To be angry at DH for ruining Father’s Day lunch out

[Chelle882]

Myself, DH and our two teenage DC went out for lunch today to celebrate Father’s Day at a local restaurant.

When the food arrived, there was an issue with DH’s meal and he alerted the waitress to this. The waitress told him she’d arrange for this to be re-cooked and it would take 15-20 minutes.

DH asked that they also take the other three meals away so that we’d all be eating at the same time.

The waitress said she’d need to check this with a manager. The manager came over and apologised, said that they wouldn’t be able to re-do the three meals which were fine but they’d deduct the cost of DH’s meal from our bill and also give us a free round of drinks.

DH challenged this and the manager stood firm. Without consulting me, DH said that we would leave and find somewhere else to eat. So we didn’t touch our food and DH settled the bill for the drinks we’d had and we all walked out (much to our hungry DC’s bemusement).

Obviously being Father’s Day, the two other restaurants in close proximity were fully booked until this evening, so we grabbed a KFC drive through on the way home (which doesn’t agree with me so I’ve had stomach cramps for the past three hours!)

DH maintains he was correct to leave the meal and that restaurant’s should not get away with this - we’d ordered to eat together and they failed to deliver this.

For the sake of our DC’s I think he should have just sucked it up and not ruined the lunch.

Do you agree with what he did or would you have just accepted the free meal and got on with it?

Please tell me hand on heart: would you be able to look at the father of your kids eating vegetables wile you eat steak on father's day? I, for one, could not. Yes he could have handled it better by talking to wife about it, this I agree. To walk out, Im with him, the chef should have offered to recook his steak in a reasonable time, it does not take 20 minutes to cook a steak.

Social convention when this happens or you’re at a big table and some food hasn’t arrived is to gesture to everyone else and say please start without me. Not to demand that everyone else’s food is removed until the head of the house is served.

who does he think he is?

He wasn't wrong in principle but I think ruining a special meal out was selfish.

So he gets a nice fresh meal, and everyone else gets something dry that’s been sitting under a warming lamp for 20minutes? No thanks

Drink his free drink and make conversation?

Yes I think he’s a selfish arse.

Obviously it’s not great but I probably would have just either eaten the steak (it’s the same dish), or chatted whilst they redid it with a few donated chips, then enjoyed my re-cooked dish whilst the kids had an ice cream.

If he felt so strongly he could have suggested leaving, but not made the decision unilaterally. Especially with hungry kids to contend with.

Was he asking for them to be remade or just kept warm? I think both he and the manager were being unreasonable.

Team DH.

The restaurant fucked up and ruined it. If I go out to eat with my family I want to eat at the same time as them. We are so used to crap service here, but it shouldn't be acceptable.

Why on earth did you eat something that doesn't agree with you?

They are teenagers.

Yes 'hand on heart' absolutely, well i wouldnt be eating manky steak as im a veggie but even so. You make it sound like such a tragic hardship, he needs to get over himself.

Well, is not like they are out to celebrate him, screw him, who does he think he is to eat steak with the reat of us?

My god, what a brute.

Right, who does that fucker think he is. He’ll eat plate garnish and like it!

i bet he complained deliberately because he didnt want to be there

I do think your DH was selfish on this ocassion, although it would have been a big disappointment either way so in a way I understand his anger and his reaction.

I think the standard of cooking at pubs and restaurants has deteriorated significantly since covid. I have had a lot of bad meals recently and I don't think it is helped by customers accepting poor food without complaint. The price of eating out has shot up, so I don't think the customer is getting good value for money in many places.

I always get paranoid with sending food back like are they spitting on the food doing gross stuff etc 😂😂 I think id have just left it not paid for my meal let my family eat and grabbed myself a burger or something on way home rather than everyone else suffer better one person hangry than the whole lot of you.

I’m so envious that sweeping meals away from your dc, and making them wait even seemed like a possibility to him.

For the record I also hate the cop out by restaurants of just offering whatever they screwed up for free. I get it… it probably does pacify the people who complain just for the free meal. But it does suck for those that want to enjoy their meal out.

I think service levels go down when this is the default solution.

Oh fgs - sometimes mistakes happen. It's irritating but there's no need for him to behave like a whiny child

I’m torn on this and without knowing how under / over done it was can’t say if I agree with you or him.

I like a medium / rare steak. I’d tolerate medium but anything over that and I would not be able to eat it and certainly would not be paying for it.

He’s also within his right on Father’s Day to want to eat with his family. A 5 min wait to get a new meal is reasonable, 20 is not.

So swaying to team DH unless it was barely different to what he asked for

If more people complained about shit food, maybe service would improve. It costs a fortune to eat at a decent restaurant in the UK, the least people should insist on is getting the food they ordered.

Better than leaving the restaurant though, surely?

Hand on heart? I'd be embarrassed being seen in public with someone who behaved like this.

Celebrate him 🤣🤣

It was a family meal. He should have put others first and just shrugged it off.

He’a done the right thing.