All in good fun, SoBeTraveller.....

And I WILL admit that if I'm still given a hard time after being *extremely civilized* ......... well, I can raise it a *few* octaves!!!!!;-)

... lol, my partner needs to talk to you and learn!!! Have a good one!

I'll give everyone a reason not to get offensive about poor service or food. I put my way through college partly by working as a restaurant cook. You have no idea what cooks and wait staff will do to sabotage a complainer's food. I never did it or actually saw it but some "complainers" will get their food back with spit in it. Its done while no one is watching because of the fear of being caught and fired. Unless you want to be french kissing the waiter or the sweaty cook, keep it poite!

jor,

I was just about to say the same thing. I NEVER send anything back, except an obviously spoiled bottle of wine because the somellier WILL want to know. I've heard about and seen it, not just in low end chains but high end restaurants too. If something is seriously wrong I'll just accept it. If the manager comes by and asks how it was, I'll tell the truth, knowing that I will never eat another thing out of that place again.

And it's not just cooks spitting in food, drinks can be stirred with something other than a swizzle stick.

God only knows what I may end up eating......... but I will never eat a tough, cold prime rib or finish a piece of pie with a hair in it!!!:-> Good grief, Loki, don't put pictures in our heads..........

This is a fun thread to wake up to!

Some thigns just hit me as being funny - "tired apples". I never complain to the wait staff about tired apples. After all, it's the apples that are tired, not the wait staff! LOL!

Guess it's a family thing. We hardly ever complain. I can't remember the last time any of us complained about anything. If the food is bad, we just don't eat it. That should be enough of a message to the kitchen. And, we don't go back to that restaurant again. Plenty of restaurants around.

We do ask for things, which is different from complaining, in my book. If the water for the tea comes lukewarm, we will politely ask for HOT water, please. If there are utensils, napkin, place serving missing, we will politely point it out. Wait staff will very happily correct the situation and we all carry on happily ever after.

Maybe, too, it's because we have our favorite restaurants and our favorite wait staff. We are routinely offered "free" drinks/desserts in some of these places and we routinely give the server a "special" tip for those "freebies". A little grease goes a long way to making it a fine dining experience - greasing in both directions!

Here's hoping your next dining experience turns out to be a great one!

Years ago, listening to the Howard Stern radio show, Stern invited callers who had been cooks or waitresses to call in and tell their stories regarding revenge for complaining customers. Some of the stories were not appetizing. Even Stern was shocked and outraged by some of the stories. Lesson- Be WARY if you are a picky complainer. Customers like RandyK are prime victims of restaurant staff revenge. I am sure he has been on the receiving end of something he shouldn't have.

jor, a personal question- How did you go about learning to be a professional cook? I might want to make a midlife transition and would like to know how one becomes a cook.

Shane: Check out The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY to get an idea of what a professional chef school is all about.

Just a second on Shane's sage advice. One of my first jobs was in a high-end restaurant and I've seen cases of revenge first-hand. A few were so disgusting I couldn't describe them here without getting my Fodor's account yanked. But to give just one minor example, I once saw a cook wiping down a filthy toilet with a $40 filet mignon.

No one can be blamed for complaining about bad food or service, but there are definitely right ways and wrong ways to do it.

DISGUSTING!!!!

There should be video cameras in the kitchens!

I am definitely the enforcer out of the two of us. As my huband likes it, he is the bread winner and everything else is my responsibility. Traditional, yes, and it works well in our case. I try not to ever be unkind unless a situation is really bad, then hubby walks away and leaves me there to fend for myself out of embarassment (this doesn't happen too often thankfully).

But I NEVER send food back. I've too heard the horror stories and FIL tells us stories of what he did to his superiors that complained when he was in the Army.

My husband and I are on the same page that OliveOyl and her husband are on. I can't remember the last time either one of us complained about anything.