PrintWaiter, could I get some veggies in my vegetable soup?
Last night we gathered with a group of friends to bid farewell to my husband's best friend. I wasn't particularly hungry so I ordered a bowl of sirloin vegetable soup. We'd been to this bar several times and the food has always been good so I had no reservations. I was very much disappointed to see that my bowl of "vegetable soup" consisted mainly of diced tomatoes with about 2 kernals of corn, a couple slivered green beans and some chunks of potato and carrot. I DON'T LIKE TOMATOES so I was deflated from the start. The broth was flavorful. The sirloin was tender and not chewy or gristly. But where were the vegetables!?!? I ate what I could before it was down to basically nothing but tomatoes. To top it all off, we had a crabby server so I didn't think I'd get too much sympathy if I had asked for another serving.
If you were faced with something like this would you have asked for another bowl/plate of whatever you ordered? I didn't, but I'm wondering if I would have been out of line if I had. It wasn't just that I don't like tomatoes , but the fact that I ordered VEGETABLE soup, not "diced tomato soup and whatever scraps of vegetables we can find". Tell me if I'm being petty. I can take it!
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8 Comments:
Well, when I order vegetable soup out, I always expect a tomato based soup unless it specifically says otherwise (like cream of...for example). Sirloin Vegetable I would have known it was tomato based...beefy vegetable to me always has tomato in it.
I wouldn't have sent it back or complained about it when it's just my specific preference. However, I would file away the experience to ask about the soup next time. Keep in mind as well, that in the restaurant biz, this type of soup is often a way to use those scraps that don't get used otherwise, hence the few kernels of corn, a bean or two.
ErikaWaz at 2:03PM on 05/03/08
I know how you must have felt. I once ordered a veggie sandwich (very unlike me--I'm usually a steak&cheese sort of gal) and I ended up with a grilled cheese sandwich with a slice of tomato, grilled onions and a few slices of black olive. The menu described it as thick sliced sourdough, melted cheese and a melange of vegetables. Which technically I had recieved. I ate it and decided never again to order a veggie sandwich in that establishment.
Your soup, like my sandwich, wasn't bad, just chintzy. Is it worth sending back? It really depends on how bad it bugged you.
Sitting here, reading your post, it doesn't sound like a really big deal one way or the other. If you had asked for a bowl with more veg, likely the waiter would have taken it back and brought a slightly veggier and tomato-ier bowl. OR--If you had ordered a second bowl, likely the waiter would have brought a second bowl and thought you were hungry or really liked the soup. HA!
But you can't really order "the soup, extra veg, hold the tomato."
wookie at 2:53PM on 05/03/08
I thought it would have been a bit petty to ask for a new bowl, but seriously, it was ALL tomatoes. I knew it would be a tomato-based soup. I fully expected some degree of tomatoes but not an entire bowl of them! I will be more cautious next time I go there and stick with somethign on the menu.
@wookie: "a melange of vegetables" is that a direct quote from the menu? Who uses melange on a menu? Will plethora be next? Or maybe "crapload"? :)
AuntJone at 9:03PM on 05/03/08
@AuntJone--LOL! I haven't even been back to that town, let alone the restaurant, but yes, the verbage included "melange" written on a chalkboard menu. I would have preferred a "crapload" of vegetables if that means more than three veggies. LOL.
Perhaps your soup should have been described as a melange of tomatoes.
wookie at 12:28PM on 05/04/08
When servings are really skimpy and I'm at a dive, e.g., bar, hole in the wall, I ask politely, "Wow! Is this really it?!" There's always a response - either positive or negative. Most times, they actually check to see what happened or give a little extra something on the side.
I probably would have ordered something else if I were still hungry, which I would be! I'm always hungry.
Ordering another bowl of soup reinforces how wonderful their soup was, and, if I were the server, I'd charge you for it too.
Cassaendra at 8:06AM on 05/05/08
It's not exclusively about the bowl of soup - the food itself, value received or enjoyment felt - though, is it?
Social context comes into play whenever one eats with other people.
In the social context you describe above, AuntJone . . . I would eat whatever POS (and that does not stand for point-of-sale) I was served, and would smile as if it were the most delightful manna.
The taste of the farewell to the friend would take precedence over the taste of the food.
But certainly I would gripe about the entire thing for hours afterwards. :)
Karen Resta at 8:24AM on 05/05/08
God I love you people.
@ wookie- Haha! I would be so tempted to use 'crapload' on a menu just because that is typically how I talk. I'd want the menu to reflect my personality. Guess I better limit my use of the f-bomb though or my customer base will deteriorate rapidly.
@ Cass- the only good thing was that I really wasn't very hungry but knew I needed to eat. Pregnancy places such wonderful demands on us! If I had been more ballsy or hungry, I probably would have said "this looks good, but could I get a helping with less tomatoes and more veggies?" But I'm sure a request like that would get me an extra serving of someone's saliva.
@ Karen- You are quite right. I didn't want to raise a fuss and wanted the gathering to be about the friend, not the craptastic bowl of soup I received. I muttered a few choice words to the husband who sympathized since he knows how I detest tomatoes, but I soldiered on.
AuntJone at 10:42AM on 05/05/08
I managed a kitchen in a restaurant/brewery for six years, and I have to say, the veggies get overlooked. I was always trying to buy fresh at the Farmer's Market, and make great things with them (like a curry-veg pie in addition to the steak pies we already featured). Problem is the clientele. No aspersions cast on the brewery crowd (hey, I'm one of you), but for some reason, veggies, at least when not battered and deep-fried, don't seem to sell at a "bar-type" establishment. It's all meat and carbs...possibly to soak up liquor for the over-imbiber. I had to give up on a lot of the pretty veggie ideas I had in that place because it just didn't sell, and I couldn't justify the skimpy profit margins to the owner.
All in all, I sympathize...and recommend ordering the vegetable soup at the lunch-spot cafe down the street instead!
rosezilla at 2:49PM on 05/07/08