Wait til I'm Ready

I am interrupting my previously planned posts about Holland to talk about what happened to us Sunday evening. We went to Bonnie Ruth's for dinner - a somewhat casual anniversary celebration. We were  fortunate enough to score a table on the patio. I think the waiter was new - at least I'd never seen him before and we go there once a month or so. He brought us drinks and took our order. When he came back with fresh bread he said he'd misplaced the order and took it again. No problem. We remembered what we wanted - a wedge salad to share, and then I ordered seafood crepes and Mark ordered pork chops.

We'd taken one bite out of the salads when the manager brought the entrees out. She apologized for the fact that the salads weren't sent out sooner and indicated that she didn't want to leave our entrees under the light to die. Neither did we. But we didn't want them sitting on the table for ten minutes getting cold while we finished the salad. We rejected the entrees. We should have time to eat the salad before the entrees are brought out so they aren't cold before we get to them. Mark indicated that he didn't expect them to be sat under a lamp and returned to us and we were assured that they would be redone and fresh.

Guess what! The moment the salad plates were whisked away, the entrees were delivered. They were not hot. I think they put the returned entrees under a lamp to keep them warm - just like they said they wouldn't. Mark gets really upset when someone tries to put something over on him and he was very upset about the "not hot" entree. It was time to just get the check and go. Mark was upset enough to never go back. The manager was making an effort to make things right. The meal was now free. They were going to box it up for us to take home because we were no longer in the mood to eat it there. (And then we could reheat it - ironic that this was the very situation we were hoping to avoid.) We were given some mini cupcakes and offered a couple glasses of champagne, which we turned down. We were given a $20 gift certificate for a return visit.

Mark is of the opinion that $20 wasn't enough. In retrospect, it probably wasn't. It won't cover the cost of the average entree. We've been given gift certificates to compensate for bad service before (Sneaky Pete's, Bob Evans) and we typically throw them away. Really, why would I want to subject myself to bad service again just because it's now cheaper?

But here's the deal with Bonnie Ruth's - we've been going there regularly for seven years. In all that time, this is the first screw-up. If it had happened my first trip, I'd never go back. That was the case with Fortuna Grill (now closed). A similar thing happened at Jasper's in Plano. (We didn't go there as often because it's somewhat pricey.) The food came out and it wasn't hot. I wasn't even sure that the scallops had been cooked through. They took it back and I'm sure they nuked it because when they brought it back (the same one, not a new one) it was steaming hot for about a minute and then it didn't seem completely cooked again. Oddly enough, I've had no desire to go back there since. 

I do want to go back to Bonnie Ruth's. At least for now. The food is good (when it's hot) and the service is usually good. I don't know if the problem originated when the waiter "lost" the order, or if the problem was with an over-zealous kitchen racing to get all the entrees out as quickly as possible. I suspect that kitchen personnel are compensated on how quickly they turn out the orders. (Not just at Bonnie Ruth's, but everywhere in the U.S.) Too often, if you order an appetizer or salad at the same time as your entree, they'll all be served at the same time, or in quick succession.  But I know how to prevent this problem. I can order my salad and hold off ordering the entree until I've eaten the salad. If they don't know what I want, they can't bring it before I'm ready.