I wonder if the manager even knew what happened. I think you should have made a point of speaking to him and tell him of your dissatisfaction with the cleanup and no replacement of the foods.

It doesn't sound like your waitress handled it well.

indy_anna like you, I ask for napkins, and clean it up best I can.

I don't ask for special favors because of it, but I would ask for the spilled item to be brought back out fresh.

I think, you handled it just fine. You may have asked to talk to the manager, but then you may have gotten the server in to trouble?

Moni

I too would help clean up the mess. Accidents do happen, but not receiving the food you ordered and paid for is inexcusable, and I would have sought out the manager.

We were at a Restaurant and the Waitress spilled a whole tray of mixed drinks on Main Man. Boy, did he smell of booze. Glad we didn't get stopped by the Cops on the way home. We knew the Waitress and he kinda laughed it off.

Gayle

having had been a waitress in the past,I would tell you that you should have asked for a wet cloth...a BIG one.

And yes,you could/should have told her what all she was missing,and in my estimation,she should have brought you extras and taken a fair amount off of the bill for her incompetence.

and then this "manager" should have been directed to your table.

Yes,accidents happen,but she should be paying a whole lot more attention.

And no...she should NOT have been tipped!

I just had the "pleasure" of going to the new Golden Griddle restaurant in our area.

The wait staff is incompetent,the place is/was a decor mess,the entry way was disgusting....the meal however was good.

I spoke to an individual at the end of the 2nd trip there,and let him know(turns out he is the boss/owner) what I thought of the so-called wait staff and their disregard for accuracy,customers satisfaction etc.
He "tried" to pass off some of it with the girls being new and trained.
Ya,so what...its not rocket science to know how to wipe a table properly!
Needless to say,I was handed a survey form to do online.
I did it...and included my comments that I had also told the owner at the new place.

I just rec'd a free dinner for 2 quite to my surprise to be honest.
BUT,they know now what/how I think.

It hasnt been that long since I waited tables,and would give my right arm to be able to do it again.

Society for some reason,seem to think that tipping is a given....no it isnt....you tip if you are happy with your service....period.

This post reminded me of a dining experience we had a few years ago. We were being served red wine, prior to our meal, and the waitress accidentally spilled a glass down the front of my daughter's new white sweater. The waitress was so upset and apologized. We asked for a cloth napkin and some cold water blot up some of it and went on with the meal. Then, when she was serving our dinners, she tipped my husband's plate (with some kind of butter sauce) into his lap. After bringing more napkins and cold water, we tried to finish as quickly as possible and get the heck out of there...but when we started to get up from the table, it was unbalanced and started to tip over on us. At this point, all we could do was laugh hysterically. We never went back to that restaurant, but we still laugh about it.

The poor waitress at Red Lobster dropped a plate of HOT spaghetti sauce on my 3-year-old's forehead!

So he *looked* all bloody, and it was HOT (I goofed, i honestly should have simply picked up the closest glass of water and poured it over him). So I grabbed him and ran for the bathroom to swooosh him off.

They comped his meal, replaced his sister's spaghetti, and paid for all our drinks. And the manager was there in a flash, to see if we needed help, etc.

She was so upset that when I went to look for her to tell her he was fine, and to reassure her, they told me they'd sent her home. Poor kid! So, I asked them to pass on the message.

I think you should have chased down the food that was ruined. True you shouldn't have HAD to, but I think we owe the rest of the world the opportunity to learn.

I don't wait for the manager or the waitress to come to me anymore--not very long at least. I'd have gotten up and walked over to the manager and asked to speak w/ him, the politely told him the problems.

I also think we owe the managers the opportunity to repair the damage.

I also ask for the proper tools to deal w/ cleanup--even if *I* am the one who spilled it and not them. They have them; they'll bring them if I ask, so I ask.

I want to add that I would not ask the waiter/ess to bring a wet cloth, as the ones used to clean the tables are often rather disgusting and it's most likely that you would be handed one of those. I would ask for a new (clean!) cloth that I could wet in hot water.

Yes, I also think we owe the manager an opportunity to repair the damage.

Also, he/she should be told when something is unsatisfactory.
That's a manager's job...to be aware or made aware of things that aren't right...and then they can do something about it.

Can't fix something you don't know about.

BTW - IF the waitress had done a terrific job of making the situation right...I would also have spoken to the manager - to tell him that an accident had been handled "just right".

I would have quietly talked to the manager, not made a big fuss or anything but let him know what happened matter of factly. I would have asked for some water and cloth to clean up or expected them to do it. And I hate it when you have to keep asking for food you ordered. That has happened to us too many times to count.
Clare

Whenever a spill happens at a restaurant, I do the best to clean it up by asking for extra napkins. In the case of a cloth-napkin type of restaurant, I would expect to be moved to a new table (and probably would be displeased if they didn't offer that).

However, I do feel sorry for the waitress. You should have spoken up immediately when she brought out the replacement shrimp. I'm sure she was quite flustered about the situation. It would have been more beneficial to both you and her to apprise her of the missing items than to just lower her tip. She may not know why you lowered it, so she didn't learn anything from the accident.

Denny and I ate at Cracker Barrel last week...He had a Hot Roast Beef sandwich with mash potatoes and gravey...

While eating I saw him put his fork down and pick at something in the gravy and potatoes...He pulled it out. It was a big long hair. He sat his plate aside...I told him to talk to the waiter.

They brought him a new lunch (same thing..I'm sure the gravy came from the same pot that probably held the hair but I didn't say that to him.) They didn't charge us for his meal.
And we got several apologies from the waiter, but not the supervisor.

Today my daughter , her kids, and I ate at Golden Corral. The waitress came to fill my glass with tea just as I was picking it up to take a drink..when I saw she had the pitcher all tiped to pour. I quickly put the glass down put she had already started pouring...she poured it all over my hand....LOL.
No big mess...but we thought it was funny.

patti

I spent 40+ years in the restaurant business (family owned). I bet the server failed to tell the manager. If the manager was made aware then I would think he/she would have come by your table to apologize for the mishap and make sure all was ok. As you said, he was walking around to other tables (sign of a good manager), so it is obvious that he is in touch with his diners. The server may have already been on warning from other incidents and one more would have been trouble for her/him. Or she/he could have been new on the job and was scared to say something.

I always appreciated and welcomed feedback and complaints from my customers and I know most managers do as well. Anytime you are having problems with a server/service, PLEASE tell the manager. Even though I tried hard to be on top of things, I also relied on customer comments to help improve my business.

Sorry about what happened to you and thankfully it wasn't something hot that spilled on your son. Glad you were still able to enjoy the meal :)

A server tripped and spilled a salad on me at a Houlihan's

restaurant about a year ago. Houlihan's comped my meal

along with many apologies. I would expect nothing less!

IMO, it's the right thing for a business to do.

Sorry I didn't answer your question...

If it hasn't been too long ago I would call the restaurant , ask for the supervisor and explain to him what happened and you were really dissatisfied with the service. You have nothing to loose.

patti

Sorry everyone. more details...

They brought out a wet cloth to clean the table. By then, I had gotten out wet wipes to clean off Tyler.

I did ask the waitress to bring more applesauce and cornbread. I know waitresses are busy, so I felt bad making her keep going back to the kitchen every time we noticed something. It wasn't like I even took a full inventory; it all just happened piece meal. "Can you bring us more applesauce" "Can we get his soup" "Can we get more cornbread?" Instead of all at once, but I'm not sure she could have handled that either.

If it was handled well, I would have told the manager. However, we were tired of dealing with it, and it was just easier to leave at that point.

I looked at our reciept, and there is a web survey, so I will fill that out with the details.

Otherwise, we're done with this episode of "Dining out with Indy's family" :) Thanks for everyone's input.

A spill I would clean up as best I could and if they didn't bring all the replacement food, I would say something.

Over a year ago, Lauren and I went to Red Lobster and got very bad service. Took over an hour to get our meal and never got biscuits. They gave us a free meal on our next visit. Went back and it was ok.

A few weeks ago the kids and I went back to the same Red Lobster and got the same lousy service, no biscuits, no drink refills and my lobster and shrimp came out burnt. I should have sent the food back and requested not to be charged but I didn't. I was just relieved to finally get my food. Well, it tasted awful. We just joked about being invisible. And one of the waiters kept singing, "you should've been gone"...part of a Journey song over and over, every time he passed our table to go back into the kitchen (which is right by where we were seated. So we had fun with that, saying he must be singing it to us.

Well, just talked to a friend who's getting a divorce tomorrow. We're going out to eat to celebrate (she's been separated for years and years) later in the week and she wanted to go to Red Lobster. I told her I would never go back there again and why. So, we're going to the Rigatta (sp?) instead.