Support NeoGAF

[Lunarorbit]

When do you know you're finished with a beloved restaurant? Breakfast place in the town I work in used to be great; cheap food, good quality, decent waitstaff. Went in on Monday and I'm done with them.

Nothing horrible happened but lots of little things that added up.

Ambivalent waitstaff was first. Hostess sits me down takes my drink order. Not busy at 10 am. Each thing I got was brought out by different people. Hostess, waitress,prep cook all brought food and drinks out. That annoys me if it's not busy.

Second the price went up for everything... I get inflation and labor costs but an omelet, coffee, corn beef and toast shouldn't cost $25 at a diner townies and fisherman go to.

Third, fucking eggs out of a carton and corn beef out of a can. Super obvious. Liquid eggs taste like batteries to me half the time. A weird metallic after taste.

Then it's time to pay and they have card swipers now that they bring to the table and ask before you see the bill how much tip to add. I hate that as well. Just puts people on the spot plus I saw today restaurants are sneaking in labor surcharges into the bills that say, of course, this isnt a tip. Just like pizza places that add a deliver fee and also say that's not a tip.

Sorry for the rambling but even cheap hole in the walls are becoming too expensive. $25 for a single breakfast is insane.

 

[AJUMP23]

When the food taste bad or the service is not up to par.

 

[Fbh]

I don't really have any hard rule, I guess when the overall quality (specially of the food) consistently goes down.
I wouldn't stop going to a place I like because the food/service wasn't good once, as I get that shit happens and things can't always be perfect. But if the drop in quality is consistent over 2 or more visits then yeah I'll stop going.

 

[Malakhov]

When I feel what I eat and the service isn't worth the bill. And to be honest, after COVID and inflation, not much are worth it anymore. Not even cheap fast food deliveries

 

[StreetsofBeige]

A combo of covid and prices, I'm cooking at home more. Never been a great cook or anything, but dont mind it at all.

It's not like restaurant quality has improved during covid to get back customers. It's the same shit but every entree at every restaurant and pub is now jacked up $3-4. No thanks.

 

[Mikado]

Eating out is a miserable experience these days. If the rising prices/dropping quality doesn't get you, the whole Papers Please aspect of the transaction is about as fun as going through airport security. There's inevitably an employee making a scene at someone and I'm like, I just want to eat my shitty overpriced breakfast sandwich in peace without people shrieking at each other.

 

[Ikutachi]

Vaxx passport.

 

[Pejo]

Eating out is a miserable experience these days. If the rising prices/dropping quality doesn't get you, the whole Papers Please aspect of the transaction is about as fun as going through airport security. There's inevitably an employee making a scene at someone and I'm like, I just want to eat my shitty overpriced breakfast sandwich in peace without people shrieking at each other.

Yep, I don't even entertain the idea anymore. It's miserable the whole time.

Great opportunity to learn to cook at home though. I'm making stuff now that I'd never have dreamed of making before COVID.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Eating out is a miserable experience these days. If the rising prices/dropping quality doesn't get you, the whole Papers Please aspect of the transaction is about as fun as going through airport security. There's inevitably an employee making a scene at someone and I'm like, I just want to eat my shitty overpriced breakfast sandwich in peace without people shrieking at each other.

Yep, I don't even entertain the idea anymore. It's miserable the whole time.

Great opportunity to learn to cook at home though. I'm making stuff now that I'd never have dreamed of making before COVID.

Yup.

The mask part doesn't even make sense either (for cites where businesses want people with masks on indoors). To get in and walk to your table in 20 seconds you got to wear a mask. But the second you sit down for the next hour or two with friends eating and laughing out loud, everyone takes off their mask. That sure makes sense.

And the service is slow as fuck. One thing about covid is that the number patrons is down. Whether it's people hating the service or people still afraid of covid etc... I dont know. But places I've sat down with friends are much less crowded now. Should be easier to serve people. There looks like a decent number of wait staff still working that night. Yet most of the time, they take their slow ass time doing shit. Zero hustle. They worked faster pre-covid. I worked faster as a busboy clearing tables at 15 years old for $5/hr than these overpaid grown up babies.

Going to a Jays game.

Mandate: Wear a mask when you walk in the stadium and when you go to the bathroom

Allowed to take mask off: When you're at your seat sardined with 100s of other people in your section. They didn't even space out the seats. Ticket sales were shoulder to shoulder seating like a normal game. I'm rubbing shoulders with random guy beside me drinking beer.

Such logical reasoning.

 

[MachRc]

This shit is everywhere now.

Like I'm picking this food up to-go bitch!
I always click custom tip, and punch in 1 dollar if I like the restaurant, or hit no -tip


most places around me got rid of these simple machines..
that I never felt forced to tip. as it was part of the receipt

 

[StreetsofBeige]

This shit is everywhere now.

Like I'm picking this food up to-go bitch!
I always click custom tip, and punch in 1 dollar if I like the restaurant, or hit no -tip


most places around me got rid of these simple machines..
that I never felt forced to tip. as it was part of the receipt

A few years ago, I saw pre-tip options at one place as 22%, 25%, 28%.

Wait staff should consider themselves lucky to get the usual 15%-ish standard people pay. And most people pay that on top of the final taxed bill so really it's more like 17%.

I worked as a busboy 30 years ago and also as a waiter for a short time during high school. Easiest fucking job. The bus boy job was actually harder as that involved doing all the gross jobs (garbage and hauling dirty dish trays to the kitchen). The wait staff stood around doing nothing if there was nothing to do. The bus buys always had shit to do. Even during down time, we'd be in the kitchen prepping utensils and dishes to bring to the dining stations.

I'd say the only hard part about being a waiter is if you got a bad memory and dont take notes when asking a table for their order.

Back then tipping was more along 10% too. Somehow it edged up to 15%. And now, the pressure in on for 20%.

Any wait staff who claims they are broke and make shit money "Hey guys..... no customers ever tip me and my hourly wage is $1/hr less than normal, so I make less than a fry cook. So please tip generously" is a fucking liar. Or they'll play the victim card "Every day customers are always yelling or insulting me". Unless you work at the shittiest restaurant I never got that. And I worked at a normal family restaurant. Not exactly 5-star diners eating here.

Even back in the 90s I was averaging probably $20-30/hr and a portion of tips is always cash which we all split up and pocketed.

Even as a busboy before that I made $5/hr + cash tips the wait staff was in control of. I still averaged probably $12/hr ($10/hr during slow nights and $15/hr on weekends or holidays). Not giant money. But this was 30 years ago. And all I did was clear and set up tables, take out garbage and stuff like that.

The only downside was that the nights I worked were only 5 hour long. 5-10 pm. So I wasnt making that over 8 hours. The people who were FT waiters sometimes worked the lunch shift too, or had a PT job elsewhere to make more money.

 

[nush]

Like a lot of privately owned business that see a downturn they all make the same mistake, raise prices and lower quality. The thinking is that they can rinse their loyal customers to make up the shortfall but all that happens is they drive their loyal customers away and make the situation worse. If shits going wrong look at what you can change or fix, not keep things the same and move the cost bar on materials and sale price.

I've gone from my once favorite restaurants to ones that I'd previously found were not as good, but now are better in comparison once my former favorite restaurants made changes. It's been the same for other businesses.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

 

[Halo is Back]

Like a lot of privately owned business that see a downturn they all make the same mistake, raise prices and lower quality. The thinking is that they can rinse their loyal customers to make up the shortfall but all that happens is they drive their loyal customers away and make the situation worse. If shits going wrong look at what you can change or fix, not keep things the same and move the cost bar on materials and sale price.

I've gone from my once favorite restaurants to ones that I'd previously found were not as good, but now are better in comparison once my former favorite restaurants made changes. It's been the same for other businesses.

You basically described 80% of kitchen nightmares lmao.

 

[BadBurger]

There's a local chain place. They are only in this area, several locations in three adjacent cities. They do basic pub and grill food, but in a kind of elevated way. You know what I mean?

Anyway, all through high school and college I loved going to the closest location. I got a burger there almost every week. One day the owner of all of the restaurants decided to sell that one location to a new owner. The first burger I ordered from the new owners was no longer fresh ground beef - it was quite clearly a frozen patty. The lettuce was no longer big crisp, fresh leaves - it was all shredded and clearly stored in some kind of cool storage that was way too cold in an attempt to make it last. My then girlfriend got her usual, a gyro, from which the old place used to make fresh from a roasting spit. Now it was some frozen slices they warmed up on the grill. Devoid of flavor.

Sucked. Never been back. That location closed down within a few months, predictably. The other locations are still open and busy all of the time, but that experience turned me off to the very name of the place.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

There's a local chain place. They are only in this area, several locations in three adjacent cities. They do basic pub and grill food, but in a kind of elevated way. You know what I mean?

Anyway, all through high school and college I loved going to the closest location. I got a burger there almost every week. One day the owner of all of the restaurants decided to sell that one location to a new owner. The first burger I ordered from the new owners was no longer fresh ground beef - it was quite clearly a frozen patty. The lettuce was no longer big crisp, fresh leaves - it was all shredded and clearly stored in some kind of cool storage that was way too cold in an attempt to make it last. My then girlfriend got her usual, a gyro, from which the old place used to make fresh from a roasting spit. Now it was some frozen slices they warmed up on the grill. Devoid of flavor.

Sucked. Never been back. That location closed down within a few months, predictably. The other locations are still open and busy all of the time, but that experience turned me off to the very name of the place.

Sounds good.

Never reward shitty products and pricing. I'd say never be loyal to any business that goes down the shitter.

I'll always remember my old marketing prof (RIP as he died 10 years ago) telling us what a "brand" means. This was first year university. And that is it's a "promise of expectations". You buy it with certain expectation what to get.

If your local chain is bombing with new management, fuck em. Find another place.

 

[Punished Miku]

What city is breakfast $25? I ate breakfast in LA recently and it wasn't that.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

What city is breakfast $25? I ate breakfast in LA recently and it wasn't that.

It can add up.

In Canada, a place called Cora's has decent sized breakfasts for $15. Add a glass of juice, tax and tip and you're basically at $25.

 

[jason10mm]

I got a brewery bearish to me that has new shit on the menu every time I go. The chef will only make a couple of things each day. The beer they make is fantastic as well.

It isn't cheap but it is one of my favorite places.

Another beer joint near me used to supplent their extensive beer menu but mediocre food list with waitresses that were cute, trim, and flirty. Now most of the waitresses are just drudgery stooges. The beer list is still excellent but the food has dipped a bit. But I miss the ladies so much. All the hot Girls gone to onlyfans I guess

 

[InfiniteCombo]

I stop going to a particular place if any of the following happens:
(1) When there's a drop in quality of the food/drinks
(2) When the prices rise above what I'm willing to pay for the food/drink
(3) When there's repeated instances of shitty service. That may be long waits or faulty service at sit down places, or when take out places start becoming "cheap" with the portions they give you. (In the latter example I'm thinking of portion-based places like Cava, Chipotle, etc)
(4) If I see what I guess some people call "Covid Theater," which is essentially what StreetsofBeige described in one of his posts above. (Nonsensical/theatrical mask requirements.)

Since the pandemic lockdowns and change of life started, I can count with my fingers the number of times I've gone out to a sit down restaurant to eat. I've been doing most of my cooking at home. And when I do go out to eat, I realize just how incredibly salty or sugary most of the food at restaurants/takeout places are.

 

[newtypepilot]

There's this Tonkatsu place that I go pretty often before covid. The food is great and the price is quite affordable. A tonkatsu set starts at $15. During covid they closed down for several months to do some renovations. I went there one time after they had reopened and to my shock they jacked up their price significantly. A set now starts at $21 and the portions got smaller.

I don't care how good the food is but I ain't coming back if you are gonna jack the price by 40%.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I don't care how good the food is but I ain't coming back if you are gonna jack the price by 40%.

I wouldnt either.

I've been pleasantly surprised how much I've cooked at home since covid made lots of us hole up at home and WFH. I even bought a few more pots and grill trays the past year. My cooking skills are nothing great..... marinade some meat and grill it or slap it in the oven, and then make a basic set of sides of carbs and veggies.

Wont win any awards for taste or talent. But given the jack ups in price and shittier service, I got to still eat. And if it means spending more time in the kitchen and giving my money to buy shit from giant grocery stores, I prefer that way. Prices at grocery stores have edge up a $1 here or there, but still seem like the same deal prices to me. I'll give them my money. Dont care if they are big corporations already and I have enough money to spend an extra $5 at a restaurant. If the big box store is offering the value, they get my money. I look out for me. Not random restaurant dude #502 10 km away. He surely wouldn't give a shit about me, so right back at ya.

It's about principle and not getting ripped off.

The Tonkatsu example you mentioned. I'd bet every dollar I have out of that $6 jack up in price (and smaller portions to go with it!), the price of perhaps extra labour and price of food equivalized to an increase in price of $1 tops. It's rice, chicken, and probably a side of veggies. Your entire plate of food cost him maybe $2 to make. Yet the guy jacked up the price $6.

 

[PanzerAzel]

At a Red Robin.

Became a regular customer for take-out until I noticed one of the cooks continually trying to stare me down and tossing attitude my way. Went to get a burger one time and found, upon getting home, that a burger I’d ordered had been deliberately fucked with. Literally just two buns with an uncooked patty in the middle. Nothing else. I was a 15 minute drive away, got back to the restaurant and raised hell. Didn’t see the cook, but it was obvious someone had taken a disliking to me there (this wasn’t the only instance of shit they did, just the worst).

Got a new burger, two gift cards, and never went back. Not going to even chance getting my food cooked for me when it was obvious i wasn’t welcome and someone held dislike towards me.

 

[xrnzaaas]

A lot of restaurants have a specific lifespan and it was like that even before the pandemic: new place starts and it's got awesome (and reasonably priced) food and staff, months go by and the food and quality of service continue to go down while the prices go up, they finally lose the last loyal customers and shut down.
Now because of the pandemic I fear it's only going to get worse because many places are desperate to start gaining profits after the tough months and the inflation has caused making food and maintaining staff more expensive. Personally I always relied on home cooking and used restaurants only when dining with friends and relatives, but people who visit these places almost daily will definitely feel a change for the worse.

 

[Amory]

If there's a sob story message posted out front by the owner/management, I'm not going in. Something like "your order is going to take forever. Please just be grateful that anyone bothered to show up and work here".

It's becoming more and more common. Fuck off.

 

[GeekyDad]

If there's a sob story message posted out front by the owner/management, I'm not going in. Something like "your order is going to take forever. Please just be grateful that anyone bothered to show up and work here".

It's becoming more and more common. Fuck off.

Holy shit, really? Now, that I've never seen, but yeah, I think I'd walk the fuck off too.

 

[nightmare-slain]

i don't tend to go out to restaurants to eat. if i ever physically visit one it's to drive thru (mcdonalds) or pick up something i've ordered over the phone or online.

my favourite chinese restaurant was about a 2 minute walk from my house so usually i'd phone the order and walk down to pick it up then pay with card or cash (there was a cash machine next to it). one time i used Just Eat to order it and go pick it up. when i picked it up the woman was giving me shit for ordering online. don't be rude to your customers and if you don't like it then don't list your restaurant online. eventually they did take the place offline but i still would walk down having ordered over the phone. well i moved house and i ain't walking 40 minutes there and 40 minutes back. to be fair they do accept online orders but you have to go to THEIR website and make an account. No thanks. Plus their online menu is a mess. For example (and this is just a couple), if I ordered online and wanted chips (fries) with curry sauce i'd have to buy chips with gravy sauce AND curry sauce. if i wanted a large portion of anything there is no way to ask for that either but i could do that over the phone. anyway i suppose i could still phone up and have them deliver it but they accept only cash for delivery made over the phone and i very rarely carry cash. if i wanted to lift cash out i'd need to walk 20 minutes to the nearest shop and 20 back. i know it's not hard to lift money out but again i'm not used to having cash on hand and it kinda feels like i'm going out my way to go get some.

don't be rude to customers and make it difficult for them to buy from you. if you don't want to embrace the internet and only accept card in some situations then it's your own fault if you lose money. i've been buying from this restaurant for 20 years so their loss. this is just one restaurant that's done it. a few have gone offline and i just never bothered going out my way to order from them again.

 

[CrankyJay™]

I think it was a moldy bun I got and how unapologetic they were about it when I pointed it out.

 

[Liljagare]

I never go out for breakfast, unless I am staying at a Hotel, since a better breakfast can be had in the amount of time it takes to cook bacon.

 

[MilkLizard]

At a Red Robin.

Became a regular customer for take-out until I noticed one of the cooks continually trying to stare me down and tossing attitude my way. Went to get a burger one time and found, upon getting home, that a burger I’d ordered had been deliberately fucked with. Literally just two buns with an uncooked patty in the middle. Nothing else. I was a 15 minute drive away, got back to the restaurant and raised hell. Didn’t see the cook, but it was obvious someone had taken a disliking to me there (this wasn’t the only instance of shit they did, just the worst).

Got a new burger, two gift cards, and never went back. Not going to even chance getting my food cooked for me when it was obvious i wasn’t welcome and someone held dislike towards me.

What did you do to piss them of in the first place? Also, you probably ate a lot of boogers and cum there.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Back in the day I worked at a local Dairy Queen. The staff wasn't forced to wear gloves while handling food, or hairnets. Most of these people looked like when they weren't handling food, they were handling their asscracks, so that was one point. Later that year we got an infestation of roaches in the kitchen. I kept a tally sheet of all of the ones I personally managed to kill on a morning shift, and it was around half a hundred. Haven't been able to bring myself to eat fast food unless it's that or go hungry all day ever since.

 

[AlteredForms]

Don’t believe I’ve ever been to a restaurant on my own volition.

 

[Lunarorbit]

What city is breakfast $25? I ate breakfast in LA recently and it wasn't that.

It's in a rural town on cape cod in Massachusetts. There's plenty of tourist trap places in town, especially in the summer, but this is a place I've been a dozen times over the years so I thought I knew what to expect.

The complete and total lack of giving a shit by the waitress when taking my order and then the equally distant/head in the clouds/stoned expression of the "busman" when he dropped the food off was the turnoff. Then asked to give the tip amount beforehand? Fuck y'all, I'm leaving $2 in cash.

I get being stoned at a restaurant job if you work in the back; I smoke weed after work regularly. When you have 3 people wait on you and no one asks if how your food is or if you want more coffee/water then your service is dog shit.

Lesson learned. Shits gotten too expensive.

 

[Lunarorbit]

Don’t believe I’ve ever been to a restaurant on my own volition.

Wait?? What. This is more interesting than anything I wrote. What's the story on this? Not trust restaurants? Like to cook yourself?

 

[AlteredForms]

Wait?? What. This is more interesting than anything I wrote. What's the story on this? Not trust restaurants? Like to cook yourself?

Well it entirely depends on your definition of “restaurant” dining. If we’re talking about those fancy wine and dines with French maitre de’s who act like Peter Sellers in Pink Panther and waiters attempting to rimjob you to get more tips, then no I’ve rarely ever been. But if we’re talking the local burger takeout from around the corner then I’ve been too many times than I’d like to admit.

 

[nush]

it was around half a hundred.

that's about 50!

 

[TheInfamousKira]

that's about 50!

Good bot

Wait

This isn't reddit.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

Man, I never seem to run into these kinds of places where everything is a miserable experience. In fact the service on the cruise I was just on (industry hit hard by Covid) was impeccable, as everyone seemed glad to be working at all. I took my wife out for sushi yesterday at a local place and we felt like if anything the quality has gone way up from what we remembered and our bill was less than I thought it would be.

I guess ymmv, but I don’t get all apprehensive about dining out and very rarely have issues

 

[Putonahappyface]

Yup.

The mask part doesn't even make sense either (for cites where businesses want people with masks on indoors). To get in and walk to your table in 20 seconds you got to wear a mask. But the second you sit down for the next hour or two with friends eating and laughing out loud, everyone takes off their mask. That sure makes sense.

And the service is slow as fuck. One thing about covid is that the number patrons is down. Whether it's people hating the service or people still afraid of covid etc... I dont know. But places I've sat down with friends are much less crowded now. Should be easier to serve people. There looks like a decent number of wait staff still working that night. Yet most of the time, they take their slow ass time doing shit. Zero hustle. They worked faster pre-covid. I worked faster as a busboy clearing tables at 15 years old for $5/hr than these overpaid grown up babies.

Going to a Jays game.

Mandate: Wear a mask when you walk in the stadium and when you go to the bathroom

Allowed to take mask off: When you're at your seat sardined with 100s of other people in your section. They didn't even space out the seats. Ticket sales were shoulder to shoulder seating like a normal game. I'm rubbing shoulders with random guy beside me drinking beer.

Such logical reasoning.

The American dream.

 

[*Nightwing]

Grew up working in restaurants and I hate them. All it takes is one bad shift that the manager doesn’t care one day and sits in the office all day not doing thier job of managing and then servers do whatever they want, and cooks stop preparing anything and just wing it per order. Everything described can seriously boil down to one bad shift (doubt it was in your case and the added increase in price shows it isn’t of course), I don’t chance both my food nor my good time enjoying a meal to restaurants and stopped going to anything that doesn’t have a drive through decades ago… maybe the occasional slow smoke bbq place and Amish restaurants but that’s a different service experience entirely.

 

[6502]

How much battery did she waste posting that?

Thank god Carlos had the gentleman's number.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

How much battery did she waste posting that?

Thank god Carlos had the gentleman's number.

You know that's Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot right?

 

[godhandiscen]

Sorry for the rambling but even cheap hole in the walls are becoming too expensive. $25 for a single breakfast is insane.

It is the inflation. You also need to ask for a raise or find a better paying job. It is happening worldwide with the labor shortage and workers demanding higher wages. It isn’t entitlement or greed, it is just a reflection of the new prices.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Some restaurants have good atmospheres, tip for picking up? No. $25 is really good for having someone make your breakfast.

 

[PanzerAzel]

What did you do to piss them of in the first place? Also, you probably ate a lot of boogers and cum there.

Nothing, I just think someone there didn’t take too kindly to me. Don’t think my food was fucked with prior, but had I kept going I’ve no doubt it would’ve gotten worse.

Eh, whatever. Just the risk that comes with eating take out or having strangers preparing our food at all……we’ve more than likely all eaten something revolting unwittingly. Way I look at it is if it tasted good at the time and I’m still alive now, it’s all water under the bridge.

 

[ParaSeoul]

Nothing, I just think someone there didn’t take too kindly to me. Don’t think my food was fucked with prior, but had I kept going I’ve no doubt it would’ve gotten worse.

Eh, whatever. Just the risk that comes with eating take out or having strangers preparing our food at all……we’ve more than likely all eaten something revolting unwittingly. Way I look at it is if it tasted good at the time and I’m still alive now, it’s all water under the bridge.

Nah you definitely did something

 

[6502]

You know that's Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot right?

No idea who that is sorry.

I get the impression that's the happiest position to be in.

 

[dr_octagon]

For five dollars more, you could have gotten a tasty Italian meal

 

[PanzerAzel]

Nah you definitely did something

Aside calling in and ordering and walking in to pick it up? No.