I have never been more outraged in my life while at a restaurant. I’m still fuming. What began as a farewell dinner for a close friend who is moving away turned into an egregious display of rudeness. The restaurant: Maggiano’s near the Galleria Our group of seven people sits down and begins looking over the menu. We order our drinks and decide what entrees we’d like to order. At this point, I’m mildly annoyed by the waitress’ attempt to shove a soup or salad down our throats, as well as glasses of wine, but I look past these minor transgressions, in hopes that her performance improves. It doesn’t. When the waitress returns she asks me if our table will be ordering ‘family style’ or individual servings. I tell her that some of us will be ordering family style, while others will be ordering individual servings. She then tells me that they would prefer it if we do one or the other, but not both. I then inform her that all of us will be ordering individual servings with the exception of two people, who will be sharing a dish. This seems like a very reasonable request. She simply stares at me with a very condescending look, which I did not particularly appreciate. A moment of silence ensues, when one of the people at our table says, “Just order.” Upon hearing this, I say to the waitress, “I’d like lasagna.” To my astonishment, the waitress retorts, “I’m just going to ignore you now.” My eyes bulge, and veins begin protruding from my forehead and throat. A greater act of insubordination I have never witnessed. As a patron, I was just told that I’m being ignored. Unreal. I give the waitress one final chance. She makes her way around the table, and I politely say, “I’d like the lasagna please.” Through my patient, tolerant behavior, I was the bigger person in this exchange. Twenty minutes pass when the waitress returns to our table and comes over to me. “I’m sorry sir, but we are out of lasagna tonight.” I become incensed at this point. How can Maggiano’s, an Italian restaurant that features lasagna as one of their specialties (in bold on the menu), be out of lasagna? I’m very skeptical of this and quite certain that she is singling me out as someone to annoy. It would have at least been polite to inform me of this much sooner than the twenty minutes that passed. She hands me a new menu and stands over me as I try to pick something new. I remind her that the soups that were ordered were not here yet. I then say, “You’ve gotten off to a very bad start.” No comment from her. I then say, “How can an Italian restaurant be out of lasagna?” She chuckles and simultaneously puts her hand on my shoulder. I am extremely angry at this point and respond to her, “Please do not touch me.” The entire table has their faces buried in their napkins trying not to burst out in laughter. I’m fuming. I order spaghetti. Ten minutes later, the entrees arrive. Everyone is served except me. The waitress comes over and says, “Your spaghetti will be right out, sir.” At this point I am literally one incident away from overturning the table and throwing my plate at the waitress. How can she return to the table without my food?! I sit for another five minutes, watching my friends eat, when my spaghetti arrives. “Sir we have included two extra meatballs for you.” TWO MEATBALLS IS THE COMPENSATION I RECEIVE FOR BEING TREATED IN THIS MANNER? AN OUTRAGE. I do not comment to her. Thanking her for TWO MEATBALLS is not going to happen. When the bill arrives, they have made no effort to compensate me for the inconvenience. Seeing as though I was there to see off a good friend who was moving, I did not take this matter any further (i.e. speaking to the manager). I let it die (although I did substantially reduce the tip). I will, however, be writing a detailed letter to Maggiano’s management tomorrow asking for the waitress to be fired. UNACCEPTABLE
I had a similar thing happen to me at the Olive Garden when a waiter was hitting on my girlfriend. I just asked for his manager, had my girlfriend verify the story, got another waiter and his ass in trouble. I know you were probably too shocked to react but in the future the best thing to do is simply ask for the manager. Asking for the manager in a restuarant is like invoking the power of divine right in 13th century France. The waiters suddenly become very cooperative. Also Maggiano's sucks. Michelangelo's is good Italian. Also that place in Rice Village near Baker Street... the Chicken Armondo is amazing.
I did not touch the meatballs. They had a very strange consistency. The delay in bringing out out my spaghetti was most likely caused by the need for one of the bus boys to pass these two 'meatballs' out of their system.
Karma is a b****. This is why you shouldn't go around calling people rookies and saying odd things like CASE CLOSED.
I find in those situations to kill them with kindness and don't lose your cool. I remember when I was eating at a Mexican place in H-Town when I was in the USMC with my grandpa and my g/f at the time who was 20. She takes a little sip of my kingsize margarita. The waiter comes up to me and says to me, in broken English, "Can I see ID." I pull out mine, but he motions to my g/f. I said that it wasn't her drink and she only took a tiny sip. He motions for his manager, who proceeds to embarass me in front of the whole restaraunt by making a big deal about it. I told him I understand how strict it is on the drinking age, the dangers of losing one's liquor license, etc, etc and apologize. He starts making even more of a scene and brings considerable stares to our table. Finally, he leaves and our waiter brings our check. He says, "no hard feelings, eh?" as he stares at my red USMC t-shirt, the skull and cross bones tat on my forearm and the angry stare I'm giving him. "No hard feelings." I answered. I put the meal on a credit card and guess what I gave him for a tip? One penny and and not a penny more. Betcha he was happy about that when he saw that credit card tip! Don't get mad at bad service, get even.
Of course, I had a waiter once who, upon seeing that I put a zero in the tip line on the credit card receipt, proceeded to mark out my tip and write himself a $10 tip.
Damn, that sucks! I always make a habit of making sure I write any number like that with a cannonball-sized decimal point to make sure nothing like that happens. I always leave something and if service is good, I'm a 20 percent and up tipper. I know those people work hard for a living and when they do good work, I'm deeply appreciative. It's people like that that make me appreciate a good waiter or waitress that much more.
I've never been to Maggiano's and the only person I have heard talk about it is my little cousin and she is 9. Now this the 2nd opinion. Things aren't looking good for me and Maggiano's.
Sounds like a successful round of psychological warfare waged by the waitress. I'm surprised you didn't pick up on that.
what was her name? i'm gonna request her and leave her a big tip with a note that says: Thanks for making TJ cry like a ROOKIE!
Seriously, Maggiano's is very overrated. I don't like it at all. I prefer the somewhat smaller, less well-known Italian restaurants that really taste homemade. La Mora right off Montrose is great Tuscan food. Crappito's on Mid is solid. There is a little Italian place right by Rice Village (forget the name, it's across the street from Banana Republic, but another halfblock east towards Rice/Greenbriar. And some of the best homemade Italian in the city is this little place on 1960 called Via Emilia. And, and for cheaper food, I think Macaroni's Grill isn't that bad and Fazoli's, while greasy, is very decent for the price.
T_J... Don't blame you for being incensed at much of her behaviour, although I suspect you didn't really mean to use the word 'insubordination', unless you maintain feudal atrtitudes towards wait staff... Question: Are you sure nothing else happened, as in anything else you said/did, before she said the " Ignore you." statement? It's possible you are editing in your memory, but if not, and if she wasn't engaging in a round of one sided good natured ribbing, she deserves to be fired. That was ridiculous.
Oddly, that was the reason I tried it - figured if it was still in business, the food had to be good.
