Have you ever permanently left a Restaurant?

[MakeDigitalLove]

In my experience I would see people say this all the time but they eventually came back anyway.

But what experience did you have that just made you stay away even when it was a chain?

There is a place around here that it was just problems over the course of a few times of being there, the last time we went to this place it took over and hour to receive a grilled cheese and a cheese burger. We left before the food even came.

 

[rareboy]

Many, many, many times.

I have a very low tolerance for sloppy service, really slow service, badly prepared food and bad attitude.

With some of the chains, there was this whole push about a decade ago to get people into the bar for a drink and create long waiting lines even when the tables were not nearly filled. That ended ever going to many of these.

If we are ignored by servers for more than 10 minutes, I will speak to the manager. And then give the place one more try. Often we find it is bad staff training and indicative of poor service and food quality.

We have some favourite Indian and Italian restaurants where we know it takes a longer time in the kitchen to create really fresh dishes, but the staff is always refreshing drinks, getting appetizers out quickly and just letting you know you aren't forgotten.

And if the attitude is bad....never again. Shirty managers and servers mean that we just won't bother. Invariably most of these restaurants don't last long anyway.

Life is too short to waste it in bad restaurants.

 

[TickTockMan]

Just once. An omlette place here in town.

 

[eastofeden]

Yes..alot actually.....

The restaurants I do go to....usually been in business for 50-75 years.....and there is a reason for that...

Omelettes are one of my favorite foods.....and I like someone else to make them..so I know where to find good Omelettes in Silicon Valley. My go to restaurant..always has a line..privately owned since the 1950s...fresh squeezed OJ...many chefs preparing omelettes and they are on your table in 5 minutes cooked to perfection....and there are only two other restaurants I will get omelettes at...both independent...not chains.

With chains...I usually stop going for a specific reason and over the years... have an aversion to most of them. I like Black Bear Diner though...there are alot of them...but I think it is just a California or West Coast Chain. I like them because they get it.

Places like Red Lobster I have never been even though seafood is my favorite above anything...but I can go to Moss Landing or Monterey or Santa Cruz or San Francisco easily and eat at a restaurant on the ocean with fresh seafood and much better ambiance because I like privately owned places. The reason I mention that...I used to try seafood places alot because I like seafood...and I mostly never went back to them...unless they are excellent I don't want to bother. Fish and Chips mostly make me gag...the coating alone..yuck. If I get fish and it is fried I want the thinnest layer of coating possible....I hate restaurants that don't get that. I also like to smell the ocean

I am picky about Chinese too....

Some are so bad..they think rolling crap in alot of dough and making is sickeningly sweet is a good thing..I never go back to those places. I like the 4 and 5 star places

I also usually stop going or only go once to any restaurant that is beefcentric...and I can smell beef in the air. I really hate the smell of beef and lamb....makes me queasy and I really need to get up and leave..even at people's houses...I have excused myself before but I lie about why.

 

[Latimer]

Yes. I was at the house of friends yesterday who had just gotten back from Tokyo where they recounted that every place they ate from high to low was wonderful, as opposed to Los Angeles. The wife then began listing the restaurants in town they would never eat in again--restaurants of some reputation--and her list was the same as mine. Some combination 2 out of 3 of mediocre food, bad service and too noisy was the killer. There were more than a few notable restaurants on the list.

 

[eastofeden]

Many, many, many times.

I have a very low tolerance for sloppy service, really slow service, badly prepared food and bad attitude.

With some of the chains, there was this whole push about a decade ago to get people into the bar for a drink and create long waiting lines even when the tables were not nearly filled. That ended ever going to many of these.

If we are ignored by servers for more than 10 minutes, I will speak to the manager. And then give the place one more try. Often we find it is bad staff training and indicative of poor service and food quality.

We have some favourite Indian and Italian restaurants where we know it takes a longer time in the kitchen to create really fresh dishes, but the staff is always refreshing drinks, getting appetizers out quickly and just letting you know you aren't forgotten.

And if the attitude is bad....never again. Shirty managers and servers mean that we just won't bother. Invariably most of these restaurants don't last long anyway.

Life is too short to waste it in bad restaurants.

Ooohh...bad service pisses me off. I don't give them a second chance though unless it is a restaurant I have already fallen in love with and had good experiences...

Sorry..but a badly trained person is a reflection of the restaurant.

 

[Charon]

If the food turns out to be a rip-off, I think to myself "Okay, I'm never coming back here ever again."

 

[nycguydowntown]

what rareboy said-----I was a waiter in college so I give some leeway ---BUT I'm not a fucking fool--

Went to an expensive place in a town upstate I have a house with my two best friends----we had a great experience ---
So when my friend from LA came to visit with his bf ---the 4 of us went back---it was by far the worst experience I ever had---it was like the gay waiter didn't want to wait on us and we are fucking nice people---we spent 500 dollars and we had to ask for everything---I'm talking about dropping a plate in front of us and walking away ---we had to ask for forks, spoons, water everything--I wanted to bunch the homo in his face at one point----never went back ---NEVER WILL--and the owner knows us and should have said something but she turned out to be a cunt too.

 

[MakeDigitalLove]

I should add, have any of you guys written bad reviews or got into contact with higher management before?

I wrote a bad review on yelp for a different place that is right down the block from us because the food was cold, service was bad and the portions weren’t even big enough for garden gnomes. Plus, it was a $30+ breakfast, nothing else. Just two breakfast plates. That’s the first and only time I’ve ever written a bad review for a place.

 

[rareboy]

I usually can't be bothered to write a review, but I have written to the owners or to upper management on a couple of occasions.

 

[eastofeden]

I should add, have any of you guys written bad reviews or got into contact with higher management before?

I wrote a bad review on yelp for a different place that is right down the block from us because the food was cold, service was bad and the portions weren’t even big enough for garden gnomes. Plus, it was a $30+ breakfast, nothing else. Just two breakfast plates. That’s the first and only time I’ve ever written a bad review for a place.

Well...I kinda feel like I have lived five different lives in this lifetime...I like evolving..and the one when I was 20-25...EEK! I think at that time..I was fed up with taking other people's shit....going way back...and most of it I never had a choice..so when I realized I now had a choice..if you were waiting on me and started giving me an attitude...watch the fuck out...I was scary....

...and if it was because I was gay...I would have your ass..and that is just what I did when I woke up the Dennys District Manager in the middle of the night. This waitress decided she didn't like us because my flamboyant friend was there in our group...and I got in her face...in her manager's face...he got scared and gave me the district managers phone #

I got an apology and a gift certificate....

I also got a free washer and dryer from Gemco.....a set of drapes and a gift certificate from Montgomery Wards...a basket of free groceries from Alpha Beta (or maybe it was Luckys)...all because of bad service and an attitude....

Even now...I will no longer say anything or make a fuss but if someone gives me attitude for no reason...I just stare them right in the eyes and tell them to fuck off without saying a word. They get nervous..and they should.

Why? If I go somewhere..I am always well behaved and decent and I don't put anything on anyone...and I expect the same in return.

Who the fuck wants to deal with some random stranger whose job it is to serve you and have them dish out their toxic crap...fuck them

 

[Latimer]

I sometimes criticize on Open Table but it's always preceded by praise. If I really don't like a place I don't write anything--with one exception: on Trip Advisor I once commented that the most famous pizza restaurant in Naples isn't as good as any number of more pleasant places. I once defended a restaurant, again in Naples, that had come in for what I thought was unfair criticism.

 

[Alistair]

I contacted Donato's pizza corporate. If the franchise would have just been honest and told me they missed my order when I showed up to pick up my pizza, everything would have been fine. But to tell me it will be a couple more minutes and then leave me sitting there for 30 minutes is a no go. After I actually got the pizza the crust was burnt, and they still charged me full price. It was the first and only time I tried them.

 

[G-Lexington]

Technically, all of them, if you think about it.

Lex

 

[LeicsDom]

In my experience I would see people say this all the time but they eventually came back anyway.

But what experience did you have that just made you stay away even when it was a chain?

There is a place around here that it was just problems over the course of a few times of being there, the last time we went to this place it took over and hour to receive a grilled cheese and a cheese burger. We left before the food even came.

Of course. Many times
Bad service or bad food will always make me boycott not only a single restaurant but and entire chain
I was with friends in Pizza Express. One guy go food poisoning from a chicken salad. We have none of us ever returned to a Pizza Express

 

[Telstra]

I don't go to restaurants in the first place.
I'm not willing to pay over priced meals unless someone else pay for it !!!

 

[zoltanspawn]

I've only sworn off a single restaurant due to their breathtakingly bad service. It's a neighborhood Japanese place owned by an American who spent time in Okinawa and who is a mostly good cook. I overlooked her public passion for Ayn Rand (which she notifies her new hirees about before offering them a job) because of her blue cheese-kimchi croissants. But she gets off on being as inhospitable as possible, and knowing a thing or two about accommodating the public, that just rubs me the wrong way. If she wasn't hugely interested in being a bitch, she could have made the small change we requested in the restaurant empty save for us.

But, considering things from the other side of the dining room, the sheer magnitude and depth of shitty behavior I've experienced from customers dwarfs that from restaurant staff. Like, by mountains. Although I've only 86'd customers a handful of times due to their abusive behavior, there is at least daily someone who is dazzlingly rude to the staff. It's amazing what a little fiefdom people can make for themselves because they are dining.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Many times. Of the chains, anything owned by Landry's deserves censure.

Any local or chain restaurant that calls a crepe an omelette (many, MANY restaurants now do not even bother having omelette pans, and attempt making them on an open griddle -- impossible.)

I have written many reviews, both good and bad, for restaurants and other businesses. I have contacted owners before, as often the manager is the reason the restaurant is failing, as his low standards are what enable the shitty food/service/whatever.

As posted many times, I am a generous tipper, but I am also relentless when being shafted, and never accept the premise that the staff are doing me some favor by merely waiting on me or allowing me to eat their food. It doesn't matter if it is low or high cuisine, it should be right, served with courtesy and basic service, and good to eat. No fawning, no snobbery, no insolence.

 

[TickTockMan]

Of the chains, anything owned by Landry's deserves censure.

May I ask what is so bad about them? I wanted to try their prime rib place in Vegas , but dinner is like $150 to $200 a person and I refuse to pay that.

 

[seven2go]

I always give a place three chances.
I violated my rule once with Culvers.
I was disappointed the first time getting a very dry and overdone cheese burger.
The second time was for a fish sandwich which could have been wonderful if not totally lacking in taste.
The third time was a chicken dinner that, more properly, would have been advertised as deep fried squab that had been totally over cooked and dry and tough.
That was the last straw until I noticed a new special on their billboard: Pot Roast sandwich.
That intrigued me enough to try again.
Mistake....... ........the meat was nicely done and cooked to perfection but utterly tasteless.
That WAS the last straw so NEVER again...... .