Today we went to a new Thai restaurant. I'm not going to mention names...at this point.
The food was VERY delicious. We plan to go back. Hopefully soon.
But there were two problems.
First: I ordered pineapple fried rice. It was supposed to be vegetarian unless you ask for meat to be added.
They brought the rice. I started eating it. It was amazingly good. But then I had a bite that tasted strange and not so good. I looked more closely at the food and saw things that looked like chicken. I asked for Tim's opinion. He looked. He tasted. He told me it was chicken.
I didn't freak out.
Most meat doesn't totally gross me out. I'm just like, blah. I'm not going to take another bite of that.
Now if I had been accidentally served mayonnaise, I'd be totally freaking out. We'd probably never be going to that restaurant ever again.
Anyway...
We called over a waiter. Or maybe a waiter came to us? I can't remember. He was apologetic. I think there was a waitress too at some point. She was apologetic. Some other man came out. I think he was the manager. He was also apologetic.
I was very calm and cordial.
At some point, someone told us the food would be comped and they'd bring me the correct food soon. That sounded fair and kind of something I'd expect for the situation.
We had a lovely meal.
Then we got our bill.
We saw that the pineapple rice was there.
What happened to the food being comped?
I'm wondering, did they mean the chicken version was given to us free? If so, that's ridiculous. Because they didn't offer to let us keep it. Tim and Jack are meat eaters. They could have eaten it or taken it home to eat later.
If they simply made a mistake and forgot to take it off the bill, I'm not too bothered. Though that's two pretty major mistakes in one dining experience. If they're doing that with other diners, I hope they get their act together. But...maybe we just had bad luck.
The thing that DOES bother me a lot is if they decided not to take it off the bill, because I didn't seem too bothered by it.
This restaurant seems to pride itself on being vegetarian friendly. So vegetarians should be able to go their with peace of mind. If they're casual about making meat-mistakes, I think that's a problem.
Also I think vegetarians and vegans have a reputation for being picky and demanding. So if I wasn't fitting the stereotype, should I be punished for that?
When we were at Disney World, a mistake was made and a little girl's princess gift surprise was accidentally placed in our room. It was a bit of a hassle but mostly it was hilarious and fun. Tim and I were in good spirits about the whole thing, but we still appreciated the fact that Disney was apologetic AND gave us a little dessert gift for our troubles.
I guess what I'm trying to say is if a mistake is made, the level of apologizes and compensation shouldn't be based on the outrage of the customer. Otherwise, the message there is that in order to be treated well we need to be loud and obnoxious.
That shouldn't be the case.
It would be a better world if it was the quiet, cooperative wheel that got the grease rather than the squeaky one.