Last month, I had a woman call me and provide some feedback. She told me “she didn’t think it was good.” She was pleasant enough though a bit timid in her comments. I asked for a bit more detail if she didn’t mind terribly? It seemed that she enjoyed the service very much, but felt the value was not there for her. I asked about the food, to which she replied that her first course was very salty for her taste. When the server checked in she said nothing about salt level, etc. (We could have easily remade this item for her, adjusted the salt level moving forward and she might have been happier.) She told me she doesn’t like to complain and dislikes confrontation…to which I responded that honest feedback is not confrontational. It’s actually appreciated. It’s much easier to fix something in the moment. She also explained that she did not care for her dessert…(we provided her with the cheese course instead once she shared with her server it was not for her; she said the cheese was very tasty.) All in all it was good discussion and we came to an arrangement that made her more comfortable.
I want to take a moment to share and to tell you what I told her…we want you to leave happy. Not dissatisfied. When a server checks in after the first few bites, please be honest with your response. We are very grateful in that we have very few complaints; we try to make every guest happy every single visit. We write a new menu every week and sometimes an item might not be to your liking, or may present a bit different than what you expected. And it’s okay to say something, respectfully and graciously. We’ll do our best to fix it!