My daughter, Susie, loves the restaurant that is next door to the theater where she works. It’s a vegetarian restaurant. They have a few non-vegetarian offerings but they are primarily a vegetarian establishment. Susie and I are vegetarian. We both like the place, called the East-West Café. My other daughter, Tina, is not a vegetarian however I have brought food home for her from the East-West and she has liked it. I guess Mom just knows what to get that she’ll like. Tina had never been to the East West.
Today Tina wanted to go some place new to her so she chose the East West-Café. We got there around 3 PM and Tina was happy that they served breakfast til 3:30. She ordered the buttermilk pancakes with scrambled eggs and sausage. She also ordered coffee. I had breakfast this morning so I ordered lunch, my usual veggie burger and a cup of mint tea. The place was crowded because, it being a rainy day, everyone had chosen to go to the movies today and they stop in the East-West either before or after the movie as it is the most convenient place to eat. It being crowded led to slow service. Tina is hypoglycemic. She did well as she waited patiently for her food and her coffee. The fist bad sign was that the coffee was horrible. She let me taste it, thinking it was just her being picky. It wasn’t. The coffee was watered down and probably left over from the morning. Tina swears it also had a plastic taste to it. She sent it back and stuck with water. Then our food came. Her pancakes were not what she expected. They tasted like corn bread. She ate around them as the waitress was no where in sight. She ate her eggs and sausage. By then the waitress came with the bill. Tina very nicely asked her to take the pancakes off of the bill as she hadn’t been able to eat them but she had eaten the eggs and sausage and we were perfectly willing to pay for that.
The waitress proceeded to lecture her, not very nicely either, about how they make their pancake batter with whole grains and it is not a smooth batter which leads to “non-fluffy Aunt Jemima pancakes!” Tina, surprisingly, just smiled and nodded then muttered under her breath, “And that’s why I’m never coming here again you bitch!” as the waitress haughtily walked away. The waitress didn’t hear what Tina said. She walked to the back and proceeded to loudly complain to her co-workers about how we hadn’t like the quality pancakes that they serve because we were used to Aunt Jemima!
I paid the bill. Left a tip, and I left a tip on the entire amount, not the reduced amount. We left. I don’t think I will be frequenting that restaurant either. I am actually thinking that I may call the owner who is there on Mondays and let them know that their waitress’ attitude was not appreciated.
Geesh!
I think I’m stocking up on pancake batter goodies. No need to go through that again!
Wasted Days And Wasted Nights 
well i have been there and i can say in all honesty their pancakes do suck…
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There is never an excuse for treating customers that way. I definitely wouldn’t go back.
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The occasional crappy server does happen. I’m not sure it is fair to the place to turf it just ’cause of one bad experience. My taste is giving two chances. Then again, finding a place (around here in beef country anyway) that is vegetarian sympathetic is hard enough that I’m willing to cut any place that does that a fair bit of slack.
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I like pancakes. Nothing wrong with Aunt Jemima.
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Goodness, how disagreeable for you. Up here in PDX,restaurants tend to warn the patrons if they’re using a whole-grain pancake mix, because they really don’t taste like pancakes when they’re made that way.
There’s also no excuse for rudeness, or crappy coffee.
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Oh yuck! Most of the places around here put it on the menu if the pancakes are whole-grain.
David’s right; there is never an excuse for rude, and good coffee is not that hard to make.
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I agree guys. It was her attitude that was unforgivable. To talk to my daughter in that condescending way was not at all called for. To go back and talk to her co-workers about us, in the sight and earshot of all customers (I’m hard of hearing and I heard it about 20 feet away) is tacky and totally unprofessional. The more I think about it, the more I know I will call the owner tomorrow.
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Yes. That’s the right thing to do. The owner may not be (yet) aware that one of the staff is behaving that way.
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I would have deducted the price of the pancakes from the tip.
Tipping isn’t a sacred cow to me, it reflects my level of appreciation for the service. If the service person decides to make a scene out of me and my family, they won’t receive a gratuity out of my pocket.
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