What’s for lunch?

Since the stay-at-home order was first issued back in March I’ve been helping out restaurants a bit with a take-out on Sunday for lunch. It’s nice to have a break from my own cooking. It also allowed me to sample a breakfast place I hadn’t been to before because by the time friends and I arrive after church they have a 45 minute wait.

However, over the last few weeks I’ve found the downside of take-out – one can’t really verify the order until one gets home. And then there’s the issue of whether it is worth the effort to complain.

The first of these problems was with a midwest chain restaurant. Once home I found the salad included in the order had lettuce so brown I threw it out. Then was the local Mexican chain. They have a nice pork dish served with rice and beans, also some lettuce with guacamole and sour cream, and with the complementary salsa and chips. When I called I said I didn’t want the rice, guacamole, and chips. I forgot to mention the sour cream. At this point one might ask: why bother? Well, the pork is delicious. When I got home it wasn’t as I intended. The order slip said no guacamole, no chips, only beans. The last one got interpreted as no beans. I got the rice. So why didn’t the person taking the order say no rice? The pork, what I was really after, made up for it.

Another week I tried a national chain. I submitted the order and when I got to the last page I realized the stated location was not the one I wanted to go to. When I changed locations it canceled the order, though it didn’t tell me and I was puzzled when I clicked on the shopping cart and it said please start your order. I chose a different place that day.

Then today. I started my order at another national chain restaurant. When I got to the last page it asked when did I want to pick it up. The earliest time was 4:30. Google Maps said their hours started at 11:00 and the hours were updated a week ago. So I called. They switched to evening hours only about a week ago.

I tried another national chain. I selected the particular location. Then selected the meal. It asked which location. I backed out and verified the menu page listed the location and tried again. It asked for the location again. I gave up.

I turned to a local chain, that breakfast place. I ordered a scramble with ham, bacon, sausage, and cheese. I’ve ordered it a couple times before. The website said the order would be ready at 12:30. In the past I’ve gotten to this place a bit early and my food was already waiting for me. This time I got there a few minutes early. Not ready yet. I waited until 5 minutes after the scheduled time and asked the hostess. She checked and said it could be another 10-15 minutes. The kitchen was really backed up. I got some of the day’s newspaper out of the car (glad I picked it up on the way to instead of the way home). It was ready 10 minutes later. When I got home I saw the order was quite wrong. It was an omelet with mushrooms, green pepper, onion, tomato, and feta cheese. The only ingredient remotely acceptable was the cheese.

It wasn’t just a side dish that was wrong. This was the whole meal. I called. Josh was very professional in handling the complaint. I said I didn’t particularly want to drive the 15 minutes back to the restaurant and wanted a refund. He completed that with lots of apologies.

These wouldn’t have been a problem if I had been sitting in the restaurant. I wouldn’t have dealt with a confusing webpage. I could describe what I don’t want in the salad (some websites allow me to specify, some don’t) or pointed to the brown lettuce (which I doubt they would have served in the restaurant). And incorrect orders could be quickly handled. I miss those days. But I’m not ready to go back.

And maybe I unpack to verify it before I leave, even if that does expose it all to COVID.