No matter how many times I go out to eat, I am still shocked when I find foreign objects in my food. Hair and bugs are commonly found, but a live worm and even a clothespin - those are not so normal.
However, it's not the discovery of foreign material that is so bad, although it's definitely not a good thing. It's how the restaurant handles it upon notification that shows you the quality of the restaurant and it's service. So far, I've seen staff be defensive, like the time I was told that the salad that I found the worm in had been washed three times (apparently, that's not enough). At other times, they just remove the item and move on, like the time the waiter removed the dirty clothespin from the soup and acted like nothing happened (gross!).
An apology and an offer to replace the food is a must. Comping the dish is certainly great and comping the meal, at least for the person whom had the contaminated food, if not for the whole table is even better. However, the best response I've experienced came from Kyoto in Rohnert Park. To be honest, I can't remember if the snafu was related to food or service. The owner came and apologized, and then gave me a gift certificate towards my next purchase. While nothing was comped this meal, I felt this gesture went a long way to keeping me a customer and getting me to come back. Since I don't even recall what happened, I think her response worked. If only more restaurants would consider a policy like this. Hair tangled within the dish or bugs dressed in salad dressing are obviously not the customer's fault.
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