4 STRIKES….AND MORE

By Gilles Trépanier

Here’s the story of our visit to a downtown chain restaurant last week in Montreal. We were a group of 6 people who wanted to celebrate the fact that a relative was in town. What better idea than going out for a good meal and some drinks?

While waiting for the other guests, I order a beer of my choice and this one is not available despite being well identified as a product offered by the house …. So I’ll take another product of the same type…. But it’s not my favorite beer…

The person in front of me orders a glass of wine from the house list and guess what? This wine is not available. But, according to the server, he can order another type of wine with the same characteristics. A couple at the other end of the table opts for a bottle of wine that, unfortunately, is no longer available… They must fall back on another suggestion from the server… Strike #2

A couple at the other end of the table opts for a bottle of wine that, unfortunately, is no longer available … They will fall back on another suggestion from the server … Strike # 3.

My brother loves tartars. Here is the perfect opportunity for him to order salmon tartare from the main menu… But alas, he will have to eat chicken, because the restaurant is short of salmon tartar… Strike #4.

I will not go into details about the flank steak, which was available but should not have been… I will say that the coffee at the end of the meal was excellent! (See? I’m not being entirely negative towards this restaurant.) But, it definitely won’t be enough for me to go back to the establishment in question. I usually allocate two strikes… and by the third strike, you’re “out”!

Dear restaurant operators, please make sure the feature items on your menu are available to guests. This profoundly affects the customer experience…