Valentine Dining Scruples

Hi everyone. I've used LouisvilleHotBytes as my bible for the past 3 years I've been in Louisville, and I've started frequenting the forum over the last month or two.

But a certain dining quandary compelled me to make a new topic and see what others would have done.

I took my girlfriend to Saffron's for Valentine's Day this past weekend. I had made the reservation far in advance, and there was no trouble getting seated and settled in. They even had a rose ready for her when we arrived, which was a very nice touch.

It was our first visit to the restaurant, but I had no worries about the food quality, because I've heard nothing but good things. It took what seemed like an unusually long amount of time for our food to arrive, but it was really no problem at all, because we were having a good time.

Then about 1/4 of the way through our meal, a person who appeared to be the manager or owner approached our table and simply said "Desserts are on me tonight." We both just looked surprised and asked why. He gave us a somewhat incoherent response about having troubles in the kitchen, and I was satisfied with that, because as I'd said before, it seemed like it did take a long time for the food to come out, but the quality was top notch.

Anyway, we ordered desserts, both of which were spectacular, but then when we received the bill, there were the desserts on the paper for full price.

Now had I been dining by myself, I simply would've attempted to catch my waiter's attention and try to work out what was obviously a misunderstanding, but my girlfriend absolutely hates when I try to do things like that. She feels like it's "causing a scene".

And I was already pretty frustrated, because it seemed like a pretty tacky move to tell us that desserts were free, and after we each got one, they turned out not to be. It shows that there's an apparent lack of communication between staff.

But seeing as how it was Valentine's Day, I really didn't want to ruin my girlfriend's night by getting anybody worked up about the bill, so I just paid full price and tried my hardest to eat my feelings away.

So I suppose I'd like to ask the community what they thought about the entire situation. I was pretty frustrated for a while, not only that I was lied to, but that I wasn't able to fix the problem civilly.
How big of a no-no was it for them to have done that? And would it have been worth it to raise a stink?
And how can I let my girlfriend know that in the future it's OK to inquire about problems such as this? (In the past, she's received dishes that were completely different from what she ordered, but she refuses to ask the waiter to change it, because she doesn't want to get anyone worked up.)

It does sound like a miscommunication between the manager and server. Maybe a quiet visit to the manager would have cleared it up on the spot? Hope dinner was otherwise good and memorable!

ABSOLUTELY should have politely said something. My first instinct is that they were rung in to the system to get the desserts out to your table, but the manager should have gone back in and voided/comped the prices. I am sure it was an oversight that they would have been HAPPY to take care of - if they had known.

First, welcome to the forum.

You really should have brought it to their attention. My guess is that desserts were actually free, and that the person that informed you of such was not lying. 99%, this was simply a mixup. Either the server hadn't been made aware that the desserts were complimentary, or he accidentally rung up the desserts on your bill. Either way, a few words probably would have cleared it right up.

I understand you not wanting to do something that bothers your gal, but the bottom line is that you have to be able to communicate to your server or management in a restaurant when something goes wrong like that. For one thing, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth (no pun intended) about that establishment, when they probably want nothing more than to make their patrons happy. Second, it leads to others potential customers hearing about teh restaurant making a mistake like this, which simply isn't fair if you don't give the restaurant the opportunity to make amends.

I can't give relationship advice on the best way to solve that problem with your particular other half, beyond simply explaining that if she wants to keep the wrong dish that was accidentally brought to her, or pay for dessert when it was offered for free, that's her perogative, but when the wrong dish is brought to you, or you're paying for that should-be-free-dessert, that you have all intentions of speaking up.

As MY better-half might say to me, Man Up (joke).

i am guessing that it was a mistake.
as a server, i am always mortified that i will inadvertently commit the same error.
in order to get food items from the kitchen it is necessary to ring the items on the particular table in the p o s. the general procedure, if something is being 'comp-ed', would be to have the manager go back in and remove the cost of the items. on a busy night, it would not surprise me in the least if something like that slipped through the cracks.
i have known majid for many years (as both a patron and an employee) and i can guarantee it was not his, nor his staff's, intention to charge you for those desserts. he will make it up to you.

My apologies for posting the same thing 3 times. It was accidental, but now it won't let me delete the 2 repeats. Whoops.

This owner probably thought he was being proactive by approaching you with a free dessert offer when the timeliness of the kitchen fell behind his standards on a busy nght. I agree with the others that have responded. As an owner, I can say that we always want to know if something has gone amiss. We want our guests to be happy with their decision to join us. We recieve a guests notification of an issue with appreciation.

Miscues happen at every restaurant; as restaurants are dependant on multiple people getting everything right for its' guests enjoyment and all humans make occasional mistakes. A good restaurant will offer to make good on their mistake; so it is not making a scene to gently inform the staff of your issue.

Seems to be two "miscommunications" happening:

1. Between the owner and you
2. Between the owner, kitchen, and/or server

Unfortunately, neither of those issues can be rectified if you do not speak up in the role of patron.

As the desserts were ordered from and delivered by your server, I'm doubting he was ever let into the "free dessert" loop. As others have mentioned, the mistake could also have been the result of a forgotten void on the computer system.

As for convincing your girlfriend that speaking up is the right thing to do - I'd focus on that word "inquire." That's all you would have been doing, inquiring about what seemed to be a discrepancy. There's a world of difference between politely inquiring and causing a scene. And I'd bet you'd earn bonus points if you were able to resolve the issue w/o causing a scene.

I know this is a far fetch - but is it possible that the items were comped, and that you just didn't notice the reduction on the check? Just a thought, because I know that for loss tracking purposes, the item has to be rung in, and rather than voided as though it was never consumed, it's comped, leaving the items on the check. But there is an adjustment that sometimes may go unnoticed as it's sandwiched between the subtotal, discount, tax, and grand total. If you still have a copy of the check, I would double check it if there is any uncertainty.

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. I'll work on the "manning up"! I was actually considering using the bathroom excuse to go and talk to him, but we were already on our way out, so I figured I'd let it go. Anyway, as I said, the food was great, so no hard feelings toward the restaurant. I guess next time something happens, I'll just have to have a "serious talk" with my girlfriend about how it's OK to politely raise a concern.

Also, Jackie, there was definitely a charge for the dessert on the bill, but that was a good point, and it had me double-checking.

And it really is great to get an insider's view of the situation from those of you in the business. Maybe actually telling her about these responses would open her up more to the idea of a constructive dialogue.

Well I'm definitely glad you highlighted the otherwise awesomeness of the experience. They really do a great job there and Majiid is one of the cities finest restauranteurs. I can see a thing like this happening anywhere. But it was certainly worthy of this discussion and, of course, welcome to the forum!!!

I have the same problem when it comes to pointing out an eroor or complaining about food quality.

I was at Varanese on V-Day and also had a proble with the dessert. Order the choc. cake filled with strawberry butter cream and tahitan vanila bean ice cream and was extreamly dissappointed. Not only did the cake have no choc. or strawberry flavor, the ice cream was left off the plate. I hate complaining, so I paid my bill and left. I feel the chef should have tasted the cake was sub-par, and the food server or waiter should have noticed the ice cream was missing.

On a semi sidenote, the house made chips, flat iron steak and tortellini were awesome. What impresses me the most at Varanase is its pricing, very fair for an upscale establishment.

[Robin Garr]

My apologies for posting the same thing 3 times. It was accidental, but now it won't let me delete the 2 repeats. Whoops.

You can't delete them, but I can. Bwahahaaaaaaaaaaa!

I empathize with folks that don't want to spend the last part of dinner trying to track down the manager, explain the problem, negotiate a fix, etc. And I know the only way to get it sorted out is to speak up. It depends on several factors and it sounds like to me he put his girlfriend's feelings above "being fair" to the restaurant - good call in my book, especially on V Day.
In my recent disappointing dinner at Proof, I gave this a lot of thought (had a lot of time while waiting for the server to return) and I did tell the manager we needed a check when they finally noticed us, but in the end just got out of there. And left a nice tip.
I don't think it's fair to criticize someone for not talking to mgmt. It depends on the situation. And don't question my manhood, even with a "just kidding" tacked on - it's not cool.