RSS FeedWhat’s The Price For A Mistake?
Mrs. Columbo and I went out for dinner two nights in a row this week, first to Rosa Mexicano, and the next night at Proof. Overall both meals were very good, but each restaurant had a hiccup with our night out, and each handled it differently.
At Rosa, we discovered that one of our wine glasses was very dirty on the inside. But because it was red wine we didn’t notice this until we had drunk below the line where the crud was (a little less than 1/2 of the glass). It looked something like baked on cheese. Our server was apologetic and replaced the glass of wine.
At Proof, they were not able to seat us at our reservation time. We had to wait a little over 30 minutes before our reserved table was cleared & we were able to be seated. The manager brought over complimentary champagne & apologized profusely for the delay.
In neither case were we angry, or did we even complain (except to ask our server at Rosa to get us a clean glass). I have no complaints with how either handled the situations; obviously Proof went much farther in bringing us free drinks, but I didn’t think they were necessary for a 30 minute delay. While this may be a better question for Tom Sietsema it made me wonder, what do you expect when you have an issue at dinner?
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Comments
“you know how to take the reservation, but not how to hold the reservation. And really, the holding is the most important part.”
in both cases, the restaurants’ actions sounded appropriate, proactive and customer friendly. to DCGirl’s point, comping the wine at Rosa would have been a nice touch.
in my view, a tough test for a restaurant is how to react to a refused bottle of wine because it is corked. I’ve never had to send back a bottle nor have witnessed it happen as it’s a rare event. it is potentially a big hit on the margin earned off a single table of diners to have a bottle go bad. this is especially true if the corked bottle is in the three digit (or greater) dollar range.
I expect everyone–from the server to the manager–to see and act on the mistake right away, as they seem to have done in your case. I shouldn’t have to point out that I’ve been waiting, for example; acknowledgment goes a long way toward repairing the relationship. In Penn Quarter,the restaurants are so busy that Proof won’t last long if it can’t manage to hold reservations! BTW, I recommend OpenTable.com for making reservations. Most of the Penn Quarter restaurants are listed (though some are tagged as “downtown”) and I’ve had great experience with those online reservations sticking and holding.
I sent a bottle of wine back because the wine was corked. I didn’t even taste it. I just smelled it and knew. The waitress didn’t know what to do, but the bartender tasted it and agreed. It was pretty easy.
I’d say the service in our neighborhood is pretty good. I’ve had a few odd experiences, like the time the waitress poured the remnants of my 1st glass of wine into my 2nd glass of wine, but things have been great for the most part. I find that mentioning that I live in the neighborhood gets me even better service. Maybe they figure I’ll come back more often.
I agree on mentioning you live in the neighborhood. I can’t say that i have gotten something tangible out of it, but it tends to energize the wait staff a little bit and we tend to have a little bit more of a dialouge – if you want that, sometimes people just want to be eat and left alone.
I once sent back not one, but two, bottles of champagne at Poste in the Hotel Monaco. The poor waiter was very confused and we were very embarassed, but the bar manager confirmed that — to his dismay — it appeared the entire case was bad. Unfortunately, I can’t remember if the next bottle we tried (a different label) was comped or discounted.
I recently had a very bad experience at Le Paradou. We were a party of two and my companion spoke fluent French, yet the service was slow, with the meal showing up before the 3-digit bottle of wine. At times, we couldn’t even get the waiter’s attention. We felt ignored compared to other larger groups. At the end of the evening, the manager came over and apologized profusely, saying he was short staffed. He comped the wine. Sill, I have a bad feeling about the place and doubt I will go back.
I just tried Rasika the other night for the 1st time with a guest from NYC. Not only did we have to wait for our reserved table, but it took a full 50 minutes to get our meal after we ordered (we just split 1 entree, 2 sides). And not once did our waiter ask if we needed another cocktail while tables around us had already cleared out and been re-seated. The manager finally apologized and comped the whole meal. Definitely a nice touch, but I doubt I’d ever go back after that experience.
This past summer, I had a similarly positive experience at Oyamel. We went for a friend’s birthday and the early table stayed longer than expected. The manager kept in constant communication with us, and once we were finally seated, gave us a free pitcher of margaritas. While it wasn’t necessary, it was noticed, and it’s one reason I’ve returned to the restaurant.
Its a hectic business and I appreciate what both of the establishments did for you and the Ms. If all else fails, complimentary drinks always works for me.
#9 and #10 got some fabulous comps for poor service, and they’re not sure if they’re going back? Heck, that’s why managers do comps like that. They want you to know that your experience wasn’t the norm and that it was just as unacceptable to them as to you. They want you to come back. Why not? You think they can afford do give comps like this regularly? Nope. They’re going to fix the problem and get service back to their high levels. If you don’t go back you’re missing out.
recently… and this was a first… at kanlaya the waiter took it upon himself to do the math on my check and write in my various tipping options..ie 20% = x
18% = y 15%= z…. while i can generally do the math in my head..maybe some folks cant???
stil seemed a bit odd…but not unfriendly…
xoxo
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For most instances, I think with customer service, they can either fix it, or give you your money back, but it’s not reasonable to expect both – although for a price of a glass of wine, I probably would have expected them to comp that glass in addition to replacing it.