Is It Ever Acceptable To Send A Dish Back At A Restaurant Because You Don't Like It?

Eating out is a dice roll these days. With sky-high prices and iffy quality, you never know if a restaurant meal is worth the price tag -– and nothing stings quite like paying for a meal that tastes terrible. Most of us want to avoid being the customer that sends food back because we've heard it's annoying for the staff, but there is a right way to send food back to the kitchen at a restaurant and it doesn't have to be because it's lacking salt or undercooked. To understand the rules for sending back dishes, we asked hospitality expert Izzy Kharasch, president of Hospitality Works restaurant consulting.

"You can absolutely send a dish back if you don't like it," Kharasch said. "Sometimes the food might be spicier than you thought, under seasoned, or you just don't like the food. However, send it back after the first bite, not when you have finished half of the meal."

Anytime you send a meal back to a restaurant kitchen you risk having to pay for both the original and the replacement dish. The faster you send it back, the lower the chance the restaurant will bill you for both. Kharasch explained: "If you return the dish after just one bite, you should not have to pay for the dish. However, if you decide to order another dish which you enjoy then you should expect to pay for that dish."

Sending food back to a kitchen restaurant can be uncomfortable, especially if you're sending a dish back just because it doesn't taste good; but you can learn how to do it in a nice way just like you can learn how to act like a fine dining pro. Instead of giving the server a vague statement about not liking the flavor, describe specifically what isn't working for you. Clearly line out what you'd like to happen next, whether you'd like to choose something else from the menu or have that dish remade with a few changes (if that's allowed). Kharasch pointed out that kitchen staff aren't always happy when a dish is returned (especially if it's a dish they hate cooking), but they'll accommodate customers as much as possible.

"If they made a mistake by cooking it incorrectly, they are always happy to remake the dish and ensure that the guest is happy," Kharasch said. "When a dish comes back because the guest said 'they did not like it,' then the kitchen is not happy because there was no explanation in how they can fix the problem." In other words, sending food back doesn't have to be one of the many ways you're secretly being rude at restaurants.