Owner of the restaurant stated, "i don't care". what would you do?

This is hypothetical, right?

If I ate at a place like that, and my complaints went unacknowledged, I would call the health department.

Tell as many of the people you know about the problem and his reaction. Word will spread and people will stop going there. A dissatisfied vocal customer is a business’s worst nightmare.

No, this is a true case that is happening now. its occuring in another state, other than mine, and the employees have asked my advice on what to do, without them losing their jobs.

The employees are between a rock and a hard place as they do something/anything other than what the boss wants and the health department will more than likely shut that restaurant down. Sounds pretty inevitable if it is even ½ as bad as you describe. Customers will simply stop coming and they will close just for that reason.

Their only hope is to see if the boss is willing to improve the quality of the menu.

Hm. Well, if the business owner kills someone with rotten food, they won’t have jobs for long anyway. And I wouldn’t want that on my conscience.

I’d tell the owner that he can take his E. Coli and shove it.

I’d got right up to the owner (me being the customer) and make a scene. What an asshole. Followed by..word of mouth, baby. I’d let others know.

An anonymous call to the heath department is called for, so that the staff don’t get into trouble. This man needs to be pulled back into line before he makes someone seriously ill.

Our local paper had a story recently about a takeaway getting its license to trade back after having been closed due to a rat infestation which was so bad that the inspector found literally layers of dead rats in the cellar. So, they’ve dealt with the problem and gotten their license back, but knowing why they were closed who’d go back there?
hugs xx

What’s wrong with my cooking!!!???
I would not come back

Take home some of the rotton food, put it in the freezer. Next day I would ring up the Health Department, explain to them what has happened, and then ask them where to take the food you have frozen. I would then ring the newspaper and give them the story.

Cruiser. further info. the owner is the chef. he runs the show. my intent is to protect the employess, but that appears they are in harms way, no matter the outcome. i had thought about picket lines in front of the restaurant, on public property, but the pickets would most likely be the employees, so again they lose. your answer is in the right direction, but i am not sure what direction that is. thanks. john

1. Call your local health department.

2. Never return to that restaurant; this owner doesn’t deserve another chance.

3. Tell everyone you know—friends, family, co-workers—about your miserable experience. Word-of-mouth publicity, whether good or bad, is much more effective than even the most expensive advertising and marketing strategies. A disgruntled customer can do untold damage to a business’s reputation.

4. Be relieved to know that this restaurant will soon shut down. Between the bad food and the owner’s attitude, the restaurant can’t possibly succeed.

5. When the restaurant goes out of business, indulge yourself in the satisfaction of knowing that justice prevailed and the jerk/owner lost.

Report to as many agencies as possible. I’m not sure if OSHA could do anything, but the employees could try calling them, as well as the health department, maybe the local news, etc.

@john65pennington Nothing the employees can do other than to steer the customers towards the not so funky items on the menu. Of course getting the Health Department in there could change things up but again only if it will allow for possible change without shutting the place down for good! Do you know it this is the way it’s been or just a recent change in quality??

is it a buffet? a deli? it can’t be a regular restaurant or else the people would not have paid until after they’ve eaten, in which case, they would just refuse to pay. if they refused to pay and the owner or staff insisted, then they could call the cops.

Call Better Business Bureau There might not be anything wrong with the food, the chef could just suck. But the fact that he is not giving refunds and treating guests and workers like that isn’t right… I’d say that’s as bad as a problem as bad food.

Sorry, @Cruiser I didn’t read your thread properly before I posted my answer. I thought it was a hypothetical as well. Are jobs really that hard to come by in the area of this restaurant? Come to think of it I would still do what I said above. The owner should be closed down. Don’t the employees care about the safety of the customers they are serving? As far as I can see, the employer and the employees only care about themselves, not the innocent customers.

Cruiser. new Chef/owner. since there are no “bad food” examples as of yet, we are actually putting a lot of faith in the employees words, only. i had thought about one employee secretly taping the owner and his liable comments, to use as evidence. again, this will put at least one employee in danger of their job loss. i just need a better suggestion on how to catch this owner at maybe something else, other than his bad food comments.

Walks away and never come back. And don’t forget to spread rumor about this particular place to other people so no one will have to ended up like you.

Wouldn’t go back. Would write a letter saying so. Would council my friends if they were going to go there. If I truly believed there was a public safety issue, I would call the Health Dept.

Theby, i am(was)a customer of this restaurant. i believe the empoyees care, since they asked for my help. this is rare in itself. this restaurant is located inside another huge building. its not a shopping mall and gathering evidence will not be easy.

You know what might be a good idea…

In my area, the local news does a segment called “Dirty dining”. If their news has something like this, one might anonymously tip them off, and see if the local news can investigate.

@Cruiser Could you not go back to the restaurant, select the most rotten food you can, snuck some in a napkin before you leave?

Seek, excellent suggestion. this way, i could be the informant to the news station and the employees would be left out of the picture. i have many friends in the news media and i may contact one, based on your suggestion. thanks.

i would call the local papers, and the local health department, and then just wait and something will happen. buying rotten food and bringing it somewhere is not proof of anything, as a skeptic will say how do we know what condition the food was actually in when it left the restaurant, how do we know the food did not spoil after it was taken from restaurant. that’s why Health Department has to test the food on site.

@john65pennington Sorry (again) the last comment I left for @Cruiser was meant for you.

@john65pennington Not enough info as to the push/pull between the employees and this new owner. I am curious about the “no refunds” I guess I could see a chef who would rather serve another meal as a good faith effort than to give money back. New menus I imagine would be difficult to manage not knowing what the customers will want so having fresh top quality ingredients may be part of the start up issues this chef is struggling with and may hit his stride if the employees support his efforts. Good luck with helping them!

Definitely word of mouth. If someone has access to Angie’s List (or another on-line local rating service), put a bad review on there and encourage others to do the same. Maybe also write to the local news and/or Better Business Bureau.

I would consider not paying for the meal if I could not eat it. I would file a complaint with the BBB, but some restaurants are not actually members. One could also complain to the consumer section of the state attorney general’s office. Of course the health department should be notified as well. I had a similar experience in Orlando once. When we left we stood in the parking lot and told people not to go inside. The owner came out and literally chased us to our car.

Cruiser. this new Chef/owner is from Franch. some french chefs appear to have short tempers and this further complicates the situation. he appears to be a determined person. maybe, its his cooking that has angered him. it may not be up to par and his denials are in his own defense. i will have to see how this plays out. right now, i need more info from the employees.

@john65pennington So this is the secret of French cuisine? ;)

I personally would go to the local tv station and have them do a public investigation.

Time to write a restaurant review in Yahoo local or Google.

To me it really sounds like this chef has lost his mind.
His chosen profession is to cook meals for people who are willing to pay for it and he says ”i will serve you rotten food and you can either take it or leave…”?
What is next?
BP serving you water instead of gas and telling you to shove it if you don’t like that?
Can the employees not collectivaly threaten to quit his ‘restaurant’ if he doesn’t come to terms with what a chef is supposed to deliver: good, healthy, yummy food.

At best, the restaurant business is very risky. The overhead is extremely high, it’s difficult to hire and keep good employees, and it’s a challenge to attract and retain a loyal base of repeat customers. Most new restaurants won’t survive, and existing restaurants crash-and-burn if something goes wrong.

Given all that, a restaurant with bad food or rude service has no chance of survival. When you have a really bad experience, remember that other customers are being treated the same way. Bad news travels quickly, and it’s comforting to know that the place will fail soon.

I guess the complicating factor in the discussion is that it is the employees who are asking you what they should do. It seems like they are screwed if they report him or if the restaurant goes out of business. Maybe if they talk to him all together about the problem and threaten to leave en masse they could affect his behavior?

These are good employees that i have known for several years. they are not new, the Chef is. you know, everyone has a boss and even the Chef/owner has a boss, the owner of the building. i know this person and i am considering having a talk with him. i will tell him that the Chef is making comments that are loaded with open liability remarks and the results of a lawsuit may involve him. this should stir up a little conflict. whatcha think?

It sounds like a good idea. I wouldn’t threaten him in any way – just put it as friendly concern.

Don’t eat. Don’t pay. Report to local local authorities. (or the press)

What if a local food critic were to dine there some night without the chef/owner knowing he was cooking for them. They could write an honest article without stepping over the line since it is their job, and the employees would be off the hook for any involvement. The owner would be forced to clean up his act to stay in business. I realize, of course, there is the problem of finding a food critic to go eat there—do you know any?

Excellent, @Gemini .

@rebbel——glad you think so! Thanks

I have to stop and laugh. How the hell is this guy still in business?

Call Gordon Ramsay and see if he can do a Kitchen Nightmares on him. I’d fear Gordon Ramsay’s wrath even above the BBB or the Health Department.

I don’t think an employee taping something could be used as evidence unless he knows he’s being recorded, right? Or is that only with phone conversations?

Chances are, no matter what you do, this guy is going to blame an employee for it, regardless of who actually did.

@poofandmook Thinking of Gordon Ramsay is actually where I got the idea of the food critic. I was imaginging him sitting at the table smelling and digging through the food, sending it back while commenting on what crap it is!

Is the restaurant a front for money laundering? I can’t believe a legit restaurant owner would deliberately serve spoiled food.

please post an update and let us know what you did and how it all turned out.