I think that restaurant recommendations are generally a good thing. After a while there will be several opinions of each restaurant and people can make their choices. Recommendations are, after all, personal things depending on taste. Those who make recommendations can’t be “blamed” for their taste. Generally you pay for what you get. We have some expensive, very good restaurants near us and also some very cheap (11 euros for 4 courses ) restaurants that are also very good.
Sheila when I said that the clients were naughty I meant that they were over reacting
I do not imagine that they placed the caterpillar on the lettuce themselves. I was dreading
their arrival as I knew that something would go wrong...something. However they had no
reason to complain about the property...no reason at all.
When we were in London we had a reastaurant and fortunately few complaints from
clients. There was an occasion when J was sick and I went to the kitchen to be
chef once more. Was called up towards the end of the evening to talk to a customer
who was making a complaint.
We had a massive picture window at the rear of the dining room which reflected sunlight
and a vast selection of greenery and a water feature. The man, who insidently looked grumpy
pointed his finger towards the right hand corner where there was indeed a smuge ....maybe
an insect had come to his last moments as he hit the glass. I asked the man if he was happy with his
meal and he reluctantly said that it had been enjoyable but ..the smuge.
So I askked the man what his activities were on Monday next and suggested that as
he had no inhibiting plans why not come and cllean the window.
Well....what a bazaar complaint!
He got in touch with Michael Winner....who was a regular customer
and would pop in socially from time to time. So Michael related the
story of the smuge in his column in the sunday times....making the
man who complained look a little silly.
The hardest job in the world....I think is chefing and running a restaurant.
Lots of people will disagree....
But then...they have probably not been a chef / operator.
Competition is massive in London and, on the whole people are interested
in good cuisine. Here .......well in my region there are very few decent restaurants.
How can I change that?
sigh....
sigh...
chefs can be complacent, waiters can be flippant, and customers can be hysterical. Worse case scenario of all three.
From the chef scoffing "but they simply do not know how to eat a steak, if they want it more cooked than this", the waiters quite literally telling guests go into the kitchen and argue their cooking point themselves, and guests who sometimes are not happy until every other table knows what their gripe is, and are nodding in agreement, I live this, every day of my working life.
It can be hard to motivate a half arsed chef to put some love into his work, and remember why he went into the business in the first place. It can, however, be even harder to stand there, be taken apart peice by peice, and needlessly be abused by a customer for something that is not even your fault.
Whatever happened with the caterpillar on the plate, there was absolutely no need for any other table to know about it. It gets sent back to the kitchen, another dish is offered (I assume not a salad, lol), and maybe a digestif or glass of wine is on the house.
Tonight's fun and games was the desert chef being on a go-slow, and a very irate lady asking me if I forgot to make her desert. i politely informed her that it was on order, and waiting for the kitchen to produce it(to try to hint to her that I may be the person putting her food on the table, but I'm not the one preparing it)... no go, she didn't seem to get it..ah well.... I won't say here what I told my colleague, I'll for sure be kicked off SFN for life.
I completely mis-interpreted this! When Barbara said the clients were rather naughty - I assumed THEY had put the caterpillar in the salad, in the hope of a free meal. :-)
Whilst eating in a Caen restaraunt close to the ferry port we witnessed an eldely english couple and their son firstly loudly ordering food in only a way the english abroad can. Then on finding a tiny whitebait amongst their fries behaved as though they had found a turd on the plate. They all shouted 'it's a fisssh" holding the offending object on a fork for the rest of the clientelle to see. Whilst we shrunk into our chairs and pretended to be French they took photos of it whilst threatening the bemused but apologetic manager the wrath of trading standards. For weeks/months after we only had to shout "its a fisssh" to reduce us to tears of laughter.
It does seem a bit naughty, but as long as the caterpillar did not crap on the lettuce, what harm was done?
At least it proves that the lettuce was not sprayed with some horrid insecticide. People have to accept that there are animals and insects that share this planet with us.
When I worked in the holiday industry we had to provide a list of restaurants BUT we were not allowed to recommend any of them. We would simply give guests the list of restaurants and explain the range of menus and prices on offer with out offering an opinion as peoples' tastes vary so much.
I was told by my other half that we had to offer a list.
But there is only one 3 restaurants which I like and can recomend.
2 ARE 45 mins away and one is 20 mins away and the owner has a reputation for
being moody.
Sometimes when you try to book you get no reply...LEAVE A message and sometimes you
get a call back. The cooking is good but most people feel that the portions are too small.
So...A little problem to have a list of good restaurants....if they do not exsist.
At least you have a list. I am sure Nick will confirm this, but we couldn't really put a list of eateries here.
Yes Catherine I did feel it was a grande performance on their behalf...
Brought the subject up because I was suprised that they made such a drama of it.
Tell your clients caterpillars are protein and a “feature.” Seems like much ado to me.
A quiet word would suffice, not as if it were a rodent.