Black Bear Diner And The Thrice Cooked, Twice Eaten Steak Of Disappointment
The Black Bear Diner in Colorado Springs twice served Jason the same undercooked steak. When he asked for a new steak, the server returned with the same steak cooked for a third time. When Jason told the server that the steak looked unappetizingly familiar, the server responded with "some story about her eating the old steak, and (unprompted) said that she couldn't bring out the other steak because she had ate it, and got in trouble with her boss about it."
Jason cc'd us on the letter he sent to the Black Bear's den:
I am writing to let you know about my experience recently at the Black Bear Diner in Colorado Springs.My family and I are regular customers at the restaurant. In fact, when my extended family comes to town, our first stop is usually ‘The Bear'. The food is always excellent, with generous portions, and the servers are attentive and friendly. Plus the sugar free peach cobbler is a rare treat for a diabetic like me. I can not recall a negative or unpleasant experience in your restaurant, until last night.
My wife and I stopped in for dinner on Wednesday night, 2/25/09 at about 7pm. I decided to order the $15.99 cowboy cut steak. When it was served, the first thing I noticed that one corner of the steak was burnt, and the inside was a purple mush. Being an experienced griller, I recognized that the steak, being as thick as it was, would have been difficult to cook to medium rare, as I had requested. I brought this to the attention of the server, and the (I assume) manager on duty. They agreed that it looked raw still, and sent it back to be put on the grill.
About 2-3 minutes later, my server returned with the steak (smaller, minus the part where I cut into to inspect it previously) I cut into another side, and notice that it is still purple, and the outside is almost black. I asked the manager if instead of recooking the steak for a third time, to please just cook a new one, and I would take it to go. (at this point, my wife is nearly finished with her meal) The manager looked clearly uncomfortable with the request, offering several excuses as to why that would be inconvenient, finally saying that it would take too long. When I asked how long we were talking, she said 10 minutes. I told her that I found that acceptable for a new steak, and had no problem waiting. She furrowed her brow, said okay and went back to the kitchen, loudly exclaiming "Hey wants a new steak!".
About 7 minutes later she returns with the steak, and asks if it is cooked. I checked, and it was all brown inside. She leaves to get a to-go box. Inspecting, the steak, I realized that it was infact the same steak we started out with, complete with the missing sides cut off. I mention that to the server, and ask her to just be honest with me, and she told me some story about her eating the old steak, and (unprompted) said that she couldn't bring out the other steak because she had ate it, and got in trouble with her boss about it. Deciding against calling her and the manager liars to their face, we opt to pay our bill (including the 15.99 for the mystery steak) and leave. Had that server actually eaten that steak, she would have gotten sick from it being so undercooked.
Once I got home, I took the steak out and tried it. It was incredibly over cooked (as a steak that's been re-cooked 3 times would be), and had a funny chemical taste to it. After two bites, I had to discard it, over concern for my own health.
Now, I understand that mishaps can happen in a food service environment. Sometimes, things just don't cook right. I can accept that without issue, as long as it is resolved appropriately when brought to your attention. What disturbs me the most, is that I was so blatantly lied to about the food. When I frequent a restaurant, I place a certain amount of trust in them to not sicken me with unsafe food. With the actions of the server and manager last night, my trust in Black Bear Diner is severely damaged.
While you can't put a dollar figure to what trust is worth, I am also bothered that I paid $15.99 for this horrible experience. I respectfully request a refund of the amount I paid for this dinner. I can be contacted at the information at the end of this email to arrange for a refund, and to discuss this further if needed. I hope we can work to a satisfactory resolution of this issue.
Jason wrote a great letter and earned exactly the response he wanted from Black Bear:
I just got off the phone with Fay, the General Manager at the restaurant.She acknowledged the mess up on their part, apologized repeatedly, and made assurances that the issue would be resolved by retraining the staff. She offered to not only refund for my meal, but our total ticket, as well as free dinner for my wife and I at our convenience. I am very pleased with the resolution, and her response.
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Comments:
Who orders a steak from a diner? In Jersey (Birthplace of the diner with diners on EVERY CORNER) you only order 3 things, egg's, pancakes, pork roll egg and cheese on a roll with disco fries, and Burgers. Thats it. Nothing else can be trusted at a diner, let alone a diner in Colorado.
How can you undercook a steak? I like mine simply charred on the outside. this sounds delicious to me.
@dorianh49: That's actually very unusual for a Black Bear. We go to our local one frequently, and the service and food are always excellent. I think Jason may have just had the bad luck to have a sub-par server that evening.
Glad to see it was resolved!
Seems like it was a one time thing, if they have been there before with no problems. The supposed manager seemed like a jerk, but all-in-all, an excellent resolution.
@G_Money21: Not to be a dick or anything, but that's 4 things. I wholeheartedly agree though, coming from a diner culture myself (Long Island, diner on every other corner with complimentary snobs inside most).
If I'm a regular at a restaurant, they know me. If nothing else, I know who the servers are by name, and that is a great thing to know when talking with the manager.
I think this guy blew it up way out of proportion. He should have simply talked with the manager in the next day or two and briefly recounted the story in a friendly, concerned customer manner. I'm sure he would have gotten the same response. That was the appropriate first step. But to turn this into a formal letter that he intends to blast all over the internet as a FIRST step is, frankly, WAY overkill. The length and detail of the letter were way too much, and the importance he placed on this anomaly was way over the top. (Now, if he was summarily ignored in his attempts to deal with it locally with that store manager, that's another story.)
Is this truly a Consumerist piece? This isn't "the man is sticking it to you, watch out". This was simple human error in a single instance, with no malice intended. To infer malice to the level he did is frightening.
I have a story about a billing error, where some credit card charges were mixed up at my table. I signed for one amount, and was charged another. This happened twice, at a Longhorn that I frequent. A simple query of the manager was sufficient to get to the truth--it was a mistake, both times. He had the table's receipts handy, and we immediately saw what happened. No big deal, and he acknowledged that the staff needed to be more careful. Turns out they were more careful as time went on--end of story. Not life changing, and not worth blasting out over the internet. Stuff happens. If we deal with human to human, mostly it'll get straightened out and we all go on with our lives.
I love this.
I had a similar experience (in that I was lied to by a server) and I didn't bother to contact the management about it because I had no intention of ever returning to the establishment.
This letter has the right amount of refund request and hint of the possibility of return, no matter how insincere.
@dorianh49: Sounds like the kitchen of most restaurants out there. Having worked in several as a kid, I would never dream of sending my food back multiple times. After the first, you're probably better off with a refund. Things aren't getting better with each subsequent time.
Not saying that this is excusable behavior by any means. He should certainly be compensated and apologized to. Just be warned that the kitchens in most restaurants like this are staffed with teens that could care less if you're satisfied with your meal. Apathy is the price of cheap labor.
It shouldn't have taken a letter to fix the situation, but at least they took his complaint seriously and compensated him for the screw up. There are a couple restaurants I would actually go back to if they had even attempted to fix my (rare) terrible dining experiences.
This would not have happened if you were a vegetarian. Just sayin'.
I think their resolution was very appropriate, I'm glad they owned up to the problems and reconciled a long time customer.
@dorianh49: You can't please 100% of the people 100% of the time... they made things right with a customer. That's the bottom line. The only terrible restaurant is the one that doesn't realize how important long time customers are, they seem to.
@chuck0008: We're expecting 6-8 inches for tonights storm actually.
Why am I on a high horse? Becuase I asked who orders a steak at a diner? You get what you pay for. $15 for a steak I wouldnt expect much, let alone one bought at a diner. I'm not trying to be a douche, just tellin the truth.
@chuck0008: High horse? It's no secret that not every type of restaurant excels at serving up every type of dishe. One wouldn't expect a fantastic filet mignon from the Wal-Mart grocery.
@kidnextdoor: Exactly! Great vegetarian dishes taste exactly the same as horrible vegetarian dishes!
But seriously, I kid, I kid.
I wonder why the manager of the restaurant responded the way they did. I mean bottom line you want the customer to be happy, cooking a new steak is much cheaper in the long run, because they will likely return thus generating more money for the business.
And what if he wanted to buy the steak so he could set it free outside? And it being undercooked was detrimental to its survival?
What now?
C'mon now. That's a really useless point to make. Besies, I've had a number of vegetarian dishes screwed up at restaurants. I think the most amusing was finding a piece of chicken in my baked potato once. xD I lol'd all the way home.
"Area Man Gets Poor Service/Mediocre Food At Local Diner"
Thank the heavens you have weekend editors.
@chuck0008: From your comment, I can tell that you're not very familiar with US geography. No offense to G_Money21, but no one in New Jersey is on top of a high horse. Drive through North Jersey on a hot summer day with your windows down and you'll understand.
Is this seriously worth putting on Consumerist? You had a bad experience.... you had it resolved. Now if they completely ignored your request or responded with a big "F you" then I would think about posting the story. I think you exaggerated the situation.
Next on consumerist:
"I put my quarter in the vending machine and my chips didn't come out!"
@CyrusOpeth: As a former food server, I would never have admitted to someone that I ate their food in the back. That's pretty gross.
The behavior of the server & manager was a bit bizarre. Claiming they ate your steak and then telling you they can't cook another one. I didn't know there was steak rationing in Colorado.
@G_Money21: Living in NJ and having eaten at a million diners there are regular nice diners and there are 'Open late for the drunks' diner.
Personally i like the nicer ones.
BTW you can't get Taylor ham outside NJ the "Tristate" I know you said pork roll but anybody from NJ knows what you mean.
@deadspork: It doesn't sound like the server actually ate it, though; it seems like she just said that she did to cover up the fact that this was the same steak.
However, Jason's incorrect in his claim that she would have had to be sick from eating the steak. Sure, you can get sick from raw/undercooked beef. Most of the time, though, you won't.
@kidnextdoor: I was lied to about why I wasn't served toast with my breakfast. An hour of stalling and one soggy hamburger bun later, I was one displeased vegetarian.
Maybe it was because I eat wheat.
That funny chemical taste is the steak being dropped on the floor on purpose.
@G_Money21: prices of meat are geographic too. i used to live in a 'cattle country' part of the US where i could get a perfectly good steak for $15. now i live in 'pig country' and i can buy a pork loin at the grocery store for 99 cents a pound or less and beef is about $5 a pound for the cheap cuts and a moderately priced restaurant steak runs well over $20
@Justin Kohler: It's not always about bad service... they owned up to it and made things RIGHT FOR THE CONSUMER after a well written letter.
Isn't that the point of this website, to show how a level headed complaint can usually be resolved with the right tactics? To help other CONSUMERS, by either warning them of potentially bad business practices or just a good business who set things straight?
It's all in the best interest of the CONSUMER. Good or bad. Get used to it, or stop friggin reading.
Working at a local restaurant where I work, going back 2 times is horrible...We wouldve asked them for something else and offered dessert and comp'd the whole meal. That's how we try to keep our customers
@unobservant: Justin Kohler was right. This was a huge overreaction by some self-absorbed, entitlement-driven Me Generation member. God forbid ANYTHING should go wrong in his life--he's ENTITLED to write long, overbearing letters about minute things AND blast them all over the internet. Right? As Justin said, "I put my quarter in the vneding machine and my chips didn't come out!" That's what this is the equivalent of, and the point is that it certainly isn't worthy of Consumerist attention as it played out. Consumerist has to be careful not to turn into an irrelevant site full of "I got home and realized the McD's cashier shorted me a nickel!" postings.
@verucalise: "It's not always about bad service... they owned up to it and made things RIGHT FOR THE CONSUMER after a well written letter.
"Isn't that the point of this website, to show how a level headed complaint can usually be resolved with the right tactics?"
That was not the right tactic. He blew it up WAY out of proportion. He should have spoken one on one with the manager during a weekday, and he would have gotten exactly the same response. If he didn't, he could then move up to corporate. But to move to corporate FIRST? AND blast it to the internet? Wrong, wrong, wrong.
@G_Money21: Can you let us all know what you find so especially substandard about Colorado? I'm really curious.
@undefined: This isn't a Jersey diner in Colorado, this is a chain restaurant with 40 locations across six states, that sells a wide variety of steaks.
Just so we're clear.
the chemical taste was the cleaning agent they sprayed on before regrilling it. Just to make sure it was nice and safe to eat for you. You were worried about getting sick form undercooked meat after all - a little sanitizing spray will help keep away the germies.
@kathyl: I dont find anything substandard about Colorado. Diners are a tristate NJ thing, therefore I made a generalization that we have the best. I wouldnt order a steak at ANY of our famous north jersey diners, so I wouldnt expect a better product at a diner in colordao. I would substitute a number of other states for colorado (I am not picking on colorado).
I would have called over the manager instead of being passive aggressive about it and writing a letter two days later.
This proves the old adage that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. The moral of the story is that if you suffer a horrible experience with food/service/etc the best way to get a satisfying outcome is to remain calm and civil and tell your side of the story without being a jerk about it. The chances are very good that you will compensated for your troubles.
People make mistakes every day and nobody will respond well if you are beligerant, rude, and use foul language.
And you better bet they wiped that steak on the floor or spit on it before they brought it back. Never, ever, ever send a meal back if it doesn't meet your expectations. Ask anyone who's worked in the kitchen of a restaurant what they've seen done to food sent back to the kitchen.
Is it bad that I have little sympathy for this consumer? If it was bad just say "this isn't what I am paying for" and walk out. Pay for what you've already had and refuse to pay for the steak. You won't be breaking any laws. Or you can do what I do and accept that some restaurant meals will inevitably come out of the kitchen in less than ideal form, and use it to your advantage to get free desert or comped wine or even a comped meal if they botch it bad enough. But sending it back to the kitchen? Get real.
Sounds like a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad place.