While going through Moab on our way to Lake Powell, we decided to stop and get lunch. Where, is the question! I googled and came up with a place that turned out to be a joint where you walk up, order, then wait outside with about 25 of your closest friends while two people inside prepare your food. Great reviews, hot sun, long wait...no thanks. Next?
Having a taste for American food, burgers and what not, we decided to go back onto the main strip to The Spoke on Center.
What you may or not know about me (okay, I know you don't know...) is that I'm a lifelong vegetarian. Born and raised. While I've tried lots of different types of meats, I don't care for it. Never developed a taste, etc. etc. No, to answer your question, I really, really, don't ever get a craving for a good steak.
But I digress.
After perusing the menu, I decided on the black bean veggie burger. A solid choice 90% of the time.
This faux burger was good. I can't complain about anything other than it was mildly underseasoned. But that's nit picking.
Here's where the problem showed itself. I flipped the burger over to put mayo on the bottom bun and there were a couple of large chunks of the veggie burger stuck to the bun.
I thought!
I grabbed one and popped it in my mouth.
Let me tell you something else that you're not likely to know. Meat has a texture that is very distinctive. It's that more than taste that bothers me with meat.
What I popped in my mouth was not black bean burger. It was definitely real four-footed critter. My taste is not discerning enough to know if it was grass-fed beef or buffalo, but black bean, it was not!
I took the second chunk off and put it aside, enjoying the rest of my meal. It was good.
One quick aside that's not really an aside. The cheese that I ordered for my burger didn't even cover the patty. And it was a thin slice o' cheese too. Same for the avocado that I was charged $2 for. Not even a quarter of the fruit, I say.
Skimpy on the toppings, no way around that.
My sister sitting across from me was a restaurant manager in the day, so I asked her, "Pop quiz. As a manager, do you want to know if you're kitchen put chunks of meat on a vegetarian order?"
She replied that *she* would want to know, but it really depends on the manager. Some just don't care.
Time to get the measure of the manager on duty!
I mean, here's the reality. Who cares if a veggie burger is good in a hamburger place, amiright? But the question is: how do they handle customers when something goes wrong. That's the question.
I told our server that I needed to talk to the manager and assured him that I wanted to rave about him for the amazing job he was doing.
When the manager came over, I knew what I was dealing with. I get the measure of a person pretty quickly and before I started talking, I realized that I was pretty much spitting in the wind.
I explain the situation, without making a big deal, just say that it was something that she might want to address with the cooks.
Without missing a beat, she began making excuses for why you almost had to expect it. Same cooking surface, blah, blah, blah.
Yup, I know. Sweetheart, believe me, I completely grasp the situation. Enough said.
On purpose, I didn't propose that she do this or that to make it right. A good manager who runs a tight ship will make no excuses but offer to comp the meal, and assure the customer that their dining experience is the most important thing.
She didn't apologize. She didn't offer to make it right. She walked away as if there were nothing for her to do with a customer in her shop who'd had something go amiss.
And I forgot to rave about our server to her. She probably didn't care about that either.
Honorable mention goes to Ugur (pronounced Uuuuuhr) who was a self-proclaimed newbie. I have to imagine that he's new to that restaurant, not to waiting tables, because he was good.
A bit slow coming back to take our order and bring the bill, but that may just be his non-American (he's from Turkey, I found out while making conversation) background. In other parts of the world, it's considered rude to bring a bill before the customers ask for it!
So there you have it! The food's good enough. The manager - at least one of them - doesn't much care. About anything, if things go wrong. read more