Live insect in sandwich at Fatoosh - indiferent server
Sunday afternoon, durng a sudden feeling of generosity due to a small $$ winfall, I treated my 2 friends to lunch at Fatoosh, the 5th ave/9th St location of the popular bkhgts Middle Eastern restaurant.
After about 5 minutes into my Kafta Kabob sandwich, I noticed a small, thin, roach-like bug come out of the lettuce and run around the pita bread!!
I took the plate & showed it to the man behind the counter who had waited on me.
Immediately, he was defensive & "played dumb"
"What?...uh...what is the problem? Bug? Roach? Where?" etc.
I pulled back the bead to reveal the little critter, now on the plate & told him that it came from inside the lettuce. "Really?" he said.
He then proceeded to kill it & hold it up to me, on his finger & say "Its not a ROACH!"
Like it makes a difference.
He never apologized, but made me feel like I was putting him out.
"So what do you want? New sandwich? Money back?"
I was getting miffed & asked for a FULL REFUND, of my food & my friends food, which I paid for. I figured that it was only fair, seeing as he was being such a jerk about everything & not aplogizing at all.
He, of course, said no, but I persisted & he came up with the best line of the day:
"You can have a full discount, if your friends STOP EATING RIGHT NOW & GIVE ME BACK MY FOOD!"
I told him that the food was half-eaten, was he going to re-sell it? and he needs to give me a discount, no matter what my friends decide to do. (fyi, one of them was grossed out, the other a bit of a glutton & could care less about the appearnce of a bug)
He said no became very confrontational, apparently "the customer is (not) always right" so I "took it to the people" and raised my voice and announced to the whole roomfull of patrons,
"Ladies & gentlemen, for your information, Ive FOUND A LIVE ROACH IN MY SANDWICH!! I just want you all to be aware of this"
This got him to give me my discount & tell me to leave & "you shut up now" etc. "get out or I'll call 911" etc
This is when I had enough & lost my control & maturity a little and started in on a flurrry of explatives. It takes alot for me to get this way & Im not proud of it, but this guys whole reaction to & way of handling the situation was so unprofessional & ridiculous that I couldn't take it anymore.
We left & I called 311 and reported Fatoosh for an insect violation.
Ive always liked the food at the old Fatoosh & last year was excited to have one in the neighborhood, but needless to say...
I AIN'T GOING BACK!!
After about 5 minutes into my Kafta Kabob sandwich, I noticed a small, thin, roach-like bug come out of the lettuce and run around the pita bread!!
I took the plate & showed it to the man behind the counter who had waited on me.
Immediately, he was defensive & "played dumb"
"What?...uh...what is the problem? Bug? Roach? Where?" etc.
I pulled back the bead to reveal the little critter, now on the plate & told him that it came from inside the lettuce. "Really?" he said.
He then proceeded to kill it & hold it up to me, on his finger & say "Its not a ROACH!"
Like it makes a difference.
He never apologized, but made me feel like I was putting him out.
"So what do you want? New sandwich? Money back?"
I was getting miffed & asked for a FULL REFUND, of my food & my friends food, which I paid for. I figured that it was only fair, seeing as he was being such a jerk about everything & not aplogizing at all.
He, of course, said no, but I persisted & he came up with the best line of the day:
"You can have a full discount, if your friends STOP EATING RIGHT NOW & GIVE ME BACK MY FOOD!"
I told him that the food was half-eaten, was he going to re-sell it? and he needs to give me a discount, no matter what my friends decide to do. (fyi, one of them was grossed out, the other a bit of a glutton & could care less about the appearnce of a bug)
He said no became very confrontational, apparently "the customer is (not) always right" so I "took it to the people" and raised my voice and announced to the whole roomfull of patrons,
"Ladies & gentlemen, for your information, Ive FOUND A LIVE ROACH IN MY SANDWICH!! I just want you all to be aware of this"
This got him to give me my discount & tell me to leave & "you shut up now" etc. "get out or I'll call 911" etc
This is when I had enough & lost my control & maturity a little and started in on a flurrry of explatives. It takes alot for me to get this way & Im not proud of it, but this guys whole reaction to & way of handling the situation was so unprofessional & ridiculous that I couldn't take it anymore.
We left & I called 311 and reported Fatoosh for an insect violation.
Ive always liked the food at the old Fatoosh & last year was excited to have one in the neighborhood, but needless to say...
I AIN'T GOING BACK!!
Comments
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Ugh...that sucks. Fatoosh is my "go-to" place after my Friday evening workouts. I can believe you found a bug (it's Brooklyn). I can't believe the guy behind the counter would be so rude and unprofessional.
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Where's Carmen? Girl get over here and commiserate!
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Devil's advocate here. I assume that its not a high end joint, correct? If its a casual spot I see no reason why he should've comped everyone's food at the table. He was right- your friends kept eating! He should have automatically offered to either make you a new sammy or give your money back...with an apology. So you got the offer, but no apology, which is what it seems you really wanted. The fact that you like the place in general, maybe you could have given the guy the benefit of the doubt (bad day- we ALL have them). But now, you've screwed yourself out of it cause you wanted to be loud and disruptive, which IMHO, I don't think was really called for.
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If it's a positive attitude you want with your Middle Eastern food, you'll never find more polite or more helpful staff anywhere than the food prep folks at Mr. Felafel.
I like the food there, and I especially like the cooperativeness and friendliness of the staff. They are amazingly well trained to respect their customers. -
I wish I had been there!! funny on the outside : ) All it takes is someone to apologize and we can move on when this crap happens. It seems like every time someone gets a BUG sandwich, we are more than understanding--and still mistreated! I will never go to FUEL after reading about it here. I mean, I know this stuff happens; but there's a way of dealing with it that these places don't get.
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Ugh, that sucks. I love that place and have always had pleasant interactions with the staff there. I'll probably still go there, but this story will always be in the back on my mind.
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Oh man-we love Fatoosh! Just had sandwiches from there on Friday-shoot-this kills it for me now.
Oh, and, yeah-i don't see why they would have comped your friend's food too! They were eating theirs and not complaining-they should have given you your money back for your sandwich and that was it! -
Look at it on the bright side: the insect probably came from the field in which the lettuce was grown. That means minimal or no pesticide use. What would you rather have in your food: a living creature or nervous system destroying, endocrine disrupting pesticides?
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Doesn't Kim Kardashian have a fatoosh?
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I care more about customer service than I care about the food. If I'm giving a restaurant money for food and the staff acts rude to me, I cut ties. Life is too short and food is too expensive to get stressed out by rude restaurant workers who treat you like a jerk because the food that they charged you for and served to you was contaminated with vermin.
This post might not exist in the restaurant worker reacted differently. -
LongTimeSloper wrote: Oh man-we love Fatoosh! Just had sandwiches from there on Friday
Unbeknown to you, you just had BUG-filled sandwiches.
If these restaurants would put bugs on their menu as a trendy cuisine, foodies would race to live insect tappas. -
Subject: Re: Live insect in sandwich at Fatoosh - indiferent server
TomGee wrote:
Don't you think you overreacted, er, just a little?
He said no became very confrontational, apparently "the customer is (not) always right" so I "took it to the people" and raised my voice and announced to the whole roomfull of patrons,
"Ladies & gentlemen, for your information, Ive FOUND A LIVE ROACH IN MY SANDWICH!! I just want you all to be aware of this"
I don't know about you, but I've found insects more than once in my vegetables at home. It just happens sometimes.
If it actually WAS a roach, then maybe but, whatever..
Judging from your post, you sound like one of those people who waits their entire life for a moment like that, just so you can play Shakespeare. -
raw wrote: [quote=LongTimeSloper]Oh man-we love Fatoosh! Just had sandwiches from there on Friday
Unbeknown to you, you just had BUG-filled sandwiches.
If these restaurants would put bugs on their menu as a trendy cuisine, foodies would race to live insect tappas.
Yeah, not necessarily true. there were no bugs (that I saw) in my sandwiches-thanks for putting the thought in my head though- -
Subject: Re: Live insect in sandwich at Fatoosh - indiferent server
TomGee wrote: I pulled back the bead to reveal the little critter, now on the plate & told him that it came from inside the lettuce. "Really?" he said.
You lied to the patrons. You know it wasn't a roach. That's not cool.
He then proceeded to kill it & hold it up to me, on his finger & say "Its not a ROACH!"
Like it makes a difference.
He said no became very confrontational, apparently "the customer is (not) always right" so I "took it to the people" and raised my voice and announced to the whole roomfull of patrons,
"Ladies & gentlemen, for your information, Ive FOUND A LIVE ROACH IN MY SANDWICH!! I just want you all to be aware of this"TomGee wrote:
I agree with Whatchuwant and Obamanut . You shouldn't have asked for a refund on your friend's food especially while one of them is sitting there scarfing the food down. You want your refund for everyones food , then all the plates of food should have been up there with you.
I was getting miffed & asked for a FULL REFUND, of my food & my friends food, which I paid for.
"You can have a full discount, if your friends STOP EATING RIGHT NOW & GIVE ME BACK MY FOOD!"
I told him that the food was half-eaten, was he going to re-sell it? and he needs to give me a discount, no matter what my friends decide to do. (fyi, one of them was grossed out, the other a bit of a glutton & could care less about the appearnce of a bug)TomGee wrote: And he needs to give me a discount , no matter what my friends decide to do
- Dude , are you serious? :scratch:
Yeah your food is gross and has roaches and I'm so disgusted , I want all my money back for my food as well as my friends food....but yeah my friends can eat it all up for free , cuz it's so nasty and they like that kind of thing.....TomGee wrote: Ive always liked the food at the old Fatoosh & last year was excited to have one in the neighborhood, but needless to say...
Like they would want you to ever go back? :roll:
I AIN'T GOING BACK!!
The worker sucks for not trying to be more polite about everything ,but how you acted is worse. -
I hate to agree, but I do... I think demanding a refund on your friends food is a bit over the top. I think he has the right to get back all the food your friends ate (including your friend scarfing down his plate) to just ensure you are not one of those people who toss a bug in to get free food (if those people really do exist). Bad customer service regardless based on his reaction in the beginning.
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Roaches are invading. All these posts are giving me PTSD
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Interesting comments....
I gotta say, more than the bug (which I still believe to be a ROACH), it was the whole attitude of the counter guy.
For one thing, he didnt need to kill it, hold it up & comment on the entomology of the bug. What was that about? Also the whole defensive, "its your fault" stance, to make me feel respnosible for his restaurant being dirty.
Im 44 yrs old, not a teenager, does anyone really think a middle aged would carry LIVE bugs around with them, to plant them in food to save a lousy $30 bucks???
This guy has NO idea of customer service, he HATES his customers, don't you get it?
Ive found a bug in the past at other restaurants, the procedure is, you APOLOGIZE, 1st & foremost to the patron, in a PROFESSIONAL TONE OF VOICE before you offer a refund or anything else.
In fact, when this happened in the past, I DIDNT take the offer of the refund, most people don't, I like Fatoosh, if this guy was cool, I would have declined the full refund, but he was a JERK.
whatever, its over. Thats what happened, thats how I reacted. Thanks for reading & your comments.
FYI Organic = no pesticides is a common misconception
ORGANIC lettuce or vegetables doesnt mean it has NO pesticides, it means it has ORGANIC or NATURAL pesticides, all farms need to use some kind of pesticides, IN FACT, a farmer must use MORE natural pesticides to grow organic food, because they are less potent, than when growing non-organic food. -
I probably would have flipped out too. Crappy customer service does that to me. I buy organic lettuce and I soak and rinse it before eating it so there are no bugs in my food at home.
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Gross.
I assume most of the restaurants in NY have some sort of bug on occasion, but he didn't need to make YOU feel bad about it. Customer service means everything - I would choose a place with mediocre food and great service over a place with great food and mediocre service. No Fatoosh for me. -
Subject: Re: Live insect in sandwich at Fatoosh - indiferent server
Obamanut wrote: [quote=TomGee]
Don't you think you overreacted, er, just a little?
He said no became very confrontational, apparently "the customer is (not) always right" so I "took it to the people" and raised my voice and announced to the whole roomfull of patrons,
"Ladies & gentlemen, for your information, Ive FOUND A LIVE ROACH IN MY SANDWICH!! I just want you all to be aware of this"
I don't know about you, but I've found insects more than once in my vegetables at home. It just happens sometimes.
If it actually WAS a roach, then maybe but, whatever..
Judging from your post, you sound like one of those people who waits their entire life for a moment like that, just so you can play Shakespeare.
No one over-reacted. If anything, the restaurant worker UNDER-REACTED and needed a wake up call.
The rude restaurant worker who ignored the customer's distress deserved this type of wake up call. It's wrong to ignore your customers' concerns. Some people don't mind hair, live insects or mouse feces in their food. Some people do. Restaurant workers must be hyper sensitive to their customers' comfort zones and vermin tolerance levels.
The only thing that could have confused the situation was the customer's friend who kept eating the food. The three friends should have agreed that they would all stop eating and demand a full refund before anyone approached restaurant staff. -
Subject: Re: Live insect in sandwich at Fatoosh - indiferent server
raw wrote:
Funny, I didn't realize you were present at the time of the incident. :roll:
No one over-reacted. If anything, the restaurant worker UNDER-REACTED and needed a wake up call. -
TomGee wrote: Interesting comments....
Jeez, what's with all this entitlement bro.. you had a bad experience with the place, didn't like this guy's attitude, well that's when you do the "Wall Street Walk" and simply take your money elsewhere. At 44yrs old I would think by this point you'd have developed a little bit thicker skin than to still be getting angry over "the whole attitude of the counter guy" at some felafel place... god forbid you ever have to face a real crisis in your life.
I gotta say, more than the bug (which I still believe to be a ROACH), it was the whole attitude of the counter guy.
For one thing, he didnt need to kill it, hold it up & comment on the entomology of the bug. What was that about? Also the whole defensive, "its your fault" stance, to make me feel respnosible for his restaurant being dirty.
Im 44 yrs old, not a teenager, does anyone really think a middle aged would carry LIVE bugs around with them, to plant them in food to save a lousy $30 bucks???
This guy has NO idea of customer service, he HATES his customers, don't you get it?
Ive found a bug in the past at other restaurants, the procedure is, you APOLOGIZE, 1st & foremost to the patron, in a PROFESSIONAL TONE OF VOICE before you offer a refund or anything else.
In fact, when this happened in the past, I DIDNT take the offer of the refund, most people don't, I like Fatoosh, if this guy was cool, I would have declined the full refund, but he was a JERK.
Why is it so important to you that this counter worker 'BOW DOWN TO YOU' and ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR RIGHT-NESS, that you are still bent out of shape about it?
I've never understood some people's need to go at it with waiters/owners/etc. over bad service. That's the beauty of capitalism, here in America the dollar talks and bullshit walks..
I guess I just don't understand why so many people (in this neighborhood especially) invest such a personal stake in their interactions with service people. Who cares? -
Obamanut wrote: Jeez, what's with all this entitlement bro.. you had a bad experience with the place, didn't like this guy's attitude, well that's when you do the "Wall Street Walk" and simply take your money elsewhere. At 44yrs old I would think by this point you'd have developed a little bit thicker skin than to still be getting angry over "the whole attitude of the counter guy" at some felafel place... god forbid you ever have to face a real crisis in your life.
The true "Wall Street Walk" would have been to ask for a taxpayer-funded bailout of your failed sandwich purchase. -
Thanks for setting me straight Obamanut.
I always thought an apology was a way of acknowledging the fact that, whether intentionally or not, one may have done some kind of percieved wrong to another, NOT the grovelling of a serf to a lord, but I guess I was always wrong.
Thanks for letting me know I was all worong about the whole relationship between proprietor & customer.
Gee, how could I have got it all wrong all these years. I guess to imaging someone is going to apologize or be courtisous to a customer, is really an unrealistic expectation, and an ENTITILEMENT.
Thanks alot for you're help in clearing this up -
Subject: Re: Live insect in sandwich at Fatoosh - indiferent server
Were you? You stated that he over-reacted which I don't think he did. Never been to this place, we go to Mr. Falafel, and now won't. The customer is always right. He was rude and handled the situation very poorly.Obamanut wrote: [quote=raw]
Funny, I didn't realize you were present at the time of the incident. :roll:
No one over-reacted. If anything, the restaurant worker UNDER-REACTED and needed a wake up call. -
watch out, I feel a hate crime comment coming. Everyone has a right to complain and not accept roaches in their food.
TomGee wrote: Thanks for setting me straight Obamanut.
I always thought an apology was a way of acknowledging the fact that, whether intentionally or not, one may have done some kind of percieved wrong to another, NOT the grovelling of a serf to a lord, but I guess I was always wrong.
Thanks for letting me know I was all worong about the whole relationship between proprietor & customer.
Gee, how could I have got it all wrong all these years. I guess to imaging someone is going to apologize or be courtisous to a customer, is really an unrealistic expectation, and an ENTITILEMENT.
Thanks alot for you're help in clearing this up -
Subject: Re: Live insect in sandwich at Fatoosh - indiferent server
eggcream wrote: The customer is always right.
Never worked in the service industry, have you? This "customer is always right" is total bullshit. Customers frequently treat service workers like shit- EVERY day. They are SO not right. -
it sounds like you were a raving lunatic. I mean, the counter guy was wrong, but you lost your shit.
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YUP, THATS ME. You nailed on the head.
FYI Im a fun date:) -
LOL.
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