On Saturday night, S, my mom, Kate and I went out for dinner. We figured we'd be hungry after the apartment searching, and we could make the night into a Mother's Day celebration-type dealie, since my mom was going to visit her parents on Mother's Day. My mom had the privilege of picking the restaurant, off of my master list of restaurants (have I mentioned the master list here? I can't remember. Anyway, it's an ever-growing list of restaurants [mostly in Chicago, but not all] that I'd like to try, or if I already have, go back to [because you can never, ever, eat too many meals at say, Frontera Grill]. We're pokily going through the list and trying new places and eating at familiar ones; I'm sure that will pick up some when S and I are living in the city.), and she chose Shine/Morida, a Japanese/Chinese restaurant. I'm not sure how I came to put that restaurant on the list (I can't remember anymore what the impetus is for each individual restaurant--there's over 30 on the list), but I decided to refresh my memory of it on Friday.
Almost every single review I read about it said the food was excellent but the service was horrible. I'm always a little wary of reviews--food taste can be very personal--but when everyone says the service is bad, I get a little nervous. Regardless, we weren't going to try to get a last minute reservation somewhere else, so off we went. And the service? Not bad. Not even so-so. Our water was refilled when it needed to be, our food came out promptly and piping hot, and the waitress was very accomodating. I mentioned the reviews to the table, and Kate said that she almost never has problems when reviewers say there are problems, so what gives? Is it that we're indifferent to service? Maybe we don't demand a lot from our servers, and so their performance seems perfectly adequate?
I think Kate said that she thought maybe some people wanted their waitperson to be their best friend, and hold thei hand through the entire meal, which might contribute to the problems. But that surely doesn't account for the majority of people who complain. And I mean, I've had bad service before. Not often, but every once in a great while, you'll get a waitperson that seems like they couldn't care less about serving you. That's when service is the biggest problem; I don't think that you can fault your server for bad seating and a crazy busy restaurant. There's only so much one person can do. Maybe I'm too inclined to give a server the benefit of the doubt, when it's busy. I understand that it's not easy catering to tables full of demanding patrons, who think they're entitled. I worked retail, and as I see it, waiting has to be four million times more painful than retail. Maybe some people don't give servers slack when it's out of control.
Anyway, I can't say that I'd ever write a review of a restaurant and bash it because of its service. It could be the fault of one waiter, and it just doesn't seem fair. I suppose if there is a pattern of bad service, then okay. But having such a good experience really makes you doubt the other people reviewing the restaurant. (The food at Shine/Morida tasted pretty good to us too. I'd certainly go back.)
Comments