When Restaurant Service Sucks, Should One Blog ‘Em?

Among other things, I am a restaurateur. Professionally, for the past 20 years actually. I still actively manage, on the finance, building maintenance and leasing operations side, a family steak house in Quezon City that will celebrate its 40th year this 2008. I grew up with waiters and cooks and customers.

Thus I am truly patient with other restaurants, understanding all the processes that come into play in order to produce that one good meal that can leave your tastebuds orgasmically happy for the next few days.

In Baguio, even when I was operating bars, restaurants/cafes or a canteen, I was at the same time a regular customer in a lot of the Baguio restaurants that I recommend in the Go Baguio! website. I still am. Because I enjoy dining out and sampling different cuisines. Because I understand that restaurants pay a tremendous role in making a community, especially a top tourist destination, succeed.

Recently, I have been into Asian food, but sadly, I know of no Thai, Vietnamese or Singaporean restaurants in these parts. In fact, there are very few Japanese restaurants here, too. Of course there’s Japanese food, mostly donburi [rice toppings] but not an authentic Japanese restaurant with sake and all (except for Hamada at the Baguio Country Club, of which I am not a member, where I sampled a delightful meal once as a guest).

Baguio businessmen are terrified to venture into unknown territory. So we have a plethora of Chinese, Filipino and Korean restaurants. And a whole lot of pizza and pasta joints. That’s about it.

As a blogger and webmaster, I do not merely ‘eat out, take photos of the food and pass judgment upon them.’ This is because I worry that any photos I may take, or comments I may make will not do the chef or the entree any justice. In fact, during my first attempt at blogging about Chocolate de Batirol, I kept explaining, a bit defensively, that I was planning to do a feature on them because it may have looked strange that I kept taking photos of everything — so much so that they sent me a complimentary baritol of chocolate.

And with the restaurant features I have lined up comes a whole slew of photos and interviews made with the permission of the owners themselves. I’m just very slow with editing photos and writing features.

I do however recommend regularly dining places that I feel will enhance my city as a tourist destination, those that serve good food, but, most importantly, render good service. Of course other considerations such as ambience, clean surroundings, a good neighborhood and the availability of safe parking also always come into play. But good service is paramount.

I guess my standards may higher than the ordinary Baguio resident’s. Because my palate may be a tad more sophisticated, because I actually endorse (for free) those places that enhance the Baguio experience. A hole-in-the-wall pizza place is amazed at how a steady steam of folks actually find them without signage or a visible storefront — just based on a Go Baguio! recommendation. The longganisa-makers at the SVD seminary on Arellano Street just know that suddenly their sausages are in demand and have only a vague idea of why they are suddenly so popular.

Personally, I may forgive lousy food but never, ever, bad service. Slow service, maybe, if they’re full, or if understaffed (that sometimes happens). But lousy service? There’s just no excuse for that.

In an article I wrote here, I called attention to how the internet has changed the dissatisfied customer equation.

While bloggers love to tell all and sundry about their experiences, and like to be the first to post an article about some good find, I noticed also that the internet has changed the “dissatisfied customer” equation. In the hospitality service industry we were always told that one unhappy customer will complain to 20 people who will probably forget about the transgression in a few weeks or months. Nowadays, a dissatisfied customer will blog about his experience, and reach a few thousands, and leave his version of the incident in the web archives for all time!

So when I took my mom and other family members who had just arrived from a long drive from Pagudpud (6-8 hours away from Baguio) out to dinner last night to one of my recommended Baguio restaurants, I was unhappy to note that we got really, really poor service.

1. My balikbayan cousin was served the tuna sandwich she had earlier cancelled and immediately substituted with boneless bangus — ten minutes after she was served the boneless bangus. The server never read out all our orders prior to placing them, in order to make sure she got it all right and to protect herself from paying for that fumble. Realizing it was going to cost her 1/3 of her daily wage, I said, “That’s ok, we’ll take it home, just wrap it up.”

2. We were six in our party, food got served in 10 minute intervals: to the 2 males first, to one lady next, the two senior citizens next, to two tables who came way after us next — but MY food never came! My order was the same as the two senior citizens’ so they should have been cooked all together but I guess the server forgot to list down mine, even if I was the very first one to order (I had the menu and prices memorized).

3. As our server was handing out the food, she just stood on my right and reached across, almost hitting my face, to serve my mom, who was on my left. We were seated right smack in the middle of an uncrowded restaurant so there was room for her to maneuver if she weren’t so lazy or untrained. When, still standing to my right, she reached across, almost hitting my aunt’s face (she was to my right, at the head of the table) this time to reach my cousin who was seated across me, I snapped, “Can you please stop reaching across our faces to get to the other side of the table! Move from person to person, why don’t you?!”

Table service rules: Serve on the left, clear on the right. All food must be served at the same time, because it’s rude to eat ahead of the others in your group. Ladies get served first, from oldest to youngest, then the men, from oldest to youngest. Even if this is a diner.

4. Since Baguio food gets cold fast, the two men were given leave by the rest of us to eat ahead (bulalo and mix grill), then my cousin with her boneless bangus, then my mom and aunt with the cordon bleu and chicken cordon bleu. I kept looking towards the kitchen, for my order then saw one table of two persons get served, then five minutes later, another table for two get served. I try to catch the eye of my server but she kept avoiding me and serving everybody else. So had to stand and follow her to the kitchen entrance where she headed. “Why has everybody else but me been served?” She said, “Sorry, may nagkamali (someone else had made a mistake)! I go back to my table and tell them, “Then cancel my order.” Then the food finally comes out immediately after. By this time I am upset and unable to take bite.

A customer does not care whose fault it is, the cook’s the waiter’s, the bartender’s. It’s always just the restaurant’s fault. Just say, “Sorry. It will never happen again. Let us make it up to you by (some freebie/discount)”

Rule for restaurant owners: OVERCOMPENSATE or at least PROFUSE APOLOGIES and a SOLEMN PROMISE THE INCIDENT WILL NOT REPEAT. Once the apology or peace offering is accepted the customer will have no further cause to complain or blog about it.

5. In front of everybody else, the manager makes a big show of berating our server until she’s in tears, as if that was what would make my table happy.

TIP: The other guests should never know that there’s a problem. The manager could just have approached me and apologized. I would have gladly accepted it. And that would have been that.

6. I ask for the bill (I didn’t even let the senior citizens bring out their cards na). The cashier approaches me and says, “Ma’am it’s Php712.00″ I give Php1,000.00. My change tray comes back with Php176.00 and no receipt, not even an itemized order slip. Do the math. So I ask for an itemized list. They added Php102.00 to the bill because they forgot to include the drinks. “Pasiensya na po,” says the cashier. The tuna sandwich I was willing to pay for was neither given nor charged.

Will I go back? Not any time soon (and to think I eat there or have food taken out at least 3x a week). Will I send dozens upon dozens of my B&B guests there? Nope. Will I include them still in my recommended restaurants list. Nope. Not until their service gets better. The food is ordinary. The servings hefty. The prices very reasonable. And all the owners need to do is train the staff. How hard can that be?

What upsets me about this is that I was happy when this restaurant reopened about 3 years after it closed down, with the same comfort food and almost the same uber-low prices as before. I was happy that they moved to a classier location. I was happy that medium to large sized groups could fit in the place. I was happy that their place was comparatively cleaner than others. I was happy that this was a place for both tourists and residents. I was happy about the speed with which food came out of the kitchen (travelers are usually tired AND hungry).

But their service has always been hit or miss. It’s the one area they should have improved when they reopened. Otherwise, they might encounter worse bloggers than this one.

Or worse yet, Baguio might be given a bum rap because of them. Baguio restaurants must realize they are in the business of SERVICE, not just cooking. That they can somehow adversly affect the Baguio dining experience. (Otherwise, I would prefer to stay home and cook better food — and wash the dishes — myself).

When restaurant service sucks, the attention of the offending party called thereto, and no apologies or amends are forthcoming, no reassurances whatsoever that similar incidents will not recur, nothing that will entice one to return, we are thus left with no recourse but to blog ‘em!

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