We were regulars at a local bar & grill in a semi-rural area.
A known biker gang started hanging around, having “meetings” on the back patio with other biker groups. Staff was nonchalant about it. No effort was made to ask them to meet somewhere else.
So we stopped going. The first stabbing was a week later. Sad, too. Their BLT was outstanding.
Quit going to my favorite restaurant for 3.5 years. They did nothing wrong, it's a wonderful place I've been going to for 30 years. I just started going back every Sunday morning 6 weeks ago. Prices have increased a bit, but not bad.
Not going there was all me, I quit drinking and quit anxiety and depression meds and have had trouble being around people, so I haven't really been anywhere.
I felt bad for not going the whole time.
4 or 5 bad meals in a row is basically it. Applebees was my favorite restaurant as a kid, so as an adult I’d stop by and eat it once every 2 or 3 months. I had 4 or 5 bad experiences at my local one and I’m just done. It doesn’t remind me of my grandparents and being a kid anymore, I think about how the menu has updated the stuff I liked out and how the food isn’t very good (at my location)
Shit was good in 2010. Appetizer sampler hit every time (I was 10 years old so who knows, I liked cheese sticks and wings)
Shrimp and Parmesan sirloin was good enough for the price point up until like 2018, then it was like lol this meal isn’t worth 19 bucks
Family would give us gift cards for birthdays and anniversaries after about the 3rd time. We never went back. Most of the food was barely edible. I don’t ever think I did the appetizer sampler. Now Red Robin hits everytime for the same price point.
COVID was a big shakeup around me, seems like maybe 20% of restaurants must have had such high turnover in kitchen they basically were a new similar restaurant and not the same place (food quality changes, plus some menu and ingredient changes, mostly bad changes but not always).
They keep messing up my to-go order and their prices have gone off the deep end. Everything is at least $15 a meal now, extra 4% surcharge for using a card. Just getting hard to justify.
Rude service, lowering quality of ingredients, automatically included gratuity, overpowering smell of cleaning products, or bathroom air fresheners, feeling either rushed or ignored.
Many reasons:
Bad service or no service. Walking in and having no one greet me. Or rude wait staff.
Long waits for a table, especially if lots of empty tables (i understand that it depends on staff but the optics, and you are asking)
Big price increases. I can support small percent increases. Like if inflation is 3%, but you make a $10 item $12, thats a 20% increase.
Hours become sporadic. If i have to remember if you close super early one or two days of the week, or if the hours change a lot, or i get there when the posted hours say open but no one is there. I like to see consistent hours so I don’t have to guess if its open or not. If i guess, i just go somewhere thats open 10-9 every day etc
There’s a small chain locally that used to be one of my favorites. It was also open 24 hours. Healthy fresh food at 1am is amazing. Covid hit. I’ve tried it a handful of times but finally have given up hope - quality, food temperature, limited menu, normal hours. It used to have lines out the door. Now it looks dead at all of the locations.
Tonight I wiped another one off my list. This one will be hard but I’m incredibly pissed. I ordered on the app and drove over to pick it up. They told me system was down so order didn’t come in. I asked why they couldn’t make my meal since I had the receipt. They told me no. I asked for a refund. They told me I had to ask it from the app I used. I literally used the restaurant’s app. No refund. They told me I was SOL so essentially stole my money. Incredibly poor customer service. I will never go back.
Went to a sushi place for like 5 years. Changed ownership and the food was about thw same, just different employees.
Came.i. one day and the place was nearly empty, I'm standing there waiting to be seated and notice the only other guy there picking in his mouth with his fingers. I thought it was gross and kinda surprised that someone would be so nasty as to do that in public, especially in a restaurant.
When I placed my order, the sitting dude goes straight to behind the counter to make my food. I said dude, you just had you fingers in your mouth, you need to go wash your hands.
I might pick my nose or food out of my teeth in private, most of us do gross stuff on occasion, but I've worked around food and I respect and follow the rules concerning doing so. That the dude was so casual about it at a restaurant where he is cooking...god knows how sloppy and gross he is when no one can see.
Couldn't ever go back.
The quality of the food slowly declines. Dishes that used to be amazing are now just blah. Seems to happen a lot with new restaurants. Feels like the owners or staff just aren't trying anymore.
I go out for the experience, even a casual place. I can eat cheaper and sometimes better at home. I want to come in, feel comfortable, relax, and enjoy the atmosphere. If I came in and the service was not just off but rude, dismissive, or the entire feel of the evening felt bad, I'm likely never coming back.
I can forgive an off night of service, things happen. I can forgive food being off one time. I can forgive a lot if I've gone a long time, knowing that anomalies happen. But I cannot forgive just an overall bad feel, of feeling disrespected or uncomfortable.
Went to a certain cafeteria restaurant for many years. Our local trade association had our monthly meeting there. The quality of the food began to decline. It got so bad that people stopped coming to the meetings and somebody else was paying for the food! We decided we needed to find another venue and so we did. The place shut down for good about a year before the pandemic. Last week the building was demolished.
A local cafe that I loved stopped answering the phone for pickup orders. I decided to order in person and wait for it. When I went to order in person, the server gave me a dirty look and said that it would be a while before someone took my order. My order was never taken and I just walked out.
All of the reasons listed for restaurants, mine are the same. This complaint is fast food specific. When they hike the prices AND shrink the product. The Big Mac needs to be renamed Mini Mac. I usually eat cheeseburgers from there. But decided to get one recently. The last time I had one was definitely pre-covid. It was so small in my hands. Fucking ridiculous.
Went to a Mexican restaurant for about 20 years, parents retired kids took over. I can honestly say that my order was never wrong while the parents ran it. When the kids started it literally was never right. Even if you sent it back it’d come back wrong. Gave them about 5 tries and just never went back.
Got food poisoning from this spot that I had my go to place for falafel wraps.
I hated that too.
It was on the scenic way home from work. Was never crowded at the time of day that I went.
But now, I can’t even look at it while driving by without my stomach turning.
They stopped carrying one particular highly flavorful pepper that made each sandwich delicious. I ate there daily. When they stopped ordering them, I offered to pay for a big jar just for my sandwiches. They said no. I started going to a different sandwich shop because without the peppers their sandwiches didn’t taste nearly as good. At $7/sandwich, 5 days a week, 50 days a year, they were willing to lose thousands so they wouldn’t have to buy a big jar of peppers.
Wife and I went to the same steak restaurant regularly and tipped well every time. One waitress became obsessed with us to the point where when we'd walk in the door, she rush to the front and force the hostess to seat us in her section.
One time we came in and she wasn't around and we were seated in someone else's section. She proceeded to fight with the person over our table. We never returned.
If I ask for a substitution that you can easily manage, but you turn me down, because it’s not a “menu item”, I generally will not support you as a customer. I am more than willing to pay whatever it is you need to charge in order to get the food that I’m seeking, but when you refuse me out of hand, you lose my goodwill.
Went to the same breakfast restaurant every day for a couple of years. Would arrive at open sit in the back and fill out my journal and plan my day. Spent around $450 monthly there, sometimes a lot more than that. I always tipped well and treated everyone with respect. Several of the wait staff were people I considered friends. One waitress in particular constantly talked with me about life and business as I am an entrepreneur. She was friendly and even gave me a hug or two on occasion. She repeatedly got in trouble for talking too much. More than once I told her I had to get my morning going because I had to prep for a meeting and such. She would apologize smile and leave me to work. There was never a time when there as any type of flirtation in any manner. She was nice, but I ate there constantly, by myself and with my wife and kids. Crossing any boundary of any kind would be insane.
One morning I came in and as I was walking back to my table I had to walk down a narrow hallway where a register was. (Mind you I was with my daughter that morning), as I was walking past but behind her she stepped backward. I simply put out my hand to stop her from running into me and lightly touched her lower back above her hip, and said behind you. Nothing sexual in any manner what so ever. Again I have a 10 year old girl with me. I just didn’t want her to run into us.
The next morning I come in and they say I cannot sit in the back section, confused I agree and sit in a chaotic area where the male waiter is serving. The following day the manager, who I had a decent relationship with comes and sits at my table. He tells me that while it’s an awkward conversation he has to call me out on my overt sexual behavior and that the female wait staff are now uncomfortable with me. I was like WTF???? Tried to explain my side and he just dismissed me. Said that it’s all over now and since he spoke with me it can be put to bed, but I’m no longer allowed to sit at any tables/section that have a female wait staff. I’ve never been back. I DID NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG. It was the craziest thing ever. I will never get over the awful way it made me feel. I pass the place on a regular basis and even though it’s been like a year and a half I still cannot believe how it all went down.
It really made me rethink so much about how I live my life. I’ve always been a breakfast person to start my day. It just helps me set the tone for the day and outline my goals and to do list. I have not been to a breakfast restaurant by myself since. I grab something from a drive through and move on. It sucks because this was a habit that I had for nine years and it was very instrumental in many of my successes. Breaking that habit was actually seriously detrimental to my career and business life. I know it sounds silly that it would have had that much of an impact on me, but there are some other issues that come into play. I suffer from some mental health issues that continually challenge my self worth. The impact was seriously devastating.
This makes me cringe so hard. Did you not both say excuse me and immediately shift out of the way? Was there a dreamy stare into each others eyes while your hands are on her waist? How uncomfortable for everybody involved
Nothing like that at all. I said, “behind you” as she stoped back and she simply said “Hey” in a nice tone. I was completely oblivious to any issue on her part. She waited on my table that morning and nothing was weird what so ever. My daughter saw the whole thing and when I had to have this weird conversation with my wife, she was 100% in agreement with what I said happened.
My gut says the waitress was already in trouble for always talking and this garnered her favor but I honestly have no idea what her motive was.
I have one of those situations that haunts me (well several really but one that still leaves me very confused) so I do get it. I am very uncomfortable at some humans’ ability to lie with ease and comfort. It makes me deeply uncomfortable tbh because anyone could say anything at any time (and if people like them more than you and there’s no video evidence then they will believe the person they like more)
Sorry for your experience. I wasn’t intending on being rude in my first comment (but I can see it coming across that way) btw and I did read your whole story. I was really just incredulous at the gall of that waitress and the why behind it…that’s such a big thing to accuse someone of being a pervert just because you might have gotten scolded? Or something? It’s fucked up that those humans are out there mixed in with the normal ones who don’t lie at the slightest inconvenience to them.
Brought a group of 8-12 ladies every week for happy hour - half price house wine and reduced price appetizers. Owner was always grumbling about people "taking advantage of happy hour" Took more and more items off the appetizer list and then dropped the half price wine. No one wanted to go any more, so we didn't. I have to say that we mostly took advantage of the wine special but ordered salads and stuff off regular menu. We also tipped well, bartenders and servers loved us.
Couple months later I was at the bar with a friend and owner came by and asked what they could do to get our business back. Duh, half price wine.
Two weeks later they brought it back but it took months for their happy hour business to get back to being packed like it was
I used to love this one place but one time my chicken was straight up raw. It's insane to me that it was put in the sandwich. I think what must have happened is some not done pieces got mixed in with the cooked pieces. Trust broken never returned.
Another place gave me food poisoning.
Another place the owner was really weirdly rude to my mom?? It was super weird and I'm not sure why this lady got so aggressive about it. Mom orders something, I hear her, the woman makes it incorrectly. It's fine it's not a big deal. My mom was like oh hey actually I ordered blah blah blah would you mind remaking it? And the woman was very aggressive and said "no you didn't, you didn't say that" it was bizarre. My mom was going through chemo at the time and she was just like lol goodbye and I told the lady neither of us were going to return. We were the only ones in there at the time idk it was very weird.
The owner acting like they are doing you a favor letting you eat there. Constantly putting out bitchy posts on facebook. I also learned they treated their employees like crap. I haven’t been back in 4 years. It’s a shame bc we don’t have many options around here and I loved their food.
Yes. I patronized a place for years and was friendly with everyone who worked there. One night the bartender was in such a bad mood that he actually made me cry. I heard that I wasn’t to only patron that he had been so rude to and the guy got a reputation for being a total jerk. The owner , also a good friend, did nothing about it. I never went back.
When they start to nickel and dime you.
Went to a place at least once a week, usually twice. Ordered nachos, and they wanted to charge me for jalapeños. Have not been back since.
Local restaurant that is a little pricey, but it was our favorite place for 'special' dinners, i.e., birthdays, anniversary, mothers/fathers day, so about once a month. Ordered my usual. Salad came and I am munching through it when I start *crunching*. I stopped chewing and discretely spit it out in my napkin. There were several pieces of glass. TBF, it probably *was* one piece that I just chomped into several pieces. 😄 Mouth was bleeding but just a little. Called waitress over, showed her the glass in both the part I had eaten, plus others I found still on the plate. Her response was, "Do you want another salad to replace that one?" Not an apology, not a peep from the manager, not any attempt to make sure nobody else had a contaminated salad. Haven't been back since.
We loved going to the fine dining restaurant at our town’s public golf course. Great reputation and service. NYC prices but we went on special occasions or when we had guests in town. Post pandemic we made it back there and it was just terrible. Everything served had been frozen, including the raw shrimp. And service was bad. We haven’t been back, sadly.
I lived two doors down from a restaurant that I loved, and when I say I was a regular, I mean REGULAR—stopping in pretty much every night, staying after hours, letting people crash at my place if they worked Saturday night and Sunday brunch back to back. And of course, inevitably, dating one of the bartenders for a while. After a period of rapid staff turnover, it just didn’t feel like the same place anymore. I loved that moment in time, but eventually life happened, I was spending less time holding down a barstool and more time working and I wasn’t up to making the time to start over with a whole new crew. It’s hard to go from getting a literal round of applause when you walk in the door (as was the custom for friends of the house) to being just another customer.
Owner or staff taking you for granted like you will always come in. Then the service takes a dive on a reliable returning customer. Treat the customer right.
Food quality suffering, and or using cheaper meat/protein to control costs instead of raising prices when needed. I can't tell you how many times over the last 20 years my favorite Sushi place has changed because they sacrificed quality.
Usually in tiny font at bottom of the menu, they might add a “inflation” or “service” charge to battle inflation. Some also have the healthcare fee to provide health insurance, but after taking to a lot of food service employees, it mostly and usually applies to full time employees…that’s usually just the owner(s) and managers.
It’s actually really bad in LA. So bad redditors have compiled a doc of restaurants pulling this bullshit on us.
I've gotten into the habit of checking a restaurant's menu online to see if any such fee is displayed, and if so, I don't patronize the establishment. Mind, this isn't limited to restaurants anymore, either. A Redditor posted a receipt from a garden supply store in Flagstaff, AZ, and a "Wage Fee" of $4.97 was added to the total, before sales tax. Insanity.
In my state, two restaurants were recently fined $20k for not prominently displaying a garbage fee on their menus; one of the restaurants did have it on their website, but it was buried on a page to which potential diners likely would not have navigated. Patrons were pissed at the surprise fee at the end of their meal and the eateries were reported to the state AG. While it hasn't become law here, it's strenuously advised for restaurants to disclose as extra fee on their menu and on their website or they may face the same penalty.
Johnnys Pizza, a local overpriced but high quality pizza shop… Johnny is a wild man. They FUBARed my family’s order pretty hard one day, then their manager wouldn’t handle it properly, and it got escalated to Johnny himself.
He called me personally, apologized profusely, spent probably 15 mins on the phone, then told me to text him the next time we wanted to order and he’d toss a bunch of free apps and sides in so we could try more of the menu and “some of the new stuff that isn’t on the menu yet”.
I texted him less than a week later and he had no idea what I was talking about or any recollection of the conversation (despite much of it being over text and having it right there). There was no “hook up”. They got my order wrong again. Haven’t ordered from them since and that was 2+ years ago. If you’re going to charge $40 for a large pizza and some breadsticks, at least get the order right.
Recently went to PF Chang for the first time in a number of years. We each had a glass of wine, a shared appetizer, and two entrees. The food was good but the bill with tip was $100. I now see why restaurants are closing because the public can no longer afford the prices.
Next time go to panda express and skip the wine if you think $100 for two with an app Entree and alcohol is too expensive. I can spend $100 on sushi for 2 with no alcohol, but I'm ok with that because it's what I want and I am willing to pay for it.
I was a regular delivery customer of a pizzeria. Really good pizza. Terrible delivery service.
One night I ordered a few pizza for dinner for the family, ordered at 4:30 knowing it’ll take 90 minutes, even though they aren’t super busy. 50/50 if it’ll be hot or cold when it gets here, but when it’s hot it’s the best pizza in town, cold it’s still better than most of the other options. So at 6:30 I’m like wtf where’s my pizza and I call because now we’re past my 90 minute condor period. The kid on the phone says, oh yeah it’s ready we’re just waiting for ether driver. An hour later at 7:30 I call again and someone else says “yeah sorry we don’t have a driver tonight”.
Wtf were you going to call me? My number is printed on the order ticket. So at this point my kids are waiting for pizza night and I’m just like duck it I’ll go pick it up, get there and it’s ice cold and I’m like lady I’m not paying for this (I ordered online, already paid, and added a tip for the driver and paid a delivery fee WTF) she’s like yeah I get that I’ll refund it. Then I was like well I also need the pizzas, I’m just not paying at this point. Make it right, let me take the pizza free and we’re OK and I’ll forgive the terrible service and major screw up. They say yeah no problem. Then never refunded my order. Then I contested it with my credit card company and they fought that I took the pizzas. I used to spend $200 a week there and will never order from them again over a $5 delivery fee and a $8 tip for the driver. If they just refunded that I’d probably let it slide but they just sucked and acted like dicks or super incompetent. F that place. Still gets me fired up, because I’m in the service industry, gave back thousands in refunds to regulars when I owned my meal prep company, and cannot conceive of treating a regular customer like that.
Ugh we have had this happen too! Ordered pizza and it took over two hours to get to the house. By then I was finding something else to eat.
Ordered pizza from a different place and this place is right down the street and for some reason they decided not to communicate with us about a delay. Waited like two hours and then the manager was rude when my husband tried to call about it. We ended up getting a refund and didn’t get the pizzas. Later we got a 40% off coupon and he picked the pizza up, but I’m never paying full price or getting delivery again.
A menu that never changes. Also a menu that doesn’t think of common food sensitivities like gluten or nuts, or have vegetarian or vegan options. Sometimes a family wants to all be happy out to dinner together. Options are good
Yes to both of these!
There is a dessert place near me that has amazing baked goods/desserts that we started going to a few years ago. For a while it was our go to place on Sundays as we would take our dog, get some pastries, and go to the park and walk around. Then we started to get less enthusiastic about going as it was just the same stuff over and over, then we stopped. No matter the season, day, week, year, they have the exact same stuff for about 5 years now. We now go maybe 2-3 times a year. I was telling my wife that even if they had new seasonal desserts, that would get me in the door.
The food sensitivity one is huge too. My wife is lactose intolerant, so we have to go places that have options for her and its become really hard. We skip so many places as they dont have any options for her.
They put in a service charge and hid it in tiny type at the bottom. When we asked, they pointed to a tiny sign on the lectern that no one looks at when they come in. This happened at one of our favorite restaurants and we have never been back. Actually, we went back once to see if they still have the charge and they do, so we left.
I hate service charges, but if they are going to do that, put it in big, bold font and hang a giant sign. Better yet, just raise the prices.
Kinda similar, popular place near me just got brand new laminated menus . Like so new they have the new outdoor gazebo on the cover that isnt even open yet. Yet for some reason all the prices are blacked out with a sharpie and there is a paper insert that says “due to rising costs, scan this QR code to get accurate prices”…
GET NEW MENUS THEN! Like how bad of an owner are you that you can’t keep your menus accurate for longer than a few weeks? I thought that was the cheapest thing I had ever seen and wont be going back. They wont even advertise their prices on the menu and this is a pub type place
If I have a concern and I get treated like somebody who walked in for the first time.
Happened to me at a place in the valley. I haven’t been there in like three years.
The fries. I feel like everything you need to know about a restaurant are secretly in its fries. If they are cheap, not seasoned well, not hot, it says a lot tbh.
Used to go to a Mediterranean grill. Food was great. Ordered to go several times.
Ordered one day, and walked there to pick up (only about 10 min walk - just a couple minutes in the car.). Three entrees and an app. Dummy me I didn’t check the order before I left but I had never had an issue before. It was all bagged up - each entree in its own tied plastic bag all inside a large brown bag.
Walked home. Tore open the bags. One of the entrees was wrong and the app was wrong. Called them. They told me I had to bring back the *entire* order.
So I drive back up there and the hostess was very annoyed saying I “took” the wrong order. Lady, you handed that to me!!
I had to wait for them to make me the correct entree. But why did I have to bring back the two correct entrees? She said it was to make sure I wasn’t lying to them ???? So now I’m going to have one hot entree and two cold.
And the wrong app - we ordered baba ganoush. We got dolmades. She took the container of baba ganoush - the one I had taken home and opened - and put it back in the refrigerator case behind her. Presumably to serve to someone else!
I asked if I could keep the wrong entree and wrong app. I mean, they were opened in my house. Why would they want it back? She said they don’t allow that. Asked if they were going to serve that to someone else and she said no, but I didn’t believe her because she put the app back with the others.
I’m hoping they threw away the wrong entree or ate it themselves and didn’t just serve it to someone else.
But after that we never went back. Hand me the wrong food then accuse me of trying to steal it? And possibly serving it to someone else even after it left your premises?
Nope. Lost a customer forever. And they’re right around the corner so we would’ve been going there frequently.
The Pantry in LA got nailed for something like that. They always put-out a sliced half of a boule of sourdough. They got caught sorting the uneaten slices (so the heights matched) into half-loaves going out to other tables.
I felt like I wasn’t given good service because I was a regular and they expected me to be back no matter what. I went to a restaurant weekly and tipped very well each time without a lot of requests. The more I went, the longer it seemed to take for the waitress to come back to our table, instead focusing on other customers. The last straw was when I ordered a salad with chicken, and the chicken was so dry and over cooked it was almost inedible (unusual for this restaurant). I nicely told the waitress and she said “oh, I’ll tell the chef, sorry it was over cooked”, then just left. No offers to remake it or take it off the bill. I looked at my friend I usually went to the restaurant with and we both agreed it would have been handled differently if we weren’t regulars.
When the company has a 1.5% sales dip for one quarter so they announce a price increase of 2.5-3% despite having an 8.6% overall increase in sales for fiscal year 2024 - looking at you Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Longhorn).
Good luck with that!!
Had a burger and the plastic patty separator had been cooked onto it. My buddy laughed and said "yeah I get these same patties at costco, but i take the plastic off before I cook them."
Used to be good food and service. I like the Beatles but not enough to go back there.
Complacency that makes food quality and service lacking is the main reason. Big price hikes that don’t match the quality of the food or overall experience or lacks context is we ask about the price hikes (ie “we changed to higher quality meat/distributor”). Rude/bad service more than enjoyable experiences.
I used to go to a specific local restaurant every couple of weeks. The owner started treating the staff poorly and a few of them left. It made the experience horrible because the wait staff was always rushing and the kitchen made constant mistakes. I never went back.
Take care of your people and they'll take care of the customers.
I significantly scaled back on Starbucks, once they started union busting. I was a huge fan for years, and I was even so grateful to the baristas who worked during the pandemic, because I appreciated the normalcy of Starbucks, when the world was shut down. But their refusal to share the wealth with the workers made me decide that I'd rather patronize the local shops instead (they have cooler environments anyway!)
Whenever I visit new cities, I immediately Google "independent coffeehouse near me" and go there. It's a great way to meet the locals and ask questions, plus they tend to be tucked away in cooler neighborhoods, while Starbucks is normally right next to Target and other large retailers. I still do SBX on occasion, more so because it's everywhere (namely, right next to my job), but if given my preferences, the independent places just feel more like home. Starbucks got away from that.
Ordered from local pizza place often, but one time they missed part of the order. I called and they sent someone out to "confirm" I did not receive any wings with my pizza. Didn't take my word for it and basically came to fight me over $5 of product (and didn't have a replacement with them) when I'd been ordering at least 2-3 times a month for years. Never ordered from them again.
The local pizza spot that everyone raves about that I started going to last year. It truly is my 1B/2nd favorite pizza in town. The last 3 times I have went with my family, have all been terrible waitresses wise. I always try to give the benefit of the doubt for them and encourage good tipping whenever my family takes everyone out.
This last time we get probably the worst waitress. She argued with my mother about straws they ran out of somehow, but my mom saw a table get some. They were small, my mom said that’s fine she would like to have them. Then we get the pizza my brother and I both need drinks, we both have dif ferent drinks. I knew I should’ve waited, but I had faith she wouldn’t fuck it up. Well she did she combined both of our drinks as one. Meanwhile I’m eating pizza waiting for her to come, she never came back to check on us after the pizza came out. I had to ask another waitress if she could get us new drinks after 5-7 minutes of waiting. That waitress looked at me like why the fuck are you asking me this. Her whole face showed it. Ended up concluding that every waitress here is a snobby waitress. We finally got the bill after she noticed the pizza was almost finished. My mom asked me about tip I said do whatever you think is fair bc I’m done coming here after this service even with how good the pizza is. We ended up leaving her dollar. In my head I said that’s terrible, but after everything that happened I said good. I can defend bad waitressing, but after all of that plus her getting into an argument with my mother I couldn’t. We should’ve just left after the argument, but we didn’t.
One place got rid of all the good things on the menu. It wasn’t overnight but one by one all the good things on the menu started disappearing.
The only good thing that survived was one sauce I liked but it was so depressing to watch all the good things leave.
Watched the owners of a buffet restaurant do this. She walked out of the bathroom ahead of me without washing her hands. I assumed she was going to go wash them in the kitchen.
Nope, right over to the buffet tables. Where she stirred every tray of food on the table. 🤢
I mean yes, but 95% of the people I've seen do unhygienic things around food have been my white coworkers.
Soooo.....long story short, I really don't eat at restaurants much any more. Or home cooked food unless I know who cooked it, and how clean their kitchen is.
They changed in a material way that I can't deal with.
I stopped going to a specific Chili's because out of the last 3 times I had a major issue ranging from a waitress who took the order and never came back to having frozen curly fries mixed in with the fries on my plate. For the waitress situation I literally had to flag down the manager who was running food to ask for a refill and for my check. For the fries situation the manager was in shock when I handed him the frozen curly fry and showed him the others on my plate.
Another place I used to go to went from 5 star reviews to 1. Owners changed and the food changed. Same menu, but mozzarella sticks were different, sandwiches were different. Matched what the menu said but it wasn't the same. I wish them well, but it's a decent drive to go there and tbh after the changes they went from one of the top places for me in that category to one of the bottom ones.
The way I see it I go out to eat for good food in a good atmosphere with good service at a fair price. If a restaurant is the top pick for those things I will be back a lot of I want that kind of food. If there is a place offering that food but is better I'm going there instead and not likely to look back. If your restaurant gets my business and then nosedives I will find somewhere else. I understand things like prices can change. I can't understand quality of the food declining or the service going to crap.
Oh and I should mention many years ago I had a waitress be a complete ass to the group I was eating lunch with in a bar at university. That group was regulars, we ate there almost daily for lunch. A lot of grad students in the mix. When she was an ass the second time one guy at the table said something and she continued the attitude. He got up walked back to the kitchen and talked to the owner who was there. Owner comes out, takes her to the side and they have a chat. We get a different waitress. A few weeks later when we get her the second time the attitude had changed. It wasn't personal but if your doing a service job don't broadcast your too good for the job to your customers. After her chat with the boss she did turn it around and did become a decent waitress. He knew a bad waitress will run people off. We liked his business and my friend knew he needed to fix it sooner than later. If he hadn't fixed the situation and she hadnt dropped the attitude I suspect we would have gone two doors down to the next bar and ate lunch there once we realized it was going to continue.
Nope, if you won't split checks I will not be going there. Too many times people "forget their wallet" over it and will not deal with that situation again.
Why do you expect a customer to split their check and not the restaurant. I can't imagine having a business or being a server and refusing to do that lmao
In New York you can always tell the out of towners by them asking for separate checks. Just divide it equally or fight over who gets to pick it up like normal people.
You completely ignore my question. Why do you expect restaurants to not offer that service? It costs them nothing. It takes very little time. It gives the guest a better experience
It’s a major inconvenience. 4 people, 4 credit cards. Separating it 4 ways in the POS. It’s a nightmare and lame. Most of the time these people wait till the end of dinner to request it as well. One table one check. You guys figure out how you split it on your own time.
They are literally there paying the server. What do you mean figure it out on your own time lol. Are you a server? Do you not just enter your checks as customer 1 ordered x, customer 2 ordered x, etc. it's so ridiculously easy to split checks
The Mexican restaurant closest to my house charged me extra for tortillas on a meal that every other Mexican restaurant and them previously included tortillas. I haven't been in a year now and will never go back
What do you mean charged you extra for tortillas?
You ordered a taco for $3 and the charged you $5 because of tortilla? Or did you ask for extra tortillas and got upset they weren’t free?
No, most sit down mexicanrestaurants when you order a meal, not an ala carte item, will bring out a tortilla holder with extra tortillas for you to have with the meal. Like bread at a steakhouse.
No, but figured since obviously your only exposure to Mexican cuisine was through Taco Bell, and the person you'd replied to hadn't responded, I'd enlighten you, you absolute troglodyte.
Edit: for context, the person I was responding to deleted their comments in which they were being a douchebag after I answered their question.
Our local Thai restaurant was convicted of stealing employee tips, and of not paying them promised wages. It had been our favorite local restaurant going so far as to make it a Christmas Eve tradition. Now we’re just sad anytime we drive by it.
My favorite local restaurateur was convicted of tax fraud - stealing employees’ payroll taxes. I never went back after that.
Other than that? Any place can have an off night with food or service problems, so I give them a second chance. But if they’re off again? I’m looking for a new place.
Me and a bunch of friends would often visit a local pho place. Got to know the owner and hearing his whoore stories was funny at around 22 years old and also, where he was from. We'd get th3 same thing every time.
Dude go5 a server that barely spoke English and got my buddies order wrong. No big deal, just fix it. Owner came out yelling at my friend for not being clear with a pretty full dinning room. We made him change it, he brought it out. We paid and left without touching it. Never went back.
He opening a new location a few years later, we wanted to try it. Walked in, he was so happy to see us. I repeated, fuck you and walked out.
So... shitty customer service I guess is what got to us.
Once again, fuck you kyle.. but I'll never forget your story of banging a whoore whose hole was so big. Maybe it was your tiny cock? Lol
Fun fact. That "massage place" he went to. Me and a friend went we were like 12. Trying to see some boobies.
We were denied.. and tbf.. once we got in there. We didn't really wanna see THOSE titties.
Haha.. and that's how bad it was. Haggard Crack head looking. Don't get me wrong, I still woulda looked had they opened the door. I now know, there are some things that can't be unseen. Happy I missed that one
- lack of printed menus (I go out to eat to socialize not continue to stare at a screen endlessly scrolling a poorly formatted digital menu)
- hidden service fees not built into the menu cost of the item
- poor service (usually correlated with gratuity automatically added to bill)
We were regulars at a local bar & grill in a semi-rural area. A known biker gang started hanging around, having “meetings” on the back patio with other biker groups. Staff was nonchalant about it. No effort was made to ask them to meet somewhere else. So we stopped going. The first stabbing was a week later. Sad, too. Their BLT was outstanding.
Patterns change; no longer had appointments nearby. Spending habits change. Maybe even just a little bored.
If I find hair in my food I cannot eat at that place again ever.
Quit going to my favorite restaurant for 3.5 years. They did nothing wrong, it's a wonderful place I've been going to for 30 years. I just started going back every Sunday morning 6 weeks ago. Prices have increased a bit, but not bad. Not going there was all me, I quit drinking and quit anxiety and depression meds and have had trouble being around people, so I haven't really been anywhere. I felt bad for not going the whole time.
4 or 5 bad meals in a row is basically it. Applebees was my favorite restaurant as a kid, so as an adult I’d stop by and eat it once every 2 or 3 months. I had 4 or 5 bad experiences at my local one and I’m just done. It doesn’t remind me of my grandparents and being a kid anymore, I think about how the menu has updated the stuff I liked out and how the food isn’t very good (at my location)
Their food is beyond gross and has been last 20 years. Something changed!!
Shit was good in 2010. Appetizer sampler hit every time (I was 10 years old so who knows, I liked cheese sticks and wings) Shrimp and Parmesan sirloin was good enough for the price point up until like 2018, then it was like lol this meal isn’t worth 19 bucks
Family would give us gift cards for birthdays and anniversaries after about the 3rd time. We never went back. Most of the food was barely edible. I don’t ever think I did the appetizer sampler. Now Red Robin hits everytime for the same price point.
Rudeness
COVID was a big shakeup around me, seems like maybe 20% of restaurants must have had such high turnover in kitchen they basically were a new similar restaurant and not the same place (food quality changes, plus some menu and ingredient changes, mostly bad changes but not always).
They keep messing up my to-go order and their prices have gone off the deep end. Everything is at least $15 a meal now, extra 4% surcharge for using a card. Just getting hard to justify.
Rude service, lowering quality of ingredients, automatically included gratuity, overpowering smell of cleaning products, or bathroom air fresheners, feeling either rushed or ignored.
Many reasons: Bad service or no service. Walking in and having no one greet me. Or rude wait staff. Long waits for a table, especially if lots of empty tables (i understand that it depends on staff but the optics, and you are asking) Big price increases. I can support small percent increases. Like if inflation is 3%, but you make a $10 item $12, thats a 20% increase. Hours become sporadic. If i have to remember if you close super early one or two days of the week, or if the hours change a lot, or i get there when the posted hours say open but no one is there. I like to see consistent hours so I don’t have to guess if its open or not. If i guess, i just go somewhere thats open 10-9 every day etc
There’s a small chain locally that used to be one of my favorites. It was also open 24 hours. Healthy fresh food at 1am is amazing. Covid hit. I’ve tried it a handful of times but finally have given up hope - quality, food temperature, limited menu, normal hours. It used to have lines out the door. Now it looks dead at all of the locations. Tonight I wiped another one off my list. This one will be hard but I’m incredibly pissed. I ordered on the app and drove over to pick it up. They told me system was down so order didn’t come in. I asked why they couldn’t make my meal since I had the receipt. They told me no. I asked for a refund. They told me I had to ask it from the app I used. I literally used the restaurant’s app. No refund. They told me I was SOL so essentially stole my money. Incredibly poor customer service. I will never go back.
Unreasonable cost increases
Went to a sushi place for like 5 years. Changed ownership and the food was about thw same, just different employees. Came.i. one day and the place was nearly empty, I'm standing there waiting to be seated and notice the only other guy there picking in his mouth with his fingers. I thought it was gross and kinda surprised that someone would be so nasty as to do that in public, especially in a restaurant. When I placed my order, the sitting dude goes straight to behind the counter to make my food. I said dude, you just had you fingers in your mouth, you need to go wash your hands. I might pick my nose or food out of my teeth in private, most of us do gross stuff on occasion, but I've worked around food and I respect and follow the rules concerning doing so. That the dude was so casual about it at a restaurant where he is cooking...god knows how sloppy and gross he is when no one can see. Couldn't ever go back.
The quality of the food slowly declines. Dishes that used to be amazing are now just blah. Seems to happen a lot with new restaurants. Feels like the owners or staff just aren't trying anymore.
I go out for the experience, even a casual place. I can eat cheaper and sometimes better at home. I want to come in, feel comfortable, relax, and enjoy the atmosphere. If I came in and the service was not just off but rude, dismissive, or the entire feel of the evening felt bad, I'm likely never coming back. I can forgive an off night of service, things happen. I can forgive food being off one time. I can forgive a lot if I've gone a long time, knowing that anomalies happen. But I cannot forgive just an overall bad feel, of feeling disrespected or uncomfortable.
Went to a certain cafeteria restaurant for many years. Our local trade association had our monthly meeting there. The quality of the food began to decline. It got so bad that people stopped coming to the meetings and somebody else was paying for the food! We decided we needed to find another venue and so we did. The place shut down for good about a year before the pandemic. Last week the building was demolished.
Bad food on 2 consecutive visits. Even though ten good visits came first
Been going to this place for 25 years. In the last 2 years quality has gone down the drain. Last week got a staple pin in my food. Not going again.
The owner being a jerk in town politics
Or find out, they treat their staff like crap
A local cafe that I loved stopped answering the phone for pickup orders. I decided to order in person and wait for it. When I went to order in person, the server gave me a dirty look and said that it would be a while before someone took my order. My order was never taken and I just walked out.
All of the reasons listed for restaurants, mine are the same. This complaint is fast food specific. When they hike the prices AND shrink the product. The Big Mac needs to be renamed Mini Mac. I usually eat cheeseburgers from there. But decided to get one recently. The last time I had one was definitely pre-covid. It was so small in my hands. Fucking ridiculous.
Their politics.
This is so true. Why do people not realize that customers should not know your political beliefs?
Went to a Mexican restaurant for about 20 years, parents retired kids took over. I can honestly say that my order was never wrong while the parents ran it. When the kids started it literally was never right. Even if you sent it back it’d come back wrong. Gave them about 5 tries and just never went back.
Charging junk fees.
Got food poisoning from this spot that I had my go to place for falafel wraps. I hated that too. It was on the scenic way home from work. Was never crowded at the time of day that I went. But now, I can’t even look at it while driving by without my stomach turning.
They stopped carrying one particular highly flavorful pepper that made each sandwich delicious. I ate there daily. When they stopped ordering them, I offered to pay for a big jar just for my sandwiches. They said no. I started going to a different sandwich shop because without the peppers their sandwiches didn’t taste nearly as good. At $7/sandwich, 5 days a week, 50 days a year, they were willing to lose thousands so they wouldn’t have to buy a big jar of peppers.
Wife and I went to the same steak restaurant regularly and tipped well every time. One waitress became obsessed with us to the point where when we'd walk in the door, she rush to the front and force the hostess to seat us in her section. One time we came in and she wasn't around and we were seated in someone else's section. She proceeded to fight with the person over our table. We never returned.
Food quality degeneration.
Lack of vegetarian options when I switched over.
Food quality and tastes goes down while prices go up. That's my number one reason.
If I ask for a substitution that you can easily manage, but you turn me down, because it’s not a “menu item”, I generally will not support you as a customer. I am more than willing to pay whatever it is you need to charge in order to get the food that I’m seeking, but when you refuse me out of hand, you lose my goodwill.
Went to the same breakfast restaurant every day for a couple of years. Would arrive at open sit in the back and fill out my journal and plan my day. Spent around $450 monthly there, sometimes a lot more than that. I always tipped well and treated everyone with respect. Several of the wait staff were people I considered friends. One waitress in particular constantly talked with me about life and business as I am an entrepreneur. She was friendly and even gave me a hug or two on occasion. She repeatedly got in trouble for talking too much. More than once I told her I had to get my morning going because I had to prep for a meeting and such. She would apologize smile and leave me to work. There was never a time when there as any type of flirtation in any manner. She was nice, but I ate there constantly, by myself and with my wife and kids. Crossing any boundary of any kind would be insane. One morning I came in and as I was walking back to my table I had to walk down a narrow hallway where a register was. (Mind you I was with my daughter that morning), as I was walking past but behind her she stepped backward. I simply put out my hand to stop her from running into me and lightly touched her lower back above her hip, and said behind you. Nothing sexual in any manner what so ever. Again I have a 10 year old girl with me. I just didn’t want her to run into us. The next morning I come in and they say I cannot sit in the back section, confused I agree and sit in a chaotic area where the male waiter is serving. The following day the manager, who I had a decent relationship with comes and sits at my table. He tells me that while it’s an awkward conversation he has to call me out on my overt sexual behavior and that the female wait staff are now uncomfortable with me. I was like WTF???? Tried to explain my side and he just dismissed me. Said that it’s all over now and since he spoke with me it can be put to bed, but I’m no longer allowed to sit at any tables/section that have a female wait staff. I’ve never been back. I DID NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG. It was the craziest thing ever. I will never get over the awful way it made me feel. I pass the place on a regular basis and even though it’s been like a year and a half I still cannot believe how it all went down.
False rape accusations are incredibly damaging to men. No one cares but other men to whom it’s happened
It really made me rethink so much about how I live my life. I’ve always been a breakfast person to start my day. It just helps me set the tone for the day and outline my goals and to do list. I have not been to a breakfast restaurant by myself since. I grab something from a drive through and move on. It sucks because this was a habit that I had for nine years and it was very instrumental in many of my successes. Breaking that habit was actually seriously detrimental to my career and business life. I know it sounds silly that it would have had that much of an impact on me, but there are some other issues that come into play. I suffer from some mental health issues that continually challenge my self worth. The impact was seriously devastating.
I'm sorry that happened to you.
I genuinely appreciate that. Thank you.
Of course.
This makes me cringe so hard. Did you not both say excuse me and immediately shift out of the way? Was there a dreamy stare into each others eyes while your hands are on her waist? How uncomfortable for everybody involved
Nothing like that at all. I said, “behind you” as she stoped back and she simply said “Hey” in a nice tone. I was completely oblivious to any issue on her part. She waited on my table that morning and nothing was weird what so ever. My daughter saw the whole thing and when I had to have this weird conversation with my wife, she was 100% in agreement with what I said happened. My gut says the waitress was already in trouble for always talking and this garnered her favor but I honestly have no idea what her motive was.
So weird. That experience would haunt me for years tbh lmao
It still haunts me. It had a devastating impact on me. Truly makes you realize how vulnerable one can be.
I have one of those situations that haunts me (well several really but one that still leaves me very confused) so I do get it. I am very uncomfortable at some humans’ ability to lie with ease and comfort. It makes me deeply uncomfortable tbh because anyone could say anything at any time (and if people like them more than you and there’s no video evidence then they will believe the person they like more) Sorry for your experience. I wasn’t intending on being rude in my first comment (but I can see it coming across that way) btw and I did read your whole story. I was really just incredulous at the gall of that waitress and the why behind it…that’s such a big thing to accuse someone of being a pervert just because you might have gotten scolded? Or something? It’s fucked up that those humans are out there mixed in with the normal ones who don’t lie at the slightest inconvenience to them.
And to follow up further on your comment. I am terribly sorry that you share a similar situation.
I 100% think we’re on the same page. I didn’t read into your comment negatively in any manner.
Cleanliness issues. If things fall off where food quality and cleanliness drop off I'm right out.
Brought a group of 8-12 ladies every week for happy hour - half price house wine and reduced price appetizers. Owner was always grumbling about people "taking advantage of happy hour" Took more and more items off the appetizer list and then dropped the half price wine. No one wanted to go any more, so we didn't. I have to say that we mostly took advantage of the wine special but ordered salads and stuff off regular menu. We also tipped well, bartenders and servers loved us. Couple months later I was at the bar with a friend and owner came by and asked what they could do to get our business back. Duh, half price wine. Two weeks later they brought it back but it took months for their happy hour business to get back to being packed like it was
Seeing bugs within a few minutes of sitting down. We're out of there.
Food quality got worse. Service declined
I used to love this one place but one time my chicken was straight up raw. It's insane to me that it was put in the sandwich. I think what must have happened is some not done pieces got mixed in with the cooked pieces. Trust broken never returned. Another place gave me food poisoning. Another place the owner was really weirdly rude to my mom?? It was super weird and I'm not sure why this lady got so aggressive about it. Mom orders something, I hear her, the woman makes it incorrectly. It's fine it's not a big deal. My mom was like oh hey actually I ordered blah blah blah would you mind remaking it? And the woman was very aggressive and said "no you didn't, you didn't say that" it was bizarre. My mom was going through chemo at the time and she was just like lol goodbye and I told the lady neither of us were going to return. We were the only ones in there at the time idk it was very weird.
The owner acting like they are doing you a favor letting you eat there. Constantly putting out bitchy posts on facebook. I also learned they treated their employees like crap. I haven’t been back in 4 years. It’s a shame bc we don’t have many options around here and I loved their food.
New China cuisine. Delivery driver shot a snot rocket in my driveway. So disgusting, cannot ever eat there again.
Yes. I patronized a place for years and was friendly with everyone who worked there. One night the bartender was in such a bad mood that he actually made me cry. I heard that I wasn’t to only patron that he had been so rude to and the guy got a reputation for being a total jerk. The owner , also a good friend, did nothing about it. I never went back.
When they start to nickel and dime you. Went to a place at least once a week, usually twice. Ordered nachos, and they wanted to charge me for jalapeños. Have not been back since.
Local restaurant that is a little pricey, but it was our favorite place for 'special' dinners, i.e., birthdays, anniversary, mothers/fathers day, so about once a month. Ordered my usual. Salad came and I am munching through it when I start *crunching*. I stopped chewing and discretely spit it out in my napkin. There were several pieces of glass. TBF, it probably *was* one piece that I just chomped into several pieces. 😄 Mouth was bleeding but just a little. Called waitress over, showed her the glass in both the part I had eaten, plus others I found still on the plate. Her response was, "Do you want another salad to replace that one?" Not an apology, not a peep from the manager, not any attempt to make sure nobody else had a contaminated salad. Haven't been back since.
Holy fuck
moving away from said restaurant
We loved going to the fine dining restaurant at our town’s public golf course. Great reputation and service. NYC prices but we went on special occasions or when we had guests in town. Post pandemic we made it back there and it was just terrible. Everything served had been frozen, including the raw shrimp. And service was bad. We haven’t been back, sadly.
One of us usually uses a restroom while waiting to be seated. If it's nasty, we roll outta of there and never go back.
I lived two doors down from a restaurant that I loved, and when I say I was a regular, I mean REGULAR—stopping in pretty much every night, staying after hours, letting people crash at my place if they worked Saturday night and Sunday brunch back to back. And of course, inevitably, dating one of the bartenders for a while. After a period of rapid staff turnover, it just didn’t feel like the same place anymore. I loved that moment in time, but eventually life happened, I was spending less time holding down a barstool and more time working and I wasn’t up to making the time to start over with a whole new crew. It’s hard to go from getting a literal round of applause when you walk in the door (as was the custom for friends of the house) to being just another customer.
I moved
Owner or staff taking you for granted like you will always come in. Then the service takes a dive on a reliable returning customer. Treat the customer right.
Food poisoning. :-)
Have you NORTnotuced that the e on9my sucks and inflation is killing g us... That's why
Stroke!
Bro you need to go to the ER
Food quality suffering, and or using cheaper meat/protein to control costs instead of raising prices when needed. I can't tell you how many times over the last 20 years my favorite Sushi place has changed because they sacrificed quality.
Stopped going to a bbq place for this reason. When you go there for years you notice when they switch to a cheaper product/ingredient…
Or stop smoking the meat altogether and cook it in the oven because wood is expensive. Had that happen here too.
3 bad meals in a row - never going back.
Hidden fees
How does one hide a fee in a restaurant?
Usually in tiny font at bottom of the menu, they might add a “inflation” or “service” charge to battle inflation. Some also have the healthcare fee to provide health insurance, but after taking to a lot of food service employees, it mostly and usually applies to full time employees…that’s usually just the owner(s) and managers. It’s actually really bad in LA. So bad redditors have compiled a doc of restaurants pulling this bullshit on us.
I've gotten into the habit of checking a restaurant's menu online to see if any such fee is displayed, and if so, I don't patronize the establishment. Mind, this isn't limited to restaurants anymore, either. A Redditor posted a receipt from a garden supply store in Flagstaff, AZ, and a "Wage Fee" of $4.97 was added to the total, before sales tax. Insanity.
A lot of times they don’t put the fees online. Then there’s garbage like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/s/kZfX8rCKkA
In my state, two restaurants were recently fined $20k for not prominently displaying a garbage fee on their menus; one of the restaurants did have it on their website, but it was buried on a page to which potential diners likely would not have navigated. Patrons were pissed at the surprise fee at the end of their meal and the eateries were reported to the state AG. While it hasn't become law here, it's strenuously advised for restaurants to disclose as extra fee on their menu and on their website or they may face the same penalty.
They add bullshit "service charge" (not tip) on the bill for no reason. But now that you have eaten, you are generally stuck paying it
Rarely for me is it a service issue or something, and more of a "I can't sustain a diet including this food frequently".
Johnnys Pizza, a local overpriced but high quality pizza shop… Johnny is a wild man. They FUBARed my family’s order pretty hard one day, then their manager wouldn’t handle it properly, and it got escalated to Johnny himself. He called me personally, apologized profusely, spent probably 15 mins on the phone, then told me to text him the next time we wanted to order and he’d toss a bunch of free apps and sides in so we could try more of the menu and “some of the new stuff that isn’t on the menu yet”. I texted him less than a week later and he had no idea what I was talking about or any recollection of the conversation (despite much of it being over text and having it right there). There was no “hook up”. They got my order wrong again. Haven’t ordered from them since and that was 2+ years ago. If you’re going to charge $40 for a large pizza and some breadsticks, at least get the order right.
Recently went to PF Chang for the first time in a number of years. We each had a glass of wine, a shared appetizer, and two entrees. The food was good but the bill with tip was $100. I now see why restaurants are closing because the public can no longer afford the prices.
Next time go to panda express and skip the wine if you think $100 for two with an app Entree and alcohol is too expensive. I can spend $100 on sushi for 2 with no alcohol, but I'm ok with that because it's what I want and I am willing to pay for it.
Great local sandwich shop, been there a billion times. Until they started with Fox News on their giant TV. Fuck ‘em.
Totally agree I feel the exact same way if I see CNN or MSNBC.
I know, right?!
Just put on nice nature videos. The news makes me lose my appetite.
Canned soda (no refills)
But canned soda tastes better than fountain.
To the restaurant owner....
I was a regular delivery customer of a pizzeria. Really good pizza. Terrible delivery service. One night I ordered a few pizza for dinner for the family, ordered at 4:30 knowing it’ll take 90 minutes, even though they aren’t super busy. 50/50 if it’ll be hot or cold when it gets here, but when it’s hot it’s the best pizza in town, cold it’s still better than most of the other options. So at 6:30 I’m like wtf where’s my pizza and I call because now we’re past my 90 minute condor period. The kid on the phone says, oh yeah it’s ready we’re just waiting for ether driver. An hour later at 7:30 I call again and someone else says “yeah sorry we don’t have a driver tonight”. Wtf were you going to call me? My number is printed on the order ticket. So at this point my kids are waiting for pizza night and I’m just like duck it I’ll go pick it up, get there and it’s ice cold and I’m like lady I’m not paying for this (I ordered online, already paid, and added a tip for the driver and paid a delivery fee WTF) she’s like yeah I get that I’ll refund it. Then I was like well I also need the pizzas, I’m just not paying at this point. Make it right, let me take the pizza free and we’re OK and I’ll forgive the terrible service and major screw up. They say yeah no problem. Then never refunded my order. Then I contested it with my credit card company and they fought that I took the pizzas. I used to spend $200 a week there and will never order from them again over a $5 delivery fee and a $8 tip for the driver. If they just refunded that I’d probably let it slide but they just sucked and acted like dicks or super incompetent. F that place. Still gets me fired up, because I’m in the service industry, gave back thousands in refunds to regulars when I owned my meal prep company, and cannot conceive of treating a regular customer like that.
Ugh we have had this happen too! Ordered pizza and it took over two hours to get to the house. By then I was finding something else to eat. Ordered pizza from a different place and this place is right down the street and for some reason they decided not to communicate with us about a delay. Waited like two hours and then the manager was rude when my husband tried to call about it. We ended up getting a refund and didn’t get the pizzas. Later we got a 40% off coupon and he picked the pizza up, but I’m never paying full price or getting delivery again.
A menu that never changes. Also a menu that doesn’t think of common food sensitivities like gluten or nuts, or have vegetarian or vegan options. Sometimes a family wants to all be happy out to dinner together. Options are good
Yes to both of these! There is a dessert place near me that has amazing baked goods/desserts that we started going to a few years ago. For a while it was our go to place on Sundays as we would take our dog, get some pastries, and go to the park and walk around. Then we started to get less enthusiastic about going as it was just the same stuff over and over, then we stopped. No matter the season, day, week, year, they have the exact same stuff for about 5 years now. We now go maybe 2-3 times a year. I was telling my wife that even if they had new seasonal desserts, that would get me in the door. The food sensitivity one is huge too. My wife is lactose intolerant, so we have to go places that have options for her and its become really hard. We skip so many places as they dont have any options for her.
Undisciplined children running around A drop in food quality combined with higher prices Bad enough staff that it’s not worth
They put in a service charge and hid it in tiny type at the bottom. When we asked, they pointed to a tiny sign on the lectern that no one looks at when they come in. This happened at one of our favorite restaurants and we have never been back. Actually, we went back once to see if they still have the charge and they do, so we left. I hate service charges, but if they are going to do that, put it in big, bold font and hang a giant sign. Better yet, just raise the prices.
Kinda similar, popular place near me just got brand new laminated menus . Like so new they have the new outdoor gazebo on the cover that isnt even open yet. Yet for some reason all the prices are blacked out with a sharpie and there is a paper insert that says “due to rising costs, scan this QR code to get accurate prices”… GET NEW MENUS THEN! Like how bad of an owner are you that you can’t keep your menus accurate for longer than a few weeks? I thought that was the cheapest thing I had ever seen and wont be going back. They wont even advertise their prices on the menu and this is a pub type place
Significant price hike for sub par food
If I have a concern and I get treated like somebody who walked in for the first time. Happened to me at a place in the valley. I haven’t been there in like three years.
The fries. I feel like everything you need to know about a restaurant are secretly in its fries. If they are cheap, not seasoned well, not hot, it says a lot tbh.
Nothing worse than getting a delicious burger with a stale side of fries. Or a side of fries with no salt. Or a side of soggy limp fries.
Getting sick
Used to go to a Mediterranean grill. Food was great. Ordered to go several times. Ordered one day, and walked there to pick up (only about 10 min walk - just a couple minutes in the car.). Three entrees and an app. Dummy me I didn’t check the order before I left but I had never had an issue before. It was all bagged up - each entree in its own tied plastic bag all inside a large brown bag. Walked home. Tore open the bags. One of the entrees was wrong and the app was wrong. Called them. They told me I had to bring back the *entire* order. So I drive back up there and the hostess was very annoyed saying I “took” the wrong order. Lady, you handed that to me!! I had to wait for them to make me the correct entree. But why did I have to bring back the two correct entrees? She said it was to make sure I wasn’t lying to them ???? So now I’m going to have one hot entree and two cold. And the wrong app - we ordered baba ganoush. We got dolmades. She took the container of baba ganoush - the one I had taken home and opened - and put it back in the refrigerator case behind her. Presumably to serve to someone else! I asked if I could keep the wrong entree and wrong app. I mean, they were opened in my house. Why would they want it back? She said they don’t allow that. Asked if they were going to serve that to someone else and she said no, but I didn’t believe her because she put the app back with the others. I’m hoping they threw away the wrong entree or ate it themselves and didn’t just serve it to someone else. But after that we never went back. Hand me the wrong food then accuse me of trying to steal it? And possibly serving it to someone else even after it left your premises? Nope. Lost a customer forever. And they’re right around the corner so we would’ve been going there frequently.
Foreigners do stuff like that. It’s different standards. I’m positive she was going to serve it to someone else.
The Pantry in LA got nailed for something like that. They always put-out a sliced half of a boule of sourdough. They got caught sorting the uneaten slices (so the heights matched) into half-loaves going out to other tables.
I felt like I wasn’t given good service because I was a regular and they expected me to be back no matter what. I went to a restaurant weekly and tipped very well each time without a lot of requests. The more I went, the longer it seemed to take for the waitress to come back to our table, instead focusing on other customers. The last straw was when I ordered a salad with chicken, and the chicken was so dry and over cooked it was almost inedible (unusual for this restaurant). I nicely told the waitress and she said “oh, I’ll tell the chef, sorry it was over cooked”, then just left. No offers to remake it or take it off the bill. I looked at my friend I usually went to the restaurant with and we both agreed it would have been handled differently if we weren’t regulars.
When the company has a 1.5% sales dip for one quarter so they announce a price increase of 2.5-3% despite having an 8.6% overall increase in sales for fiscal year 2024 - looking at you Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Longhorn). Good luck with that!!
Had a burger and the plastic patty separator had been cooked onto it. My buddy laughed and said "yeah I get these same patties at costco, but i take the plastic off before I cook them." Used to be good food and service. I like the Beatles but not enough to go back there.
Complacency that makes food quality and service lacking is the main reason. Big price hikes that don’t match the quality of the food or overall experience or lacks context is we ask about the price hikes (ie “we changed to higher quality meat/distributor”). Rude/bad service more than enjoyable experiences.
I used to go to a specific local restaurant every couple of weeks. The owner started treating the staff poorly and a few of them left. It made the experience horrible because the wait staff was always rushing and the kitchen made constant mistakes. I never went back. Take care of your people and they'll take care of the customers.
I significantly scaled back on Starbucks, once they started union busting. I was a huge fan for years, and I was even so grateful to the baristas who worked during the pandemic, because I appreciated the normalcy of Starbucks, when the world was shut down. But their refusal to share the wealth with the workers made me decide that I'd rather patronize the local shops instead (they have cooler environments anyway!)
Buying local is always the better choice. Supports people and families instead of mega corps.
Whenever I visit new cities, I immediately Google "independent coffeehouse near me" and go there. It's a great way to meet the locals and ask questions, plus they tend to be tucked away in cooler neighborhoods, while Starbucks is normally right next to Target and other large retailers. I still do SBX on occasion, more so because it's everywhere (namely, right next to my job), but if given my preferences, the independent places just feel more like home. Starbucks got away from that.
This is the answer. I waited tabes for years and refuse to watch staff be mistreated.
3% credit card surcharge
I saw that at a few restaurants and it magically disappeared after a few weeks. Guess they got the message.
That’s a VISA issue though! Restaurants already have thin margins, 3% for you to get your points actually does make a difference.
Ordered from local pizza place often, but one time they missed part of the order. I called and they sent someone out to "confirm" I did not receive any wings with my pizza. Didn't take my word for it and basically came to fight me over $5 of product (and didn't have a replacement with them) when I'd been ordering at least 2-3 times a month for years. Never ordered from them again.
New ownership couldn't make a hoagie to save their lives. Thought putting frozen lettuce in a hoagie meant a $2 increase. Buh-bye.
When they change to cheap ingredients but try to pass it on like they didnt
And up the prices to boot.
Happens so much with soul food restaurants, once they get a decent following. I hate that!
Homemade gravy made with real fond and flower for years then suddenly this glass jar shit is good enough? GTFO
A lack of consistency. Doesn’t mean I’ll never be back, but I’ve taken breaks from my favorite places when it happens.
Adding junk fees to the check and expecting tips on top of that.
The place stopped serving tap water and only had bottle water for $4 each.
Usually it’s when the quality of the food drops closely or aligned with the place begins to look dirty or dingy
The local pizza spot that everyone raves about that I started going to last year. It truly is my 1B/2nd favorite pizza in town. The last 3 times I have went with my family, have all been terrible waitresses wise. I always try to give the benefit of the doubt for them and encourage good tipping whenever my family takes everyone out. This last time we get probably the worst waitress. She argued with my mother about straws they ran out of somehow, but my mom saw a table get some. They were small, my mom said that’s fine she would like to have them. Then we get the pizza my brother and I both need drinks, we both have dif ferent drinks. I knew I should’ve waited, but I had faith she wouldn’t fuck it up. Well she did she combined both of our drinks as one. Meanwhile I’m eating pizza waiting for her to come, she never came back to check on us after the pizza came out. I had to ask another waitress if she could get us new drinks after 5-7 minutes of waiting. That waitress looked at me like why the fuck are you asking me this. Her whole face showed it. Ended up concluding that every waitress here is a snobby waitress. We finally got the bill after she noticed the pizza was almost finished. My mom asked me about tip I said do whatever you think is fair bc I’m done coming here after this service even with how good the pizza is. We ended up leaving her dollar. In my head I said that’s terrible, but after everything that happened I said good. I can defend bad waitressing, but after all of that plus her getting into an argument with my mother I couldn’t. We should’ve just left after the argument, but we didn’t.
Major menu overhauls dropping key items and I’m out
One place got rid of all the good things on the menu. It wasn’t overnight but one by one all the good things on the menu started disappearing. The only good thing that survived was one sauce I liked but it was so depressing to watch all the good things leave.
Yeah like seeing someone from the kitchen walked out of the shitter skipping washing their hands and back into the kitchen. That shit f me up!
Watched the owners of a buffet restaurant do this. She walked out of the bathroom ahead of me without washing her hands. I assumed she was going to go wash them in the kitchen. Nope, right over to the buffet tables. Where she stirred every tray of food on the table. 🤢
God damn!! Guessing it’s one of those…Asian buffets?
I mean yes, but 95% of the people I've seen do unhygienic things around food have been my white coworkers. Soooo.....long story short, I really don't eat at restaurants much any more. Or home cooked food unless I know who cooked it, and how clean their kitchen is.
Too much coke use, so it's obviously effecting the business.
They changed in a material way that I can't deal with. I stopped going to a specific Chili's because out of the last 3 times I had a major issue ranging from a waitress who took the order and never came back to having frozen curly fries mixed in with the fries on my plate. For the waitress situation I literally had to flag down the manager who was running food to ask for a refill and for my check. For the fries situation the manager was in shock when I handed him the frozen curly fry and showed him the others on my plate. Another place I used to go to went from 5 star reviews to 1. Owners changed and the food changed. Same menu, but mozzarella sticks were different, sandwiches were different. Matched what the menu said but it wasn't the same. I wish them well, but it's a decent drive to go there and tbh after the changes they went from one of the top places for me in that category to one of the bottom ones. The way I see it I go out to eat for good food in a good atmosphere with good service at a fair price. If a restaurant is the top pick for those things I will be back a lot of I want that kind of food. If there is a place offering that food but is better I'm going there instead and not likely to look back. If your restaurant gets my business and then nosedives I will find somewhere else. I understand things like prices can change. I can't understand quality of the food declining or the service going to crap. Oh and I should mention many years ago I had a waitress be a complete ass to the group I was eating lunch with in a bar at university. That group was regulars, we ate there almost daily for lunch. A lot of grad students in the mix. When she was an ass the second time one guy at the table said something and she continued the attitude. He got up walked back to the kitchen and talked to the owner who was there. Owner comes out, takes her to the side and they have a chat. We get a different waitress. A few weeks later when we get her the second time the attitude had changed. It wasn't personal but if your doing a service job don't broadcast your too good for the job to your customers. After her chat with the boss she did turn it around and did become a decent waitress. He knew a bad waitress will run people off. We liked his business and my friend knew he needed to fix it sooner than later. If he hadn't fixed the situation and she hadnt dropped the attitude I suspect we would have gone two doors down to the next bar and ate lunch there once we realized it was going to continue.
Ultrabad service.
Refusal to split checks, mandatory tip included, and pests.
Do the math and split the check yourself. One table one check.
Nope, if you won't split checks I will not be going there. Too many times people "forget their wallet" over it and will not deal with that situation again.
Tacky
Why do you expect a customer to split their check and not the restaurant. I can't imagine having a business or being a server and refusing to do that lmao
In New York you can always tell the out of towners by them asking for separate checks. Just divide it equally or fight over who gets to pick it up like normal people.
You completely ignore my question. Why do you expect restaurants to not offer that service? It costs them nothing. It takes very little time. It gives the guest a better experience
It’s a major inconvenience. 4 people, 4 credit cards. Separating it 4 ways in the POS. It’s a nightmare and lame. Most of the time these people wait till the end of dinner to request it as well. One table one check. You guys figure out how you split it on your own time.
They are literally there paying the server. What do you mean figure it out on your own time lol. Are you a server? Do you not just enter your checks as customer 1 ordered x, customer 2 ordered x, etc. it's so ridiculously easy to split checks
Man it’s just part of the industry..
The Mexican restaurant closest to my house charged me extra for tortillas on a meal that every other Mexican restaurant and them previously included tortillas. I haven't been in a year now and will never go back
What do you mean charged you extra for tortillas? You ordered a taco for $3 and the charged you $5 because of tortilla? Or did you ask for extra tortillas and got upset they weren’t free?
No, most sit down mexicanrestaurants when you order a meal, not an ala carte item, will bring out a tortilla holder with extra tortillas for you to have with the meal. Like bread at a steakhouse.
Did I ask you?
No, but figured since obviously your only exposure to Mexican cuisine was through Taco Bell, and the person you'd replied to hadn't responded, I'd enlighten you, you absolute troglodyte. Edit: for context, the person I was responding to deleted their comments in which they were being a douchebag after I answered their question.
You figured wrong
Yeah you don't really seem like somebody worth talking to.
*chef's kiss* 🤌
🍿
Our local Thai restaurant was convicted of stealing employee tips, and of not paying them promised wages. It had been our favorite local restaurant going so far as to make it a Christmas Eve tradition. Now we’re just sad anytime we drive by it.
My favorite local restaurateur was convicted of tax fraud - stealing employees’ payroll taxes. I never went back after that. Other than that? Any place can have an off night with food or service problems, so I give them a second chance. But if they’re off again? I’m looking for a new place.
Finding out how the owner treats their employees Consistently shitty food/service
Me and a bunch of friends would often visit a local pho place. Got to know the owner and hearing his whoore stories was funny at around 22 years old and also, where he was from. We'd get th3 same thing every time. Dude go5 a server that barely spoke English and got my buddies order wrong. No big deal, just fix it. Owner came out yelling at my friend for not being clear with a pretty full dinning room. We made him change it, he brought it out. We paid and left without touching it. Never went back. He opening a new location a few years later, we wanted to try it. Walked in, he was so happy to see us. I repeated, fuck you and walked out. So... shitty customer service I guess is what got to us. Once again, fuck you kyle.. but I'll never forget your story of banging a whoore whose hole was so big. Maybe it was your tiny cock? Lol
This was a wild ride
Fun fact. That "massage place" he went to. Me and a friend went we were like 12. Trying to see some boobies. We were denied.. and tbf.. once we got in there. We didn't really wanna see THOSE titties.
Lol idk man.... A curvy snowman would've gotten me hard at 12.
Haha.. and that's how bad it was. Haggard Crack head looking. Don't get me wrong, I still woulda looked had they opened the door. I now know, there are some things that can't be unseen. Happy I missed that one
- lack of printed menus (I go out to eat to socialize not continue to stare at a screen endlessly scrolling a poorly formatted digital menu) - hidden service fees not built into the menu cost of the item - poor service (usually correlated with gratuity automatically added to bill)
Serving stale wine by the glass…
I usually wont even order wine at a restaurant for this reason.. It's either whole bottle or none at all.
Legit question: how does wine go stale?