Hot take: It's okay to tell a customer their order is wrong even if they're a regular

I've been working the line at a small Italian place in Portland for about 4 years now. There's this one guy, Mike, comes in every Tuesday night and orders the same thing - spaghetti carbonara, no substitutions. A few months back on a super busy Friday, he came in with his wife and ordered the carbonara again. Our new guy plated it with cream, which I guess he thought was standard. I saw it go out and walked it back to the pass. Mike watched me the whole time from his table, and I just said 'Sorry Mike, that's not right, give me 5 minutes to fix it.' He nodded and said 'I respect that you care about the food.' Most servers would have just sent it, but I think being honest about the mistake kept him coming back. Has anyone else had a regular teach them something about integrity in the kitchen through a single moment like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix_carter1mo ago

Love that he actually respected you for catching it, that's the kind of regular you want.

luna8911mo ago

Right? "Respected me for catching it" like that's not the bare minimum but hey I'll take it. My memory is just a black hole for useless facts and a steel trap for typos and small talk mistakes. So at least one of my brain cells is paying rent.

carr.brooke23d ago

Does that mean @phoenix_carter would respect me for remembering that one girl's name from third grade?