Tipping bad service
I haven’t posted in awhile as I’ve been away on holidays. I have a ton of posting to catch up on. Here’s the first…
While we were away we ate the Salt Rock Grill. My wife and I have eaten there for the past three years. While the decor is nice and the decent seats offer beautiful views of the Intercoastal waterway, it’s the food that brings us back.
The formula for the food at the Salt Rock is simple.
- The freshest of everything – They have their own dayboat for multiple “catches of the day”.
- A wood-burning grill – Most items are cooked over natural oak and citrus wood.
On this visit I started with the tuna sashimi ($10.95). It came coated with sesame seeds, lightly seared, sliced ¼” thick with small dollops of wasabi and served with sake soy. This was absolutely perfect and I fully intend on knocking this one off. For the main I had a top sirloin steak and a king crab leg ($28.95), both grilled over the woodfire. They had a natural smokey taste that made this anything but the a typical surf and turf.
Kudos to the kitchen staff, but even they can’t make up for the terrible service offered by our waiter, David W (as written on the bill).
The service at the Salt Rock is always sub-par and seems to get worse every year. This year our experience began to decline when our waiter took our order and left before we had a chance to tell him what we wanted as appetizers. After that was sorted out we ordered some wines by the glass. We needed to inquire about these twice. When the main course came my wife had no knife as it was cleared away when the apps were done. We asked him three times about this. On the third request he acknowledged with a nod and his usual blank grin then proceeded to go to the bar and get our drink order, completely ignoring the request for cutlery. I was dumbfounded. The rest of the meal we were left to deliberate about what to do about the tip. I had never left a $0 tip before. If the tip is the customer’s mechanism to review the service, I needed a way to make sure he knew it was unacceptable. If I left $0 he may have perceived that I thought gratuities were included. If I left too much, but not as much as 15%, I would be perceived as cheap. I opted on leaving $7, just over 4%. Which, as I write this, seems like a gross overpayment. I would have liked to have left $0.01, but I didn’t have the nerve.
Great food can’t make up for bad service.
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April 11th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
I have worked as a waitress at some of Toronto’s top restaurants, and I must say that a $0 tip should have been dished out! I am fed up with the lack of service at any establishment these days, be it bar or restaurant. I believe the “best” servers are leaving the industry due to the GRATUITOUS cut the “establishments” are now creaming off servers tips. A tip should not be expected – unless you have provided quality service. Definition: explaining food and offering wine pairing to compliment, recommending specialty items on the menu, crumbing the table, staying on top of wine and water service etc.