I realize a question like this definitely depends on the context of the situation. I suppose what I'm really asking is where do you draw the line. Under what circumstances would you decide that you have had enough and perhaps just get up and leave. I think what I consider to be one of the worst case scenarios is when it's the owner who serves you and yet still the food is awful, orders messed up and returned, your treated with a bad attitude, little apology is offered and nothing on the bill is either compt or discounted.
Would you ever walk out of a restaurant if the food or service was awful?
My husband and I have walked out of a few places over the years. Of course we left cash on the table to cover our drinks or whatever we needed to pay.
We once left after waiting 2 1/2 hours beyond our reservation time. We were seated after 1 hour, waited 30 minutes at our table to order drinks and after another hour (it was easier to wait once seated with some drinks) we left money on the table and went to another restaurant to eat.
Then there is another one where we love the food, the atmosphere, and the service... UNTIL the owner's spoiled bratty bad attitude snot nosed daughter gets assigned to our table. We put up with her once or twice, but then when we couldn't avoid getting a table assigned to her, we just said nevermind and left. Haven't been back.
We went to another restaurant that had great reviews. We walked in and it was filthy. Food all over the floor (it looked like they had a good fight earlier in the day and just walked on top of the mess). Food and sticky stuff on the tables and chairs. We spun around and left... I was practically running. I would be surprised if they don't have a rat problem. 🤢
Probably not. Even if the food is awful, I voluntarily chose to go that restaurant, and I will not leave without paying for my food. If I do, my server will probably get in trouble and they don't deserve that. Honestly it's pretty crappy to get a service and then leave without paying. Even if the servers are awful, I see the way a lot of people treat servers and it is absolutely disgusting. Servers are allowed to have bad days, be overwhelmed, or not treat me like royalty. I'm one customer out of hundreds. So what if they are being rude? I'm still going to pay for my food. If they're truly upsetting me, I can get a manager or something instead of storming out (and again, it takes a lot to get me to that level. I am actively anti-Karen.)
I have left the restaurant that had an unreasonably long wait and bad service. Was welcomed in by the host. Sat to a table and the waitor just didn't come.
We were waiting 10 minutes before I got up to find someone to take our order. Mind you it was not busy. They said someone will be right over. Another 5 minutes someone came to take the order.
They took our order. After 10 minutes we find out the waiter didn't put it in the system and it hasn't been started yet. So it'll be another 12 - 15 minutes.
When they said that I just told them don't worry about. We'll just go somewhere else. Then we left because that was ridiculous and I wasn't even confident the food would be done properly either with how turned around they were when it wasn't even busy.
I was not about to wait 35-40 minutes for that. Ended up at dennys and got our order placed and in front of us right away
I have walked out of a restaurant due to bad service. It was a date at a recommended restaurant that we both wanted to try. It was 15 minutes after we sat down before a server showed up to take our order. Then, 45 minutes later, still no food. The manager told us that our server had just quit, and that it would be awhile before we would get any food, and it might not be what we ordered. So, we got up and left. The restaurant we normally went to was just down teh road and we went there. The service was prompt and the food was good, as usual.
If the food is bad, we talk to teh manager, who usually comps the meal. We don't pay for it.
I have definitely walked out of many restaurants because of their service. My mom was having a week long conference and I was with my dad for that time period. So we used to go to many hotels to eat. We were made to sit in bachelors area than in family area, understandable. But the staff was also ignoring us and the whole section altogether! I ordered, it did not even come after half an hour. We get up and leave.
Some hotels are just awful. People think hoteling is easy. And end up with a flop investment.
I never have, but it is within the realm of possibility. One of the worst restaurants I'd been in was a restaurant where they had their food glamorized in their advertising (as expected), but in reality wasn't anything special. I was with a group of about ten people, and they gave our bill to a group that was even larger. They paid ours because it was LESS, and the waitress tried to stick us with their larger bill to make up for it. The owner was screaming at the waitress in the back room when it was pointed out. The place was comical. I had been there before that and had an unusual experience. If I had it to do over again, I would have created a YouTube channel over how weird this place was... LOL
My friend, his kids, and I went to a local restaurant which is kind of like a sports bar. The waitresses stood around and talked, ignoring us for 10 minutes. When one finally came over, she acted like we were bothering her by ordering food. When she walked away, my friend said "fuck this place" and we walked out. I have worked at a couple restaurants and have been to a lot of them, and never received such unfriendly service in my life. We were not being rude or anything.
That sucks, I would of been pissed too. One time on our way to Quebec we went to this restaurant where the staff was bilingual, but primarily spoke in french. My son and don't speak French, but my Fiancèe and her Mom do. When the waitress first greeted us and found us a seat she seemed friendly enough. Then she tried talking to our son, he was only 3 at the time and he didn't really say much because she was speaking french and he didn't understand. Her demeanor kind of changed as though she was offended that he didn't reply to her in french. Then he was trying to color, but all the crayons were broken. We asked the waitress if we could maybe have some other ones for him to use. She puffed off and she swore then threw then aggressively through them at the garbage missing and most of them bouncing in different directions. She seemed to be having a pretty bad day, so my Fiancèe's Mom did the rest of the talking to her and killed the old bitty with kindness.
No, for the food. Yes, if the staff was rude/woke.
I once had really sh*tty food before at a chicken place (how do you screw up fried chicken?), but I was hungry, so I reluctantly ate it. If the staff is rude though, I would just dump the food on the floor and walk out (don't assume I'd pay). I'd then leave a scathing review like, on Google Maps or something.
I have done so before. I asked for my food to be remade. Due to the chicken I order being extremely under cooked. The waitress got angry when I asked. So I cut my chicken open even more and simply left without paying.
In general I was scratching my head. If they remade the food and it was not raw I would have eaten it and I was not making an issue about it. I just didn't want to risk getting sick due to eating the food I was given. I know some states do force restaurants to publicly post the results from their last health inspection. By clearly posting the grade sheet from their last inspection. I think that should be something that every state should do. It could avoid a lot of issues.
Also I do understand that servers can be treated like crap, like anyone that works in customer service. But getting pissed at someone that just go served under cooked food is crossing a line for sure. Them having a bad day or not, I showed her the food and was nice about it. There was not excuse for the attitude.
I’ve had terrible service before - failing to bring me water after asking multiple times while I was eating something spicy then laughing at me about it and still not bringing the damn water.
No. I would still pay the bill. Tip is not mandatory on where I live so after paying, I'll just leave and be on with my life.
There are special times where I need to call the waiter or the cook - this happens if there's an insect or something on the food or the food smells bad/tastes bad. There's also an instance where the plates does not seem to have been fully washed.
We had that happen once. As soon as we sat down, the waitress brought out four glasses of water with one hand, with a thumb or finger in each glass and in the water itself. We just got up and left.
I probably would. Usually if the food was bad I would complain. Once I found a piece of plastic in my meal and I complained and didn't have to pay for it. If the service was bad I woudn't leave such a big tip. Although I ate out a few months ago and the service was really terrible. I could hear other people complain as well. It was because the place had a staffing problem because of Covid so I gave the poor waitress a good tip.
OMG, that would be super upsetting 😡. When I read your comment Chef Gordan Ramsey entered my mind and the way he would react if that happened in Hell's Kitchen. He'd probably exclaim: "You've gotta be kidding me. Who did this? Take a look at that. Can you see anything wrong with that? It's raw!" Then moreover than likely he'd take the plate throw it on the floor or at the wall. I imagine there'd be a fair bit of cursing 🤬 while doing this too. On other cooking competitions the contestants would be immediately disqualified or sent home.
My family and I have never walked out we actually stay and finish out of “politeness” but honestly if I wasn’t eating with them and I was with a couple of friends I would dip. <~ when the food was terrible.
If they’ve had me waiting for 2 hours on a non busy day just to get a plate of salad and pasta, I would honestly dip. There’s no point in taking 2+ hours long to heat up a chemically made meal to serve us lmao like have y’all seen Hell’s Kitchen? Nothing goes down in the kitchen. Anyways, that’s what I’d do if the service was terrible. Pay and leave.
would not let it get that far after 15 minutes of bad service i get up and leave and tell everyone I know how bad the service was. I do not use Facebook or other media can cause legal problems if the owner thinks your bad mouthing him. word of mouth works just fine
Probably not; it'd have to be something pretty extreme. I don't really like confrontation, even to the extent of leaving aggressively; I'll do it if I have to, sometimes even spectacularly, but I am much, MUCH more likely to simply finish quietly and not go back.
I’m usually very patient, and understanding that issues could be coming from the kitchen’s side of things, but I did have to walk out once after waiting an hour and 20 minutes for an entree that never came.
I have never needed to do that cause I was only poorly treated one time in my life by a restaurant worker. But my expectations are low so unless something illegal happens, I never feel the need to leave.
Not because the food was bad but definitely because we didn't even get served. Walked in me, my parents, sister, aunt, uncle and cousins, we got seated and ordered some drinks while we decided what we wanted. We waited, and waited, and waited about 20 min went by and my dad got up to try find someone. Couldn't see anyone. Sat back down waited another 15. My uncle and my dad go look and they literally walked into their kitchen and nobody was in there. So we left.
We walked out for poor service... no water, no drink, no appetizers... staff repeatedly walked by as we sat in our booth. AND the staff took order from someone who was sat after us. Others walked out before us. We were in there for about 30min... placed forced to close cause everyone had shtty service.
Just once. The service was slow and the food, when it finally arrived, was so bad that I wouldn't feed it to a starving dog. Even the Coca Cola was horrible- flat (no carbonation) and warm.
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