If you don’t own a retail shop, or a restaurant, I suggest that you don’t read this.
I happily entered a small restaurant the other and was greeted by the owner. Ahhh, a nice restaurant being actively run by a family, how great is that? We sat down and waited for our food. On the other table was at first glance, a grandfather eating with his daughter and granddaughter…I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but their voices were too loud to ignore. Firstly, the woman calls the owner and began giving a range of complaints regarding the beef, the tomatoes, the juice of the tomatoes, a weird taste and even to the point of suggesting that the food was no longer fresh. Okay, I thought, I hope we didn’t eat at the wrong place since this woman was complaining a lot.
The owner, a bit shaken and apologetic, quickly entered the kitchen after the discussion to check on all her ingredients.The woman, seemingly young and hip in shades at night, kept insisting that something was rotten about the food. She later moved on to saying, “I’ve eaten in a lot of (cuisine of the place) places here in the Philippines, and I know the taste! This is not (cuisine of the place)!” NO THIS WAS NOT A FILIPINO RESTAURANT. This was turning into a bad conversation. I looked at the poor owner, keeping her composure, as our food came out.
Oh man! I hope this is good and fresh at least. I mean we were in a tiny establishment so we didn’t really expect some real mind-blowing, stomach crunching meal that we will never forget for the rest of our lives. I took a deep breath and ate, being extra sensitive to the things she mentioned to the owner. I did not notice anything. I enjoyed my first dish. Mig did too. We looked at each other with a telepathic “OA” in our heads and decided to eat on as our food came.
A few minutes later she called the owner again, this time, they were talking about the Senior Citizens discount. “This is my husband, he is a Senior Citizen” she says.. I have no qualms about this discount, in fact, all seniors should enjoy this discount given that they will be benefiting from the things they bought. What I know though, is that a crew of 12 with one Senior, the restaurant will only give the discount to the dish that the Senior ate. So the owner began to explain that she gave a discount to the dish that the Senior ate. Until, “but he also ate some stuff from us!” The woman yelled. What the heck? This is ridiculous! But the know-it-all lady’s ways was at the same time disgusting and intriguing on how she will pull this one off. She began to point out the fact that the food seemed a little off and almost expired. She also began pointing out that she was CONCERNED why this is so.”Okay” the owner said, she went off to the counter to fix their receipt. She came back and itemized the stuff that she gave a discount to, including the stuff that he probably took a nibble on. Then they some talk about getting reimbursement and how much their refund was because of the new computation. By this time, they were at it for about 35 minutes.
Alas, I saw the owner break down inside as she said, “Okay maam, maybe next time when you come here, I can just give you a free main course”. Poor owner. She kept her composure the entire time but these Lexus driving weirdos were just out to get any discount they can milk off this small establishment. I am not a lawyer, but I know when something is just wrong and fishy, these people complained so much even if they FINISHED ALL THE FOOD IN THEIR TABLE. I’ve seen these types hanging around in the restaurant world for a long time….they will do anything for a freebie. If something is usually wrong with my food, I send it back telling the waiter what I think is wrong with it..I don’t eat something that I think is rotten.
And to think this place wasn’t half as bad as Ms. Wifey said it was…I think we ordered the same things and more. It was the very least, fresh. It’s funny how in the name of good service, we should still put up a smiling face despite the bullying and shaming. And guess what…they were three people, and our bill was way higher than theirs. Have you met people like these?
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