Accidents happen. Tonight, our waiter at Entremar spilled a full bowl of caldo de camaron on my husband's lap. The soup went everywhere, soaking the tablecloth and splattering his pants, his shirt and his shoes. His pants (pictured) are most likely ruined.
It was just...an accident, but the way the team handled it felt unprofessional. The waiter quickly switched out our table linens and gave my husband a glass of soda water and a napkin to blot the stains. Then he proceeded to deliver our entire meal to us as if nothing had happened. I don't work in the biz, but if I did something like that, I'd probably tell my manager or the host so that they could figure out how to best handle the situation, which by all accounts was a table-side disaster.
For my husband, sitting in soup- and soda-soaked pants was unpleasant. For me, I couldn't erase the image of what had just happened (soup everywhere!). It also felt surreal that our waiter turned all his energy and attention into getting our full order served. The two of us were of the same mind: To cut our losses and go.
In order to exit quickly and quietly, we asked to speak to the manager and told him that we preferred to go. I think he was puzzled about why we would leave an entire meal of uneaten food. We had already said twice that we preferred to leave but instead he offered us complementary desserts, which we politely declined. Then he sent us a round of drinks, which we again declined. It felt kind of weird to be stuck there while he kept offering us little make-goods. In my opinion, he should have just let us go, no questions asked. We finally left after paying a significantly adjusted tab for a meal we didn’t eat.
I'm just bewildered by the team's inability to understand that having a bowl of soup dropped in your lap is a legitimate mood killer.More