A 1st For Me.
Last night I ate at this Chinese Food place and I walked away feeling sort of like a cheap ass. See, I happen to really love Chinese food but I’m a little picky with my food. I HATE Onions and do not like them anywhere near my food… and so anytime I order anywhere I usually ask if there’s onions on the food and if so can I order it WITHOUT them. This usually causes placed to ADD EXTRA ONIONS…go figure.
In the past, I’ve eaten at this same place with the exact same waiter and ordered the same dish each time.
"One order of Sweet and Sour Chicken, but NO ONIONS please"
And so, the food comes and as you would guess, there’s onions all over it. I point it out to the waiter saying "Look, I can’t eat this…I can’t eat onions" …he says he’s sorry and takes the plate of food back to the kitchen and less than 30 seconds later he brings the food back. So basically, they just picked out the onions [something I could have done myself only better].
The plate comes back but it STILL has onions in it [they missed some]. I picked the rest out and tried to enjoy the meal but onions have a way of when they touch food that you can still taste them. It’s like sticking your hand in hot tar…it’s really hard to get off.
So when he brings the check (which was only $12.13) I let him know that the food STILL had onions on it. He said he was sorry but it didn’t sound very convincing. And so, for the 1st time in my life… I DID NOT tip. I left $12.25 on the table and walked away.
I felt a little weird after …but this was not the 1st time it’s happened with the same waiter and restaurant. The times in the past, I just thought "well, maybe he told the cook and the cook messed it up". Regardless, I’m tired of paying for bad service.
I won’t be returning to this place again and it’s a shame because (when they get the order right) the food is usually really great.
Hell, most of the time I usually over-tip at most places because I know these people really only make their living off the tips and not the hourly wage. Perhaps if the guy would have not charged me for a messed up order, I would have still paid the full amount and given him a 100% tip. I don’t know if it’s the waiter’s fault for not making sure the cook knew…or the cook’s fault but I really don’t care at this point. Mainly, this was the 1st time I’ve eaten somewhere and didn’t tip. Hell, even with lousy service I usually give something at most places.
I guess I’ll have to find a new Chinese Food place to eat in the future.
I completely agree with what you did. In fact,
Sorry, I think I messed up the html to send people to my blog post (which I also did today) about tipping.
http://thewritejerry.blogspot.com/2006/05/why-is-your-hand-out.html
wow…that’s ironic that we both blogged about the same sort of thing
maybe yesterday was some sort of official “Bad Service Day” or something
What’s even worse is when you go to places and the bill is 10 bucks and you give them a 20 and then they ask you if you want change.
The husband and I had a similier experience awhile back. We had gone out to eat and were seated almost immediately. That should have warned us right there.
We waited 20 minutes for our waitress to come and even take our drink order(the place was NOT busy by any means), then
waited another 30 minutes for the drinks to come and her to take
our order.
Needless to say we were very unhappy.
When the food did arrive after she finally took our order, the hubby’s wasn’t right. By that time, we were so fed up, he ate it any way. We ran out of drinks, she made no effort to refill them. In fact, she only stopped back by the table once in the 30 minutes we ate our food. AS i said, the place was not busy at all.
So when wqe finally got our check after being finished and waiting another 15 minutes, all the while trying to flag her down and being ignored, she brough back only large bills.
Common sense would tell the waitstaff that if the customer pays in a large bill, they might not have smaller bills and they usually will bring smaller bills for you, just in case, so you can tip.
We sat there looking at the change, which was large bills, and said to each other, no way is she getting that large of a tip, not that she deserved it anyway.
For the first time, we left without leaving anything except the few pennies she brought with the large bills, as her tip and we haven’t been back to that place.
yeah..i wonder if they intentionally bring you back larger bills to get higher tips. I’m never quite sure what the right amount to tip is…it used to be 15% but i think it’s up to 20% now but on a $10 meal and they bring you back a 10 dollar bill…do they really expect you to give them a 100% tip?
can we go out together and make the restaurants crazy? Im allergic to tomatos, onion, peppers (green and red) and eggplant, ect. I never get my oder right and usually walk out with free food. We would make a good team!
LOL, yeah..i don’t do:
onions and tomatos at all
I like meat but I don’t like “meat on a bone” …for some reason when i see the bone i get a little grossed out
i really get ill when i go to fairs and see folks chomping away on huge turkey legs…even worse RIBS…eeeww LOL
i know..i’m weird
yeah…let’s go drive all the food places crazy
Bob, I too hate onions so I feel your pain. But I do love the song “Green Onions.” Hmm, does that make me a hypocrite? I have a hard time not tipping, but there’s been a few times I have not due to poor service. You did the right thing.
yeah…not tipping just makes me feel weird [even with bad service i feel weird about it]
“green onions”- good song
What I hate even more is when the bill is about $12 and I leave a $20 bill and the waiter picks it up and says, “Do you need change?” Hello? Like I’m gonna leave almost a 50% tip? I think that is so rude! I HATE tipping but unfortunately, I do tip - usually 15%-20% but only because I’ve been called cheap more than once. Talk about guilt. However, I never figure in the tax. Why should I have to tip on top of the tax portion? Here in LA the tax is 8.75% which can make a hefty restaurant bill for 4 people. Tipping is so controversial. In Europe they include the gratuity on the bill - usually 15% and if you want to leave more you can. They should do that here.
Tipping has really gotten out of hand. There are “TIP” jars on counters everywhere. I hate those swanky bathrooms where there is an attendent who stands there, watches me pee then hands me a towel after I’ve washed my hands then expects a tip. I might tip if he put on latex gloves and wiped my ass for me. Many times I have not tipped because of bad service and am not ashamed to admit it cause I’m cheap. After all, how the hell am I suppose to make Lexus payments if all my money goes towards tipping?
just think if we had to tip our doctors….like we’d not get as good of service if we didn’t tip them enough = DEATH
Speaking of death - I’m also sick to death of seeing those stupid signs, “Tipping is not a city in China”
Yeah! aint that sarchastic? Like, Now I really want to tip you with your little snide remark written on your jar! Its like saying, “Tip me, cause you owe me!” Course I only feel like that once a month. The rest of the month I just laugh at it.
Cathe
Maybe theyd give better service if they were working for tips!
Cathe
I was a waitress at one time in my life and I never have a hard time not tipping. Having “been in the feild” so to speak, I know what they are able to do and what they are not. Free meals when things are grossly wrong always help. Some times it is the cooks fault, (the waitress is supposed to give a portion of her tip to the cook who then always make certain the food comes out as ordered, It also pays to share your gain with the bus boy. I can’t empathize about the onions, I LOVE EM! My girlfriend and I would have a ladies night out and end up at Dennys at 1:00 am and order a big ole plate of Liver and Onions smothered in Gravey! W’ed chug coffee with cream and giggle cause the workers even thought our order was gross. (It takes sooo little to make some of us happy)
Cathe
yeah…the very least the guy coul dhave done was offered the measly $7 meal off (i would have given him him that if he did
)
I would have just walked out. First reminded him that it wasn’t right. Leave a buck or two for the drink and walk the heck out. Geez you guys put up with way too much punishment over FOOD.
ya know…that thought never crossed my mind…next time something like that happens, i will
You are so right Kathy - and it’s not like I really need the damn food! I’m about 20 lbs overweight as it is. Maybe bad service is a sign telling me, “You’re a fucking porker! Get the hell outa here you fat pig! Go eat some celery you slob!”
Seriously, it may well be a sign that if you ‘complain’ too much about how you want the food, god knows what they will do to it back in the kitchen…..the Fight Club scene comes to mind!:eek: