Bad meal / dining experiences. Problems and solutions.

A guest of mine recently had a bad dining experience. Their main entree was not good. Basically, it was inedible because it was overcooked and crusty.

It was brought to our waiter's attention. Their solution? They boxed it up to go. Yes, to go. I stepped in and asked, "if he didn't enjoy his meal while it was hot and had to send it back, why would you think it would be better reheated at a later time and date?"

The check comes. The entree that my guest did not eat is still on the bill. When I asked about this, the waiter informed me, "there's nothing I can do.". "It's their policy.". I said, "Who is their and what is their policy?". Our waiter said it's the owners policy, it's not mine. I said but you represent your restaurant, so it is your policy. You work there, it is your policy as well. I understand why the waiter said that but nothing infuriates me more when an employee of a company uses the word "they, them or their."

I asked to speak to the owner or management. The waiter said, "they won't do anything about it.". I said, well let me talk to them and we will see about that.

Fast forward, the entree finally came off our bill.

Why does it have to be a song and dance? The waiter is at fault but quite frankly, I hold the ownership and management more at fault because "they" either have a training issue, aside from an execution issue and "they" don't empower their employees to fix it. Just fix it. Make it right.

Now I have a bad experience with this restaurant and because of the way it was handled to finally get a resolution, the likelihood of me wanting to go back, because of an off night, is zero because other restaurants that cook this same kind of cuisine can do it better and I don't have to go through and song and dance should an issue occur.