Eating out weirdness

[mom-from-missouri]

We don't eat out all that often-more of a treat for us. But, we have had kids gone lately to camp and such, so we have been on a roll the past week or so.

Ate at Olive Garden--they were out of what husband ordered, so he picked a second item, they brought my food then announced they were out of his second choice as well.....So, he got his third choice (I went ahead and ate...) manager goes from table to table asking everyone how it is--we nicely told her why husband wasn't eating (no food yet). At the end of meal, we find out its all FREE.

Dinner out #2. I am still eating, husband just finished. A strange looking creature of a bug drops out of the light above his plate onto husbands plate....Waiter seees it, takes his dinner completely off the bill, although husband was already finished eating.....Never did figure out what the bug was......

So, tonight we go out for dinner #3--last chance before husbands days off end and kids start coming home. We pay full price this time-no mishaps.

And, we have enough leftovers in the fridge from our 3 dinnerd out to last nusbands next 3 days at work (he eats 2 meals a day at work as he is working 14 hour shifts).

So, spent a total of $45 on dinner for 2 that will end up feeding us for a total of 12 meals. Not bad.

[disneysteve]

That's great!

The Olive Garden story is strange. Why would they wait until they brought your meal to mention that they couldn't bring his? I'm glad they comped your meal. If they hadn't, I would have been having a nasty talk with the manager until they did. And how could they be out of 2 dishes anyway? That's something the servers should know to tell customers before they order.

Dining out doesn't have to be a budget buster since the servings are so insane that you easily get 2-3 meals out of one. So dinner might be $20/person but if that's for 5-6 meals, it really isn't so bad.

[Eleanor]

Wow, that's unfortunate that you had 2 bad experiences, but congrats on the comped meals! With the number of people I've heard say they've gotten a free meal from Olive Garden due to bad service, I'm not sure how those restaurants stay open!

[bjl584]

The last free meal that I got was in the Chicago Midway Airport. I waited for over a half hour for my meal. They gave it to me free because they have a 10 minute rule from the time you order until the time they bring it to you. I had a few hours to kill before my flight anyway, so I didn't mind sitting there reading the paper. Free lunch was just a bonus.