Hope everyone had a beautiful holiday weekend!
Last night, my family and I headed to Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ for our belated family Christmas dinner. How was it? See for yourself below…
warm biscuit with apple butter...amazing.
my dinner, the two meat combo...beef brisket, beef tri tip, and mac and cheese. mac and cheese, good. beef brisket, heaven. beef tri tip,....(can I inject a potty word in here?)
Le sigh, everything from the delicious fluffy warm biscuits with apple butter, the gooey heavenly mac and cheese, to the melt in your mouth beef brisket was perfection. BUT when it came to that beef tri tip, it was terrible. It was so dry and tough that it was impossible to chew gracefully (ie. like a classy lady :). It felt like eating a really bad stale piece of jerky…it was that disgusting.
Do you guys ever send food back?
I’m such a food lover, and I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’ve NEVER sent anything back to the kitchen before.
Later that night, my boyfriend called and I asked him if he’s ever returned food and he brought up a very valid point. He has a criteria. If it’s dinner at a posh place, then yes. Perfection is a necessity. But if it’s a hole-in-the-wall type of joint, then you just go along with your meal. I agree on both points.
Furthermore, if I were to ever return something I would make sure to ask for something different. I hope they don’t practice this, but I wouldn’t want to have to send it back to only get the same dish 5 minutes later.
In my situation, since Lucille’s is in the moderate price range (my meal was around $25) what do you think I should have done??? What would you do? Since I was with my family, I would feel comfortable returning it. Same case if I was with my boyfriend. But under social circumstances, that’s the dilemma…
So my question to you is…
What’s proper dining etiquette when it comes to unsatisfactory food and if one should have it sent back or not? Also what would you do if you find something unsightly in your meal (ex. hair, we’ve all had it happened at least once in our lifetime lol)? Or are you super sassy and have no problems pulling a Gordon Ramsay? :)
xoxo, kat
ps. Check out my previous rave about Lucille’s here!
pps. This was a different Lucille’s that I went to with my family than the one mentioned above :)
she cooks, he eats 
Early Happy New Year ~ Belated Merry Christmas! I’m pretty much in agreement with your boyfriend – if your paying $50+ for an entree it has to be right and I would send it back – if its your everyday restaurant chain or hole in the wall- I don’t send it back either! Very rarely have I ever had to send something back in a quality restaurant but I would if I was paying big money. In your case, since other items on the plate were good I would have done what you did….ate the good stuff and skipped the tri-tip and not complained.
Let me ask you this: How would the restaurant ever know if something was not good if you do not send it back? I would have returned it and asked for them to bring me something other than tri-tip. Not enough folks stand up and say “hey this is not good, or right or whatever…” and just like the fruit cake, how would they know that something is unsatisfactory?
We went to upscale Buca di Beppo, which is a family style Italian restaurant, where dinners are family style. We had a platter of rigatoni, and there was a metal sliver in the food, which made it into my mouth. I was lucky that I didn’t cut myself or swallow it! The restaurant made me feel like it was my fault that this was in my food, and only gave us credit for the one dish rather than the meal. Dinner was done for all of us at that point. We had lots of food sitting on the table. The restaurant was even more absurd when they asked us if we wanted to take the food, including the rigatoni home! Black X on that place!
Again, send it back. Hugs to you Kat! –B
I don’t usually send food back, BUT if I was paying big bucks for a meal then I would.
I always like to give a place an opportunity to improve… but I’d never ask for a refund or new meal at a mom & pop type place. If they offer it, however, they’ve proven to me that they are worth another trip.