When your server stops to ask how your meal is, how often do you give a truly honest answer? Most of the time, the question sounds similar to an acquaintance asking, “How’s it going?”—to which you are absolutely expected to reply, “Fine” or some similarly short affirmative.
There are times when I’m honest with my server—namely when the food is extremely bad or extraordinarily good. Those meals that fall somewhere in between, however, I tend to keep my comments to myself. Based on a mediocre meal, I’ll simply avoid that restaurant in the future. It’s a sad irony that there may actually be a better chance of me returning to a restaurant where I had a terrible meal—because those places may just make it up to me and convince me to give them another chance.
The trouble with this is that many a good restaurant may end up on my blacklist. Based on feedback to a Chow.com story on this topic, it seems that a lot of restaurant owners wish their customers would speak up. Certainly, there will always be those who are unreasonable in their complaints, but the people who leave quietly disappointed are arguably worse because their business may be lost forever without the chance to make amends. (Those who go on to post their complaints on Chow or Yelp are another breed altogether.)
Constructive criticism allows restaurant owners and/or chefs the opportunity to improve. This seems especially important at independent operations where the menu is potentially more malleable; your critique may inspire their next special!
But what will push the average customer to give the meal an honest critique? I think a lot of this comes down to service. Does the server show sincere concern for the guest’s opinion? I’ve spent too much time lately at restaurants where the servers can’t seem to be bothered with attending to their guests’ needs, let alone listen to guest opinions. In situations like these, retraining the waitstaff may be in order. For a restaurant’s servers to take an interest in the customer experience, the management needs to first.
In fact, when a chef/manager/owner has the time to make a trip to the dining area and speak with diners, it leaves a great impression. Management like that shows both the staff and the customers that great food and great service is their priority, and it’s likely they’ll be rewarded for the gesture.
