Average Jane’s Unsuccessful Lunch

Written by

Today I met my sister at a restaurant for lunch. She arrived a bit early, so by the time I got there at 11:30, there was a lady making fresh guacamole at our table. In case you think we foolishly chose a Mexican restaurant on Cinco de Mayo, let me point out this this particular establishment has more of a "Baja, California" menu and vibe.

Anyway, I ordered some iced tea and selected a menu item. It took kind of a long while to get the tea and have the opportunity to place our order, but I was happily eating chips and guac, so I didn’t think too much about it. The restaurant was fairly busy, but not crazy-busy.

As my sister and I chatted, we noticed that people around us who’d come in after us were getting their food and we were not. We asked the waiter when we could expect our meal, and he disappeared for another lengthy spell and then came back with some song and dance about "lots of orders hitting the kitchen at the same time…extra busy today…yadda yadda yadda." In other words: he forgot to put in our order.

That would have been all well and good, but time was ticking away and we both had places to be at 12:30. By the time we’d reached the 45-minute mark, we realized we weren’t going to have time to eat together, so I flagged down the waiter and asked him to box up our food so we could take it with us.

The waiter disappeared again and we decided it was time we spoke to a manager. We were very upbeat with the manager, "We understand that these things happen, etc." and didn’t ask for anything other than our food so we could leave, already.

He said, "So you still don’t have your food?"

No, we did not have our food, even though we’d been there almost an hour. Needless to say, we were not charged for the meal.

Finally, the waiter emerged from the kitchen with our food in to-go containers. I looked through the clear lid of mine and saw only an enchilada. I said to my sister, "Do you see a taco in there?"

We looked at each other for a moment. "Aw fuck it, it’s free," I said.

When I got back to the office, I sent the food on a brief trip through the microwave and had a late lunch at my desk. It wasn’t at all what I’d had in mind for my midday meal, but what can you do?

Comments

7 responses to “Average Jane’s Unsuccessful Lunch”

May 5, 2006

tatiana

Ugh. I have had this same experience at a restuarant before . . . however, being naive, didn’t even think that it was b/c the waiter forgot to put in our order! So, that is what happened!?! Grrrrrrr. Oh well. . . I was nice about it too – no point in being snippy, it gets you nowhere (other than probably a little extra something added to your food!)….

Reply
May 5, 2006

Deborah

My daughter and I went to one of your favorite places. After ordering, we waited..and waited.. and waited–inquired and waited a bit more. She never got her soup and when the entree arrived, hers was wrong. We had to ask for the meal to go. This experience tainted food establishment visits for the next 3 visits to various vendors… all involving service-or lack thereof. I’m done–for awhile.

Reply
May 6, 2006

Stacie Penney

At least the manager made up for it. All too often they don’t care either.

Reply
May 7, 2006

The Misanthrope

That has happened many myriad times to minorities going into establishments that didn’t want them. Either your waiter didn’t like you or he was an idiot.

Reply
May 7, 2006

Jane

I think the whole thing boiled down to waiter incompetence and indifference.

Reply
May 8, 2006

Annie

Kudos to you for keeping your cool and getting your meal on the house. And by alerting the manager directly, hopefully you’ll save someone else from rotten service. At least you adn your sister had the guac to keep you busy.

Reply
May 8, 2006

kevboy

I have 2 experiences like that. First, I was out to Sunday breakfast with my whole family (I was about 12) and the waitress took my order (a ham-and-cheese omelet, btw), then proceeded to take it again because she had already forgotten what I’d said before she could write it down. Then she brought everyone else their meals and looked blankly at me, asking what I’d ordered. Sheesh.
Then another time (not sure when this happened, but it was around the same time, or maybe a few years earlier), we stopped at a little diner in Dixon, IL. My sister and I had asked for the McDonald’s we passed, but my parents nixed that idea in favor of this little hole-in-the-wall. A waitress led us to a booth and poured my dad some coffee, and then the next thing we knew she was walking past us with her coat and purse, and left. We sat there for another 10 or 15 minutes waiting to see ANYONE else, but no one was visible. Finally, my dad dropped a dollar on the table and we left (and guess where we ended up??). Bizarre.

Reply