Would you eat there again if...?

[ChefMike09]

So there is this family owned Indo-Pakistani restaurant in my town that I go to pretty often, I know the family that runs it, very very nice people. They cook great authentic dishes that the mother prepares upstairs (not in a commercial kitchen lol) and is served downstairs (commercial grade). Anyways to get to the point, I had delivery ordered to my house and the owner dropped it off himself and very kindly gave me a free dessert out of kindness which was like some custard topped with pistachio.

So I put my daughter to sleep excited to go try this new free dessert, I open it up and its literally oozing fungus juices and bubbling, and full of fuzzy hairy mold, wow was I caught off guard. I took it upon myself to go there the next day in person with the dessert and showed the owners son who was very embarrassed, goes in the fridge to get me another dessert and with much surprise, that was also full of mold....he looked at the rest that were in there and those too were full of mold...disgusted to say the least. He then quoted "thanks for coming in to tell me man I would never of caught that" "this fridge sometimes goes off" wow was I pretty mad but I kept my composure thinking to myself if they are lacking knowing that this product was moldy (had to been in there for months!) what other food mishaps are going on with my food that I'm not aware of...

I love this place, but my wife now refuses to eat there now and I don't blame her.......would you eat there again?!

 

[brianshaw]

Is that a trick question??????

or simply rhetorical???????

 

[ChefMike09]

Is that a trick question??????

or simply rhetorical???????

I know man i'm just so bummed out for them they are such good people...i'm not going back to say the least lol....

 

[ChefMike09]

Is that a trick question??????

or simply rhetorical???????

it would be a diff story if it was maybe a piece of foil or something but mold is unacceptable..

 

[kuan]

Oooh... no. I would not.

 

[ChefMike09]

Oooh... no. I would not.

haha dont blame you...i was so disappointed

 

[kuan]

You could however give them advice.

 

[ChefMike09]

You could however give them advice.

Yes I did just that when i brought them the moldy dessert back the next day...lol. They know im a chef i rent a commissary kitchen down the street.

 

[brianshaw]

it would be a diff story if it was maybe a piece of foil or something but mold is unacceptable..

There are a couple of things that are unforgivable... mold... and cooks who don’t was their hands after using the toilet. I walked out of a restaurant once because I saw a cook leave a toilet stall and walk straight into the kitchen. When I confronted the owner he looked at me like I was crazy. But I was nearly gagging... and the food we ordered hadn’t even arrived. A bit of vermin is better than either!

 

[ChefMike09]

Haha yeah i've been in that situation before and i couldnt agree with you more man its just such a shame..they are just lucky I didnt ruin there reputation by posting a review with a picture..but they did lose a good customer.

 

[L'uovo vulcanico]

So I put my daughter to sleep excited to go try this new free dessert, I open it up and its literally oozing fungus juices and bubbling, and full of fuzzy hairy mold, ..., goes in the fridge to get me another dessert and with much surprise, that was also full of mold....he looked at the rest that were in there and those too were full of mold...disgusted to say the least. He then quoted "thanks for coming in to tell me man I would never of caught that" "this fridge sometimes goes off" ...

I love this place, but my wife now refuses to eat there now and I don't blame her.......would you eat there again?!

Between the mold (e-w-w-w) and especially based on "This fridge sometimes goes off"...

Not a chance. If they have a reefer unit that not only is broken, but THEY KNEW IT'S BROKEN, what else are they not taking care of? Cold tables at 60°? Soup wells at 115°? I wrote about my experiences with a similar restuarant on the "walked off the job" thread...

--- --- --- --- --- --- ---

There was a fairly renowned Chinese restaurant in a town I once lived in decades ago... famous for their food quality, but one time the food not only tasted off, but off AND strange... wrote it off as an anomoly, and threw something together. Tried it a second time a couple weeks later, and it was still "strange"... Not in a pleasant way, either.

I asked a friend with County Health if there had been any complaints, and sure enough, there had been a couple... He told us not to eat there for a while until he gave us the "all clear"... Not sure how they caught them, but the friend told me they ended up with photos of their kitchen staff urinating in the woks as they were making food for delivery. Thought it was "great fun" to belittle their non-Chinese customers in such a fashion. Needless to say... they were closed down shortly thereafter, going from a #1 place for food to a place busted for #1 in their food.

 

[someday]

Dude if it's that bad you might wanna put a call into the DoH. I know you care about them and like them as people but man, they could really get someone sick (or even kill someone).

I'm usually pretty forgiving for minor issues when I eat out (I know how hard restaurants can be) but that one is tough to overlook.

The DoH might be a good thing for them, because it would force them to clean up their act or get shutdown. That honestly sounds like some GR Kitchen Nightmares stuff.

 

[Seoul Food]

It's like a catch 22 right now for some places like that. You want to support them in this time, but being in the industry you know that a lot of food is probably being stretched longer than it should to make ends meet. I had a experience like that at a German place I used to love going to. The first red flag should have been all the new owners and management cropping up all the time but the food I got there was consistently good until close to the end when I stopped going. The last nail in the coffin was when I went with my family and the fish my BIL order was very spoiled, and the dessert my sister order to go had, surprise, mold on it, all over the top of it. I mean, how do you miss something like that when you are putting it in a to go box? Needless to say we haven't been back, and they just had a new owner and reno but with Covid we haven't had a chance to give it another try. In your case though it would be harder since it is a small family owned place. I would also weigh how many time you have eaten there versus this one incident. Everyone makes mistakes, and mistakes can be really bad but not everyone deserved to go out of business for every mistake either.

 

[brianshaw]

I’m willling to “average” my dining experience when it comes to service. Less willing when it comes to food quality or delivery errors. Completely unwilling when there is rotten food being sold. It’s really tough for the industry right now and not getting better. The transition restaurants have gone through have been difficult, costly and traumatic. Some seem to have “pivoted’ more gracefully and effectively than others. But if one is going to keep their doors open then they should deliver reasonable value for the money a customer is spending. Many places have limited menus. That’s frustrating but understandable. But when I spend my money I don’t want to have to throw the food away or return it because of spoilage. For me... that’s a deal-breaker and worthy of both a bad review, health department report and shunning. If they don’t already know better... they should have known better!

 

[halb]

They cook great authentic dishes that the mother prepares upstairs (not in a commercial kitchen lol) and is served downstairs (commercial grade).

If you knew that, the moldy dessert shouldn't have been that much of a surprise. They may be nice people, but they obviously don't know or care about proper food preparation, handling and storage. Would certainly make me wonder what else was going on that I didn't realize.

 

[Seoul Food]

I’m willling to “average” my dining experience when it comes to service. Less willing when it comes to food quality or delivery errors. Completely unwilling when there is rotten food being sold. It’s really tough for the industry right now and not getting better. The transition restaurants have gone through have been difficult, costly and traumatic. Some seem to have “pivoted’ more gracefully and effectively than others. But if one is going to keep their doors open then they should deliver reasonable value for the money a customer is spending. Many places have limited menus. That’s frustrating but understandable. But when I spend my money I don’t want to have to throw the food away or return it because of spoilage. For me... that’s a deal-breaker and worthy of both a bad review, health department report and shunning. If they don’t already know better... they should have known better!

lol yeah we recently go some take out from a chain here as part of a school fundraiser and they got our order wrong. I mean come on, you've had how many months of practice now and it wasn't like a massive order or anything. My problem is that part of eating out for me is the dining experience as well and you can justify the menu prices if you are including the nice ambiance and service, but it's a harder pill to swallow to shell out the same prices plus a tip for only half the product.

 

[ChefMike09]

Between the mold (e-w-w-w) and especially based on "This fridge sometimes goes off"...

Not a chance. If they have a reefer unit that not only is broken, but THEY KNEW IT'S BROKEN, what else are they not taking care of? Cold tables at 60°? Soup wells at 115°? I wrote about my experiences with a similar restuarant on the "walked off the job" thread...

--- --- --- --- --- --- ---

There was a fairly renowned Chinese restaurant in a town I once lived in decades ago... famous for their food quality, but one time the food not only tasted off, but off AND strange... wrote it off as an anomoly, and threw something together. Tried it a second time a couple weeks later, and it was still "strange"... Not in a pleasant way, either.

I asked a friend with County Health if there had been any complaints, and sure enough, there had been a couple... He told us not to eat there for a while until he gave us the "all clear"... Not sure how they caught them, but the friend told me they ended up with photos of their kitchen staff urinating in the woks as they were making food for delivery. Thought it was "great fun" to belittle their non-Chinese customers in such a fashion. Needless to say... they were closed down shortly thereafter, going from a #1 place for food to a place busted for #1 in their food.

dude that takes the cake lol I would of sued the crap out of them if they pissed in my stir fry!!!

 

[ChefMike09]

I’m willling to “average” my dining experience when it comes to service. Less willing when it comes to food quality or delivery errors. Completely unwilling when there is rotten food being sold. It’s really tough for the industry right now and not getting better. The transition restaurants have gone through have been difficult, costly and traumatic. Some seem to have “pivoted’ more gracefully and effectively than others. But if one is going to keep their doors open then they should deliver reasonable value for the money a customer is spending. Many places have limited menus. That’s frustrating but understandable. But when I spend my money I don’t want to have to throw the food away or return it because of spoilage. For me... that’s a deal-breaker and worthy of both a bad review, health department report and shunning. If they don’t already know better... they should have known better!

you speak the truth!!