Shortly after we sat down a server came and took our orders. She was pleasant. My wife ordered a Reuben sandwich combo and I ordered a chicken parmesan. The server asked if I wanted a large or small and I pointed out that the menu said it was only available as a large. She said no, I could get either size so I said I'd take the large. She then asked what I wanted as my side and I pointed out where on the menu the pasta was the side accompanying the entree. I also ordered an appetizer of cheesy garlic bread for us to share. She wrote the order down and took it into the kitchen. She was polite. We were polite. No problems at all. But we never saw her again other than in the kitchen from a distance.
A few minutes later a different server comes and brings us the appetizer. We both loved it. In fact, I liked the marinara sauce so much that I was excited to try my meal when it came out. I then asked the server if I could order another of the appetizer. This exchange followed:
Me: "This was so good I'd like to order us another one."
Her: "You want another six pieces?"
Me: "It was only four pieces."
Her: "No, that was six pieces."
Me: "No, it was four pieces."
My wife: "There were only four pieces."
Her: "No, it was six pieces. I counted them myself and so I know that there were six of them."
My wife and I are a little bewildered at this but we didn't want to argue with her. I told her to go ahead and bring us another order of the garlic cheese bread.
Her: "That was garlic bread?"
Me: "Yes."
Her: "That only comes in four pieces."
Me: "And that's what we had. Four pieces."
Her: "I'm sorry, I thought it was mozzarella sticks."
A few minutes later, before the bread was out of the oven, she brought our meals to us. Except that what she brought me was a completely different dish than what I'd ordered. My wife took her plate and as she started to hand me the other I said, "That's not what I ordered."
Her: "Yes it is."
Me: "No, I didn't order a chicken alfredo. I ordered the parmesan."
Her: "The ticket said alfredo."
Me: "But I didn't order alfredo. I ordered parmesan."
Her: (Getting very huffy and raising her voice) "Look, everybody makes mistakes! The ticket said alfredo so that's what I brought you. I'm not the one who took your order. And you're taking it out on me and that's not fair!!"
Me: (Completely bewildered because I had been nothing but calm and polite.) "I'm not blaming you. I know that mistakes happen. And no, you weren't the one who took the order."
Her: (Still very upset) "Well, I'll go ahead and take this back to the kitchen and have them remake it."
Me: "Thank-you."
As she walked away in a huff, my wife and I just sat there staring at each other with our mouths hanging open. We asked each other what had just happened. We'd never seen anything like that before. I said that I felt like leaving but that her food was already there and I'd be paying for everything anyway so we might as well stay.
My wife then picked up her reuben sandwich and was about to bite into it when she saw what was inside. She looked around the sides of the sandwich, then opened it up to look at the contents more closely. She asked me, "What's that?" Now, for those who don't know, a reuben sandwich is made with thin slices of corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and Russian dressing (although my wife ordered it without the dressing.) What we saw when she opened the sandwich was what appeared to be a half-inch thick slice of Spam, so that's what I told her it looked like. She then said, "I'm scared to eat this." Granted, I looked online and saw that there is such a thing as canned corned beef, and it is possible that that was what was in her sandwich. But we honestly didn't know what it was because it looked like Spam. We both tried to smell it, but considering that we've never eaten pork we don't know what Spam smells like, and all I could smell was the sauerkraut. She then said, "I'm not eating this. I'm afraid of what might be in it."
I then told her that I was very uncomfortable staying and waiting because I've heard too many stories of angry cooks and/or wait staff who spit in the customer's food if they send it back. We decided that we were leaving. We told the server we weren't staying and she sounded like we couldn't leave soon enough to make her happy. We went up to the cash register. Thankfully she only charged us for the food we actually got--two drinks, the one appetizer, and my wife's uneaten meal. But as I was signing the credit card receipt she stood there staring at the receipt and my hand to watch what I was going to put down for a tip. I probably shocked her by still leaving a twenty percent tip, even though she most definitely didn't deserve anything. read more
