Went to Het Stuivertje last night, a traditional eetcafe in the Jordaan, with kip sate, tournedos and dorado on the menu, all dishes served with fries, and lots of old photographs and pictures on the wall.
Anyway, the dinner went wrong: It took forever to get the rather straightforward dishes; the mobile phones at the neighbouring table kept ringing; and the rib-eye I had ordered was hard and full of tendons.
So all I wanted to do was pay, get out of there and never come back. The waitress came, we asked for the check, she asked whether we liked our food.
Now it gets interesting. I always give detailed and specific feedback to restaurants, no matter whether I liked the food a lot or not. Amazingly, most of the time the personnel seems surprised and overwhelmed and quite simply unable to do anything with that feedback. It really seems like the question is only asked out of courtesy not to solicit an actual answer.
Not so tonight. Our waitress wanted to know what I didn’t like. So I explained and when she came back with the check, the rib eye had been taken off.
I must say that I was very surprised. This does not happen often.
And I must also say that it worked. Instead of going home with the intention to never come back, I will now try again and hope for a better experience next time around!