone have convinced me to only order certain things from a known menu OR really ask questions.

 

Ordered crawfish jamabalaya off a special menu ...DUH next time ask how much the special is.  It was good but not almost 20.00 good for the portion.

Ordered fish and chips off a special menu...4 pieces of breaded, fried fish then a pile of potato chips.  No coleslaw...no pickle...some tartar sauce and vinegar.  When I mentioned to the server that chips usually mean what we call French fries and potato chips are usually called crisps he said that the chef likes to ..."put his own spin on it".  Then why the freak serve the malt vinegar???????

 

If I go again I will be more aggressive in my questioning or stick to the burger which IS served with just the right amount of fries.