I am one of the 800+ people who purchased the Groupon deal for a meal at Dave’s Bistro Bar & Grill recently. My voucher was for a meal for 2 persons and included a full slab of back pork ribs + 2 soups or 2 salads. One of my friends had raved about their back pork ribs which I understand is one of their signature and popular dishes so I was really looking forward to giving this a try during lunch today. I’d made my reservation on Saturday and left my mobile phone number.
So we arrived at the appointed time (without breakfast so I was starving) and passed my voucher to one of the waiters. He pointed us in the direction of a reserved table and left menus on the table. I wondered why that was necessary since it was obvious what we’d be getting since he’d taken my voucher.
As we were browsing through the menu for drinks, another waiter came to our table and announced that they were out of ribs since last night. He apologised and said we could order from their pasta menu as it was 50% off. We’d come a long way only to be told there were no ribs to be had.
Now hunger causes me to get extra irritable and grouchy. You wouldn’t want to be around me when I’m in an extreme state of hunger. Certain hormones are produced which cause me to get incredibly touchy. However, I won’t lash out at the waiter or state my dissatisfaction vocally there and then because I don’t believe in verbally venting at people who probably can’t make the matter any better. I just walked out of the restaurant. They expected me to order from the menu without so much as a peace offering? How about offering a piece of cake if they were genuinely sorry about the absence of the ribs?
What I don’t get is why they couldn’t have contacted me last night when I’d left my mobile number with them. Was it THAT difficult to call me? I didn’t receive any calls from them last night. My only reason for going to 1 Utama this afternoon was to have my ribs.
First it was KFC running out of chicken (also deal voucher case) and now it’s this establishment running out of their ribs (it’s like an epidemic pandemic). Next thing you know, burger joints will say they have run out of beef patties/buns.
To Dave’s Bistro Bar & Grill, here’s how I see it – you know how many people to expect on any particular day for this deal as they would have had to make reservations beforehand so why don’t you ensure enough stock is available? If you really have no choice and you don’t have the ribs, is it too much to ask of one of your staff to lift up the phone and call the customer who has made the reservation instead of wasting people’s time like this? They knew very well that the reservation was with the Groupon voucher because I informed them as such when I made the reservation so not calling the customer when you have run out of ribs is both unacceptable and inexcusable, unless you are telling me you lost my number.
The purpose of meal vouchers such as this is to encourage customers to return to an establishment but in this case, it definitely had the opposite effect. I will have to redeem the voucher eventually of course (dread!!) but I’ll always have not-so-good (that’s an understatement) memories of my first visit there.
Oh yes, to paraphrase that most famous line of Bruce Banner a.k.a. The Incredible Hulk, I just want to add “Don’t make me hungry, you wouldn’t like me when I’m hungry”!
You did right by walking out of the restaurant – no point venting to the hapless waiting staff. Was the manager there? You can lodge a complaint by calling their HQ to give them a chance to redeem themselves.
Honestly, I’m pretty skeptical about buying discount coupons for F&B promos after this (and the KFC fiasco).
Didn’t make a fuss because have to go back there again to redeem the voucher and you never know what treatment you might get the next time you go back (if big fuss was made). I feel the same as you now, very wary about buying similar vouchers. What is the point of reserving and leaving contact numbers if they can’t even be bothered to let you know the meal is unavailable or perhaps they hope the customer will stay there and spend money on other menu items? They also had this morning to let me know before I made the loooong trip there (luckily I don’t live in Kajang/Seremban otherwise even longer).
Caveat emptor! You are right, establishments have been running out of food items lately and it is becoming pandemic especially amongst those establishments offering coupon type of deals/offers/redemptions.