Restaurant Treatment
 

I couldn’t help but notice a number of recent threads related to restaurant issues, usually to express dissatisfaction over a meal or service.

While I do not own a restaurant, I know some who do, and can tell you that it is a hard business in the very best of times. Many fail, even without the additional challenge of today’s COVID crisis, supply chain issues, inflation and difficulty finding good help.

That said, I urge anyone who may feel they were poorly treated to try to resolve the issue with the restaurant manager or owner, before posting it on Talk of The Villages. I have found most restaurant owners very eager to work with you to rectify the situation.

Classic studies have shown that a publicly expressed complaint will reach an average of 22 people. Involving a social platform significantly increases that number. Many who hear it are likely to avoid the restaurant.

Please consider the impact your posts could have on the restaurant’s business before “going public” with them. Working with the restaurant is also likely to provide you a better outcome.

Thank you.

Nice advice. I take most complaints against anything - restaurants, shopping, performance reviews, etc with a big HO-HUM attitude. I figure each complaint evaluated against all of the diners, shoppers, viewers not complaining says a lot more about the restaurant, shop and/or performance. "Forewarned is forearmed" - but that's just awareness in my book.

I enjoy reading restaurant reviews, both good and bad. If they are detailed, they are very helpful. I think the manager should be informed about a bad experience to help him or her improve the business in the future. But, in my experience, the manager is usually not able to provide an acceptable outcome for a customer. A free dessert or even a free meal, which is rarely offered, doesn't make up for a bad experience.

How about $34 for a lobster roll at LightHouse?
Which is a modest amount of lobster salad on a hoagie roll.
I was buying, so I didn't bring it up.
Seems extravagant to me.
I would call that indirect poor treatment.

Doordash. Not worth visiting for the questionable dining experience in the current environment.

Yes it’s a hard business. Always has been.

We have had mostly good experience but some rather poor and have never started a thread one way or the other but will comment on them.

Poor restaurants will usually mean we are done with them if they knew we were unhappy and didnt try to make it right.

Lobsters are caught on boats, which require gasoline to operate.
Gas was $1.60, now it’s $5.00.
A lobster boat probably goes through 20 gallons of fuel an hour, that’s $32 to $100.
Lobsters probably $40 to $60 a pound

Please refer to Post #1.

Most boats actually use diesel, which costs even more than gas. And lobstering is very hard work and at times can also be very dangerous. We were at Cape Cod a couple weeks ago and live hard shell lobsters were $13.99/Lb and cooked lobster meat was $62/Lb. We will be in north/eastern Maine next week where you can get live soft shell lobsters that run about 1 1/4 pounds each for only $5/Lb. Unfortunately, the soft shell lobsters have very little meat in them and you have to shuck three of them to get a meal.

How about you verify the price BEFORE you order. If you consider the price too extravagant, you have the option to go elsewhere.

I would think the person who ordered that $34 sandwich, knowing that you were paying, is the one the complaint should be addressed to.

You have choices....
 

I always check out the menu online before I go. You can easily do the same. Don't like the prices, then don't go rather than later complain about the price to the rest of us.

Been here in The Villages almost a year now and our best dining experiences have been outside the bubble. Inside the bubble our experiences have been like the title to the old movie The Good The Bad and The Ugly. Don’t be afraid to go outside the bubble, lol.
That being said you can’t beat The Villages for anything else. Wife and I love living in The Villages. Try using the Foursquare app and visit some restaurants a little outside the bubble once in a while.
If you do have a problem with any restaurant always ask to speak to the manager they maybe able to make it right.
I always take restaurant reviews here with a grain of salt, lol.

Just got back from a New England Tour and $35 was the going rate.

Evidently you don’t know the price of lobster meat!