To think you should receive the meal described on the menu

[TeaAndBrie]

Slightly light-hearted but also incredibly annoying!
we went for a roast dinner today, when it arrived there were no Yorkshire puddings and no stuffing (as per the menu). When i asked where these items were they went to check and came back to say you had run out.
no substitutes offered.
this just mars the whole experience but if you try and complain you’re instantly made to feel as though you’re making an issue out of something unnecessarily.
this is happening more and more often recently. Anyone else noticed this?

To be fair to them a proper Caesar is made with anchovies. I only know this because I am vegetarian, and like you, check avidly for ingredients. But often now a Caesar can be veggie. So they do need to be specific.

I'm a chef. Speaking from personal experience only here.

I do make my own Yorkshire puddings. I don't run out of them. However- I could not necessarily rustle up some from scratch at any given moment. I know it's simple and I will have the ingredients but the logistics of only having one oven/rational (I'm not a chain chef, I'm an independent- we cook everything from fresh and have no need for millions of ovens/rationals/merrychefs/microwaves like some places) which is needed for all sorts of other components of the menu which can't be opened if I'm cooking Yorkshire puddings means I can't monopolise the oven/rational
for enough time to cook the Yorkshire puddings.

That said, the place OP visited was crap- 1pm is no time at all to run out of anything let alone a major component of a Sunday Roast and, that being the case, the host should have informed OP before ordering.

Last thing from me for now- I have never and will never serve aunt Bessie's.

If a Caesar salad is vegetarian it's not a Caesar salad, it's a plate of lettuce and croutons.

I would be very displeased. If 10% of the meal is missing I expect a 10% discount! What particularly annoys me is when (because of food allergies) they take items off the plate but still expect me to pay full price. So I pay the same as DH even though his comes with cream for example and mine doesn’t.

We went out for a meal where they kept randomly substituting missing ingredients but without checking about allergies. Despite knowing that members of our group had allergies. The waiter said the kitchen was a huge mess and admitted there was a high risk of cross contamination but not until I had reacted. Thankfully it was me and not the child with allergies. They also had run out of the ice cream from the kids menu and substituted it with alcoholic ice cream. Luckily noticed it was the wrong colour and queried it before it was eaten.

I'm totally with @eggsellentwork on this one. Had a caesar salad in a restaurant once where the sauce was fine, but they cut anchovies in half and placed them all round the rim of the dish. So strong that nearby tables were commenting on the smell and I just couldn't eat it. Ruined the whole thing, but totally my fault as I didn't think to check first. Blended into the dressing is fine, but not actual stinking fish plastered round my plate.

And not many people do realise theres actual fish in the dressing, because lots of brands now don't actually contain it. I once won a drunken 2am arguement in a local takeaway where (somehow) this cropped up in conversation. The equally drunk man buying a pizza in the queue in front of me wouldn't believe there were anchovies in caesar sauce and offered to pay for my order if I was right. We googled, I was right, free 12inch chicken pizza thank you very much! 😃

I know all the super cultured people of MN of coooourse know that a caesar salad has anchovies, but it's incredibly poor form not to list that on a menu, vegetarianism aside, fish is a potential allergen!

My husband who grew up in Yorkshire always calls them Yorkies. I guess Yorkshire is just big and terms vary?

@Comedycook

'How do you run out of Yorkshire puddings? They're made out of eggs, milk and flour. Surely all restaurants have these ingredients?'

We were out driving on a lovely evening over in Kent. Passed a pub and decided to see what they had to offer to eat. Ordered the soup as a starter which was listed as coming with 'freshly baked bread and lashings of local butter'. Sounded good right up until it arrived. Sound was tepid, bread was stale as if it and been out all day and no butter. When questioned - we ran out. (Butter isn't a rarity and they must have know they were running low.) Well, fucking go and get some more then/inform your paying guest or take it off of the menu. Not rocket science.

Too many pubs/restaurants just expect us to accept crap service as standard.

As said before 1pm is ridiculously early to run out of something so basic. Makes you wonder if they had any to start with and just blagged it. certainly increases the profit per meal.

Says who?

@billyt I went to a restaurant and ordered herb butter to go with my steak. Was told they'd run out. How can a professional kitchen not have butter or a single herb? All it tells me is they're serving up frozen or bought in stuff rather than making it themselves

I used to work in the now defunct Pancake Place on the High Street in Edinburgh.

The owner was an infamous meany and refused to let us close when we ran out of pancake batter, did not allow the chef to buy the ingredients and make it, but instead insisted that us waitresses would have to explain to customers that they were unable to purchase pancakes in the restaurant of the same name .

I ordered a platter of smoked local foods. Instead of the promised smoked trout, chicken and cheese I got some slimy supermarket smoked salmon and a bit of unsmoked cheddar.

The landlady was totally unapologetic when I complained and I had to ask for a reduction on the bill.

What winds me up is if they refuse to change an ingredient. For example pie and mash, and I ask for chips instead of mash. Can't do it. Even though they have fish and chips on their menu and burger and chips etc.

You should try some of the vegetarian 'roasts' I've had over the years. One consisted of a dry as a bone yorkie and a slice of aubergine. No gravy or anything else (the vegetables were cooked in duck fat).
Another one consisted of a pile of overcooked boiled mixed vegetables, the type you get out of a freezer bag.

You should try some of the vegetarian 'roasts' I've had over the years. One consisted of a dry as a bone yorkie and a slice of aubergine

For an awful moment there I thought you meant a chocolate bar ... I was just trying to work out how chocolate would fit into a roast dinner!!

Duuuhhh ...

It’s really annoying! I have a small Café, I’d always tell people at the point of ordering if there’s a change to anything.

We went to a pub that had a pizza oven once. I ordered a regular sized veggie special. My friend ordered a small tuna puzza, our husbands ordered large meat ones. The waitress kept popping back saying “oh we’ve run out of courgette, or sun dried toms etc is that ok?” I kept saying ok, despite being disappointed. When they arrived mine was just a margarita and they’d done mine as the small one and my friend’s as large! So I ended up paying extra for a special pizza and getting something ridiculous! It has been so slow and cumbersome service I couldn’t be bothered to complain. They didn’t offer us any money back! But we have never been back in four years now.

York has the Yorkie Pud Wrap: www.theyorkroastco.com/about/

But we've always called them Yorkshires.

I agree this is infuriating, OP, if they don't tell you or offer a discount. I was once in a local cafe attached to a park where I bumped into a friend who was having lunch. I decided to join her and went to order at the counter - they delivered my halloumi skewers to the table and I had two - but she'd been given three. I took it back to the counter and they apologised, and said they were running low, but they had been going to sell me 2/3rds of the portion for the same amount. Really put me off going there again.

I have never in my life not been able to get hold of plain flour, eggs and milk!

Lucky you! I couldn't get any kind of flour during the first lockdown. It seemed like everyone was baking.

Some supermarkets definitely allow their cafes to get things from the shop floor. It sounds like Asda might be an exception. I know both Morrisons and Tesco allow it.

i would have politely sent it back. It really irks me when the food served isn't as described on the menu. I recently ordered a steak salad with broccolini and several other veg and herbs in a chain restaurant. What it came nearly every vegetable and herb was missing and I just had a plate of steak and rocket with no dressing. It was very bland and disappointing - I complained (politely) and it was taken off the bill.

The most annoying omission was when I ordered lobster with garlic butter in a very naice place in Brighton. I wasn't that fussed about the lobster but I really fancied the garlic butter!. It was served dry and I was told they had run out of garlic butter. How can a kitchen run out of something so basic? All they had to do was send someone to Morrisons! They asked me would I like them to take it back and order something else and we're visibly surprised when I took them up on it. I ordered the moules mariniere instead a recipe that includes both garlic and butter and they managed that one with no problem!

@Everydaydayisaschoolday good for you, lobster is not cheap and completely pointless without the lovely buttery garlicky sauce to dip it in.

Husband took my daughter to Macdonalds the other day and they had run out of burgers. Then he ordered a coffee and they had run out of milk so no hot drinks 🙄

Even a discount doesn’t cut it as presumably you ordered fancying a proper roast. If advised no Yorkshire pud you might order something else. It hassle if you send it back everyone else is eating their meal. I’d have asked for a discount and leave a review.

Or you go somewhere and have a nice meal you enjoyed-Go again and the meal comes out different with things missing, or cooked differently, I suppose this is down to different chefs on the day but still annoying.
Same in cafes-sometimes they include a biscuit with my pot of tea, next time no biscuit!

They should have said!

We went to the pub for Sunday lunch yesterday, been many times, always great. Except yesterday. I don't eat meat so as usual asked for Sunday roast, no meat. The bill was high, husband checked. They had charged me for a roast beef dinner, the most expensive meat option on the menu. The waitress argued it was reasonable to do so. Husband had chicken. He didn't eat it all as it was dry. When he said this, the waitress said "go somewhere else then". We will! But what the fuck were they thinking?