please help composing a letter

[Laurielee]

for a really bad meal we had last night at "supposedly the best/fanc iest expensive restaurant in town" that I just cant let go.

http://www.chefcal.com/DeMercurios.html here is the restaurants website if you want ot check it out.

yesterday was my bday and Dh wanted to take me out to really nice restaurant, well in this town that is hard to come by and and even worse on a Wednesday night. He mentioned this restaurant even tough we had a so so experience with them a few years ago. He sent me the menu and I thought well maybe we just had a bad night before so sure.

For starters, the service was excellant, that wasnt the problem, it was the food.

it started with a basket of french bread that had to be at least a week old left out to dry. We sent it back. The next basket was still real stale

Dh orders a very expensive bottle of cabernet. Waitress brings out these wine glasses. you know the real cheap ones that only have an opening of about an inch and about I wouldnt have said anything if they were even regular bigger wine glasses, but the table next to us had actual red wine glasses. Waitress said there was a wine-tasting/retirement party in the back and they ran out of glasses and she could brng mismatched red wine glasses, I said Okay. (I wonder if this group ate all of the fresh bread?

I ordered chicken canneloni it comes served barely luke warm. I barely touched it. I am just so dissapointed and cant believe the meal we had and the $$$ ththat we paid for this. I said I would have had a much better meal from Olive Garden.


So I want to give feedback and want to do it in a good way

TIA

Laurie

[DmOrtega]

It looks like you've already written the letter. You've mentioned all of the issues and the parts that were good. Copy/paste what you wrote here into a word document. It sounds fine to me.

[ChristyMarie]

I think if you copy what you wrote and add a little intro and closing you should be fine. Maybe something like this:

~~~

Dear < insert chef name from website >

Yesterday was my birthday and my husband wanted to take me out to really nice restaurant, well in this town that is hard to come by and and even worse on a Wednesday night. After looking over your wonderful website and reading about your dedication to creative, inspired cuisine my husband and I decided to try your restaurant for a birthday celebration despite having had a somewhat negative experience there a few years ago. Your website lead us to believe that you and your staff were dedicated to ensuring each guest has an outstanding experience and so we felt we would try it again. Unfortunately it seems that the only thing which has improved was the website.

First let me say that the service was excellant, that wasnt the problem, it was the food and lack of attention with the wine service.

Our meal started with a basket of french bread that had to be at least a week old left out to dry. We sent it back. The next basket was just as stale and inedible.

We ordered one of your finest bottles of cabernet, one which definitely would have benefited from being decanted. However, our server brings out standard discount wine glasses with an opening of approximately one inch and no decanter service was offered. I wouldnt have said anything if they were even regular bigger wine glasses and had the table next to us not been served with actual red wine glasses. The server said there was a wine-tasting/retirement party in the back and they ran out of glasses and she could brng mismatched red wine glasses, I said that was acceptable while wondering if perhaps the larger party was receiving the best of the bread as well.

I ordered the chicken canneloni which sounded simply divine on the menu. However, the dish was served barely luke warm and as a result I barely touched it. From start to finish my husband and I are just so dissapointed and simply cannot believe the low quality meal we had considering the cost and reputation of the restaurant. Afterwards I commented that we would have had a much better meal from Olive Garden.

Perhaps ours was a unique experience, perhaps not. I am letting you know about the situation in the event that this was the exception rather than the norm. I would be interested in your response to our experience.

Sincerely,


~~~


Then go trash the place on www.egullet.com and www.chowhound.com so other diners don't get stuck with a similar experience.

[MISSINDI]

Christy's letter sounds good. I would also head on over to Planet Feedback (www.planetfeedback.com). There, they'll write the letter and send it on over to the owner (not to mention, making your letter available for others to see your experience). If you're not familiar with it, it's also a great website to research a company's customer service before you buy, seeing everyone's letters on good and bad experiences.

[Laurielee]

ChristyMarie, that is great, I am going to use that, thanks. I am a terrible writer and didnt want to be totally negative.

Missindi, great website

laurie

[cocoa'smom]

I would send the letter to the owners, as well as, or instead of, the chef. I had a bad experience (service and manager problems - never actually got to the food) with a restaurant that has gotten (and continues) to get incredible reviews & write-ups. I actually emailed the food credit of the newspaper and he gave me the owners names and email addresses. I emailed them and was pleased by the response. They were really apologetic and sent me a $50 gift certificate. You may not want to eat there again, though!

[Laura B]

Originally posted by cocoa'smom
I would send the letter to the owners, as well as, or instead of, the chef.

I agree. I would direct your letter to the manager and/or owner rather than the chef unless you already know that this is a chef-owned restaurant (I didn't look at the wibsite you linked to see if that is teh case).

[tperes]

Defintiely send it to the owners and manager.

My sister took her DH to Outback for his bday (the nicest rest. in their little town), and also had a bad experience. Since I am a big advoacte of letting businesses know when I am unhappy with their services, I told her to go on-line and write the corporate office, knowing they would forward the complaint to the manager.

She received a personal phone call from the manager, apologizing. This was followed by a FedEx pkg. containing $50 or $75 in gift certificates and a personal letter from the manager, w/ all the apologies and telling them to ask for him the next time they came in, so he could ensure that their dinner experience was above their expectations.

Both she and I feel that too many people just take the lumps that businesses serve to them, and almost don't seem to care (certainly they don't expect) that they are getting sub-par service, product, etc. Sorry, if you want my business, my money, and my recommendation, you are going to have to earn it.

Good luck!

Oh, the letter that ChristyMarie wrote is perfect. Not too bitter or angry. Just the right mix. My recommendations would be to change all contractions to their whole word originals, and run it through spell-check. No offense, just I know I make spelling mistakes when typing on-line b/c there is no spell check here! :)

[ChristyMarie]

Aw, thanks everyone! Hey, from the website:

Cal DeMercurio, CEC, Chef-Owner ~~~ so yeah, send it to him.

:)

[Laurielee]

Its a chef/owner restaurant. He doesnt have an email address, I just called and he actually answered the phone and wanted to know why I wanted an email address. I said regarding unhappy experience and that Its in a letter, so I faxed it to him. I didnt want to get into it on the phone since I am work, so we will see

laurie

[ChristyMarie]

Wow, if he answered the phone I gotta believe he's on site most days and really involved. You have to tell us what he says!

[Wendy w]

You've gotten some pretty good advice here, so good luck. Last year, one of my coworkers had a bad meal and wrote to the restaurant, she got a gift certificate.