Outcast/not real happy

Went to Outcast in New Albany with friends. Since it was my treat I thought I better go on line and check out their menu/pricing before hand. That's MY responsibility. Make sure I am operating within my budget and can also include a 20% tip on top of that. (I am not the kind of person that pays for an expensive meal then 10% their server.) I pull up the restaurant's website - NOT a Yelp website or an Uber website of menus that have been posted by other diners goodness knows when. I check out the PDFs the that the restaurant themself posts on their own website. I decide it'll be fine. Menu and pricing looks good. Get to the restaurant to find out some of the drinks and food offerings are no longer available. (shrugs) It can happen especially with supply chains these days being interfered with. We order substitutes. Food was great. Server was a sweetie. Bill seemed high, but well, OK. Got home, checked my ticket only to find I'd been overcharged $12 on the oysters alone. Can't check pricing on all of the dishes because the menu we were handed was not the menu they posted on line. The HIGHER price of the oysters was printed on the receipt but doesn't help dinners after the fact, it only covers management's backside should anyone complain. Thought I'd call to offer some feedback. Phone number on the website doesn't work. Now I'm mad and feel as if I've been taken advantage of. And for me…once is all it takes. I will not go back.

Must restaurants adhere to the pricing they post on their website?

I just checked their Facebook page and there are no menus there to check out.

[Robin Garr]

Carla, that's so frustrating. I understand the position that some restaurateurs take: They're not computer nerds, so they have to hire someone to set up a website for them, and in many cases they go with a low-end bid to save bucks. Things get out of date, the owner either doesn't even notice, or he asks the tech to fix it and the tech takes a long time (or never) to get to it. I've seen this time and again. The restaurant guy doesn't want to do the technology, or doesn't have the skills, so that job falls through the cracks. And of course the person who suffers is the restaurateur who leaves people like you unhappy.

OK, I get it.
We are talking about artists that are focused on their food art, putting out delectable dishes, the most perfect fried chicken/Mom's amazing chili/ the French onion soup that is to die for. They can't be bothered with the mundane peripherals. I'm sorry. No pass with that excuse. What if the oversight was not a neglected website but, let's say, paying the utilities, seeing that the bathrooms are clean, making sure there's adequate staffing for shifts and they are properly trained? In my opinion, (and it's just MHO) when you open your restaurant door you sign up for the whole ball of wax. If you expect to be paid for services then you should provide. Once you become a BUSINESS then the oversight of the peripherals is what will kills a business. It happens all the time. I mention this now because now, maybe even more than ever before, the details will matter. Money is becoming scarce even in the pockets of those that didn't blink at dropping a couple hundred on single visit.

So, if you don't want to clean the bathroom/do the accounting/train a bartender/ OR KEEP UP YOUR WEBSITE then be prepared to pay someone else for their skills and pay them with the same respect that you expect payment from your diners.

[Robin Garr]

I can't argue with that, Carla! Just going off on a rant of my own about the too common practice of website builders who don't provide support after doing the construction job on a website.