Sticky Rice Wickets - my terrible takeout experiences

Hello, all. I am a longtime lurker/fan of this forum, and have long intended to join in the lively, informative discussion and debate that takes place here. But I can procrastinate with the best of them, so I kept putting it off...until now, when my profound frustration and irritation needs a public outlet. Many apologies that my introduction here comes in the form of a rant, and I promise to make more positive contributions in the very near future. That said....

I will never eat takeout from Sticky Rice again, and may never go back, period.

A little background: one of the very first restaurants I learned about on this site is Sticky Rice. I have eaten there dozens of times in the last couple of years, and have introduced many friends, ranging from fellow foodies to those who truly fear the unknown, to their often wonderful offerings. Almost all of them loved their experience there, and many have become regulars themselves. So I am writing this as a (former) fan of theirs.

When circumstances prevent me from cooking or enjoying my meal in a restaurant, I prefer to pickup rather than receive delivery, because that saves a little time and money and should ensure that my meal will be as close to restaurant fresh as possible. Around once a month, my takeout rotation comes around to Sticky Rice. My takeout experiences were always fine, no drama. But lately things have gotten out of hand, in my opinion, and the traditional 20-30 minute window to wait for takeout has ballooned to ridiculous levels. But it's the way they have handled this development that really burns my bacon.

A couple of months ago, I phoned in an order, arrived 20 minutes later, and waited for another hour before my food was ready. But they were really busy and seemed a little understaffed, so I wrote it off as a bad night. But next month, I had a similar experience, and said something to the server, who apologized and gave me a free can of soda. Not exactly an ideal solution, but at least they made an effort to address my concern. Last night, however, things escalated to a Code Red level.

Again, I phoned in an order and was told "20 minutes". I arrived at the prescribed time (around 645pm), and the dining room was about 3/4 full, i.e. busy but not slammed. Also, it looked like they had beefed up the staff. There were at least 3 servers, and 4 or so busboys/runners/kitchen assistants. I paid, and when I asked for my order's status was told that 2 dishes were ready, with 2 more on the way. I then waited for another 20 minutes, during which time no one said a word to me. I was not, as many other establishments of equal size/staff/patronage regularly do, offered a seat, or a glass of water, nothing. At that point, I asked again for a status check, and got exactly the same answer. I then sat at an empty table, and proceeded to stew in my own juices.

Another 10 minutes went by, after which the server I had been checking with asked me to move from my seat to make room for a dine-in party, which I was happy to do, but he said nothing to me about my order, which really ticked me off. I went up to the counter, and told him that I had waited for almost an hour, and wanted to know the cause of this delay. He just pointed at the kitchen and said "Very busy". Leaving aside the fact that this was patently obvious, I kept my composure while pointing out that I had been told "20 minutes", and that I would have appreciated getting a more accurate estimate, as well as some better information about any delays once they became available. He just said "I know, sometimes it takes a long time."

I continued: "This is not the first time I've had this problem here, I'd like to speak to the manager. " Reply: "He's not here." "Well, who is in charge? I think they need to know about this problem." "No one is in charge, he's not here." And he walked away. I saw I would get nowhere with this guy, so I flagged a waitress at the counter and again asked for the manager. She gave almost exactly the same response. "Someone HAS to be in charge, and I'd like to speak with that person." "She's cooking now." "When will the manager be here, I think he needs to know that there is a problem here." The first guy came back over, and said "He already knows, so you don't need to talk to him." "Well, he needs to hear it again, from me, because this is not the first time I've had this problem, and I am now extremely frustrated. If I'm going to wait this long, I deserve to know it up front." "He already knows, I will tell him you said so, I will do it right next time."

In other words, the staff blew me off, contemptuously and utterly. No apologies, no sympathy, no customer service gesture, just the back of their collective hand. I work in the service sector, and in fact had spent the better part of an afternoon getting an earful from a client who had received very poor service from my company and one of our contractors, and could only offer apologies and a commitment to do it better in the future. I know how this cycle works, and they completely failed at even a token attempt to fulfill it.

Oh, and when my food was finally ready, and I got home....the order was incomplete! Perfection! I resisted the urge to drive back over and throw my food (or a brick) through their front window, and instead resolved to write this post, which I also intend to hand deliver to the manager on a day when he deigns to show up. Once that is done, it will be a long, long time before I consider going back.

My outrage is perhaps out of proportion to this lapse in hospitality and service, but I feel like I have been forsaken by an old friend, rather than just taken for a proverbial ride as a dissatisfied customer.

So...I guess Spoon Thai will be getting a lot more of my business!

Cheers,
Nathan

I don't think you're overreacting at all. If it happened once I could (maybe) understand. But when it happens a 2nd time, no way.

Of course, my retail experience tells me that, if you screw up twice in a year, the odds are high that both times will be with the same customer. I don't know why this happens, but it does. You can be 99% perfect. But that 1% will always happen to the same person.

That happened to me too!!! Its happened twice over the past couple of months. The first time, I should have known when I called and they didn't pick up the phone, so I hung up and called back. The phone rang forever but they eventually picked up. I got there in the twenty minutes I was told, half my order was ready, the other half took another thirty minutes to come out. Happened both times. They have a huge take-out business and I think that is the problem because while I was waiting for my food they could not keep up with the ringing phone and looked distressed. Its too bad. I love the panang....which was another annoyance -- when I got home, the container was only half full and its usually filled to the top!

I went there twice last year before I heard of this forum and or read of the high esteem in which many hold this establishment. The food was excellent, but we waited an inordinately long time, both times, for our food. Neither time was the dining room more than 1/3 full, but I could see a decent carryout business going on. I really wanted to like this place. . .a lot. But, I haven't ever gone back. I pass it sometimes and think, "Oh, that was good. Hmm, let's go somewhere else." And, when I'm hear and I read all of those wonderful things, I think, "Hmmm, I wonder if I am going to the right place???"