Thanks for bumping this thread. I was checking out the new Qdoba Mexican Grill (so sue me) near my office yesterday. About half way through the bowl, I noticed that my tortilla soup* was lacking something-- tortillas to be exact. I considered getting up and walking my tray back to the counter, but it didn't really seem worth the bother. But then a sweet young thing with a pierced tongue who was clearing off tables stopped by, made eye contact, and said "Is everything all right with you?"

I was so startled by the open-ended question that I asked if perhaps my tortilla soup was supposed to have tortillas in it. She said, very forthrightly, "I have no idea" and said she would check, was I asking for a side order of tortilla chips? She was interrupted by the man at the next table, who turned out to also work there and who instructed her to go ask for a side of sliced tortillas for me. She came back with them. I put them in my soup. All was well.

It was a better level of customer service than I've gotten from many a sit-down restaurant. Very smart management move, to have a person who's already circulating also solicit real feedback.


*Not the worst tortilla soup I've had on my loop block. That dubious honor would go to another new restaurant, the Elephant and Castle at Wabash & Lake. They had tortilla soup as their soup of the day. I ordered it. It looked like Elmers Glue, thinned with a little grey water, with a few unidentifiable green lumps in it. It tasted worse. But I figure that's one of those situations where I'm to blame as much as they. What was I thinking?

chgoeditor wrote:(I just stumbled across this thread...I hope no one objects to its resurrection.)

We are delighted when threads are revisited.

My Mom tells the story of when she was out to dinner with her boyfriend, dining at a local Italian restaurant near their home in New Jersey.

The waiter stops by the table as their eating and asks, "How's everything?"

Her boyfriend replies, "My veal is as tough as shoe leather."

The waiter replies, "Great. Well, if there's anything else I can get you guys, let me know," and walks away."

Reminds me of anecdotes related to wedding receiving line chatter.

Regards,

chgoeditor wrote:(I just stumbled across this thread...I hope no one objects to its resurrection.)

Are you kidding? One of the great joys of LTH is discovering burried gems like this one.

chgoeditor wrote:My Mom tells the story of when she was out to dinner with her boyfriend, dining at a local Italian restaurant near their home in New Jersey.

The waiter stops by the table as their eating and asks, "How's everything?"

Her boyfriend replies, "My veal is as tough as shoe leather."

The waiter replies, "Great. Well, if there's anything else I can get you guys, let me know," and walks away."

Reminds me of a family dinner at a really good Italian restaurant in San Francisco a number of years back*. My grandmother ordered a lamb dish and asked the waiter how it would be cooked. He said they do it medium rare (or rare, I don't remember). She said that she didn't like meat that was so pink and could she have it well done (or medium well...don't remember). The waiter said that it would be too tough, not taste good, and he suggested that she might enjoy a different dish instead. She persisted and ordered the well done lamb.

The waiter came by after we had our dishes to ask how everything was.** My grandmother looks him straight in the eye and complains "It's so tough!". The poor waiter had a good sense of humor about it.

* The restaurant was Antica Trattoria, 2400 Polk, SF. www.anticasf.com/. I haven't been there in years, but 10 years ago when I lived in the Bay Area this was one of my favorites.

**I had originally typed "The lamb came by after we had our dishes" and, boy, I'm still laughing at that image.

Darren72 wrote:The waiter came by after we had our dishes to ask how everything was.** My grandmother looks him straight in the eye and complains "It's so tough!". The poor waiter had a good sense of humor about it.

Darren72,

I think you and I may be cousins. You were obviously dining with my grandmother.



Best,
Michael

LTH,

Last I was at Gene and Georgetti's one in our party asked the crusty Old School waiter how they cooked the spinach. Answer, "in a pan." We all thought it funny, ever so Gene and Georgetti, the waiter was almost friendly after that.

That's also the night when a 70ish macher* got in a f-u shouting match with a past associate he, obviously, left on bad terms a few decades past. We also thought that funny, ever so Gene and Georgetti. As an aside, the guy doing the yelling was driving a turbo Bentley (we saw him drive up) and was with a young lady 1/3 his age.

Steaks were as terrific as the floor show.

Enjoy,
Gary

*Yiddish for big shot

G Wiv wrote:As an aside, the guy doing the yelling was driving a turbo Bentley (we saw him drive up) and was with a young lady 1/3 his age.

One of my favorite activities when seeing this sort of couple is trying to figure out if he paid for her physical enhancements....

chgoeditor wrote:(I just stumbled across this thread...I hope no one objects to its resurrection.)

My Mom tells the story of when she was out to dinner with her boyfriend, dining at a local Italian restaurant near their home in New Jersey.

The waiter stops by the table as their eating and asks, "How's everything?"

Her boyfriend replies, "My veal is as tough as shoe leather."

The waiter replies, "Great. Well, if there's anything else I can get you guys, let me know," and walks away."

I am reminded of the time when we went with a group after the ice fishing derby in Antioch to a chinese restaurant in the area. We were the only people in the place. Among other things, we got two orders of shrimp in lobster sauce. Most of us didn't notice that the shrimp were rotten until we had put them on our plates. I had to wipe every trace of it off with a napkin. One of our group who has apparently lost all of his taste buds, ate all of the shrimp, including what we had removed from our plates, telling us all how good it was. He's a nut. The server never came back to the table, but was there when we left and asked how everything was. My sister said, "The shrimp were rotten." The server cheerily replied, "Come again!"

Best response I've heard to the question, "How's your food?"

"Fit for a king. Here, King! Here, King!"

"How's everything?"

Well I finally caught the SOB that's been sleeping with my wife. Wouldn't ya know it the damn shot gun jammed. 15 years and it's never jammed before,

Now about this baked potato...

I'm happy to see this thread because the other day, for the first time that I can remember, I answered this question honestly. Oddly, the waitress did not ask us a general question. Instead, looked right at me and asked me "how's the prime rib?" Well, maybe she asked because most of it was sitting uneaten on my plate. But I was so perturbed by my lousy meal (at the over-rated, tourist-trap restauant that I knew would be bad in the first place) I decided to answer honestly, "it's really tough, almost inedible." To which she replied, "oh, I'm so sorry," and walked away.

I hoped that my frankness might bring me some tangible consolation other than her empathy. I guess not

=R=

Paul SL wrote:Best response I've heard to the question, "How's your food?"

"Fit for a king. Here, King! Here, King!"

Will steal immediately.