1) Not everyone is comfortable voicing a complaint face to face in real-time. Confrontation isn’t fun.

2) The real possibility that the kitchen will exact their version of revenge if they feel the criticism is unjustified. Who wants to eat a meal wondering if there’s spit hidden in your food, or your decaf coffee served with caffeine, or god knows what other forms of subtle revenge exacted on you, because you complained?

Michael, you never reported exactly what Trotter’s comments were regarding bloggers. And I don’t expect you will, now . . . (!)

There are, of course, risks to be taken any time you’re in a restaurant, from what you eat and drink to how you deal with it when it’s not to your satisfaction. Any restaurant worth the food on its menu, though, is able and willing to gracefully handle any number of complains, from an underdone burger to the accidental serving of bad food to a waiter spilling red wine on a white shirt. And no matter how scared you are of confrontation, unless you are a belligerant asshat or someone who write NO TIP on the credit card bill — AFTER the fact — and lists everything you “did wrong” during service (that happened to me once… the kid actually left his phone number, and you better believe every chef and server in the place was calling him all night long [moral of that story: if you're going to insult on the check, don't leave your number]) there is very little chance anyone will remember you or your minor inconveniences in an hour or so. The only thing waiters/managers/chefs remember at the end of service were the people who were so incredibly fantastic you almost want to wet your pants, or the complete asshats who are cruel and vicious and especially difficult. If you fall anywhere in between… you can come back the next day and it won’t much matter.

Cooking is an craft, a trade, sometimes an art. People want their food to taste the same every time they visit a restaurant, but they also must realize on some level that it’s impossible to duplicate cooking over and over again exactly. It is not a science. (exceptions: really old people and belligerant asshats.) So try not to be afraid of saying something isn’t right. Part of the restaurant business is being able to fix mistakes quickly and well — they happen over and over, all night long.

Also, I find it extremely offensive and passive aggressive to go to a restaurant, have problems, not tell anyone, and to go home and write a scathing review on a blog. If you bring up your issues and they are either not corrected, ignored, or made worse… blog away. But you should at least TRY to get it fixed. That’s why restaurants aren’t serve-yourself counters with chefs and cashiers. You’re going to tip the wait staff — USE THEM!

Who knew?

How can you toil and slave and do all the things you love to complain about (especially A. Bourdain) for peole who, for the most part, would call the cops if they saw you and your beat up honda civic in their neighborhood? People who you would *never* dine with you or have you as a friend(other than as servant)? In short, how can you act as a lap dog for the elites? Now, I’m not saying this is true for all restaurants. But if you go to culinary school, chances are you’re probably working at a restaurant you could most likely never afford either before or after the CIA (especially after, considering the price of attending the place). How can you in good conscience serve some multimillionaire dickhead foie gras during a $200 tasting menu when there are people just struggling to put food on the table? Or following Alice Waters as some kind of demigod…a person who discards and won’t eat conventionally raised food–food that many in the world would f’n kill for. Arrogance beyond belief. Truly American. You do nothing more than serve the ruling classes, or, worse yet, those who so fervently aspire to their position that they waste their hard earned money (or credit) on the status bestowing aura of such restaurants. So, don’t complain when master cracks his whip (a bad review) and make sure to smile and say how much you don’t deserve any praise.

And learn… http://www.dsausa.org/dsa.html

Where is the difference between hearing an opinion at a cocktail party and reading it online? Because blogs are accessible to more people they have more responsibility?

The internet is now the town square. As consumers we have a personal responsibility to make up our own minds. If a blogger has an agenda, is juvenile, only eats at a restaurant once, is an obvious ass…I am going to treat their opinions as less worthy than someone I know personally or a blogger with a more professional approach.

This whole argument really feels like a dampening of freedom of speech. If someone is a dick I’m not going to pay attention to them. But I sure as hell am not going to tell them they don’t have a right to voice their opinion.

Years ago, a date told me in disgust about a phone call she received (she worked in HR) where this guy just started right in about how “you really have this all f***ed up,” as if she personally reached into his file and performed some sort of voodoo mischief to ruin his life.

You’re dealing with someone who doesn’t take into account that the person performing a service for them has a life with issues beyond her control and he treats her as the factory farmer treats his livestock – as an “entity,” something that exists without feeling or feelings.

Maybe he was the victim of this treatment himself, but adding gasoline to the fire invariably results in the guy with the gas can getting burned, unfortunately involving innocent bystanders in the inferno.

If you can calmly and rationally explain the lapse in service, by all means do so. Failing that, try to enlist a disinterested party (maybe the calmest dinner partner) to represent you. If that’s not possible (or you fear liquid soap in your drink) take it up via email with the restaurant after you cool off.

Most of us here love ham, but we know where ham comes from, so ham hands stick out like a sore thumb.

I have a huge respect for chefs. I try my best to cook, and sometimes things work out very well, but I just don’t have “it” — you know, the sense of what goes together, works well, needs just this spice, should be plated just this way. It’s magic to me.

When I have the money to spend, nothing pleases me more than having a magician make me a beautiful, delicious plate.

Tags: Exactly.

Marxism is a beautiful ideology. But it will never work in the real world. The service industry is all about the haves being serviced by the have-nots. Unless we eliminate restaurants, hotels, airlines, salons, auto shops etc. etc., we will live in a system where those who are well off are pampered by the less fortunate.

The good thing is that we live in an open system where we can rise above our birth station and become one of the pampered as well. At least this is what we are told to believe anyhow. In reality, it is easier said than done.