Dinner at L'École

On Saturday evening, Simone and some of her family, ate at the restaurant of the French Culinary Institute. The food was good overall but not memorable enough to overcome the problems encountered with the service. This is the letter she wrote to describe her experiences:

"Things started out badly when the front of the house insisted, even as we resisted, that we check our coats. We were travellers, had money, wallets, phones and other items that we did not wish to lose or possibly have stolen. Grudgingly, we were allowed our way. This proved lucky as we were directed (not led – we were told, “Well, there’s your table over there, go and sit.”) to a table so near the front doors that every time someone opened the doors, a gust of cold winter air blew in and walloped us.

When it came time to order the wine, the waitress argued with the guest in our party who ordered the wine. The gentleman happens to be a Chevalier des côtes du Rhone and he did not take kindly to her superior tone.

The waitress failed to replenish our water or anything else on our able or to even ask if there was anything she could do for us. We spent over two hours in the restaurant, with 30 minutes between each service.

The waitress paid us no attention but the reception ladies did, as we were in direct view of their station. They felt it important to correct us on several misdeeds of ours, including the fact that our three year old, patently bored with the length of time between dishes, climbed off his chair and sat and stretched out on the floor between our table and the one next to us. My husband left the restaurant with our son so as to prevent further confrontations and so missed his main course. And his dessert. His efforts, in any case, bore no fruit: more confrontation followed.

One of our guests, who spent a lifetime in the hotel and restaurant industries at a managerial level, took offence to the poor service and less than pleasant attitude of the staff, one of whom repeatedly mocked his accent by pretending she could not understand one of the words he was saying. When things came to a head, he told one of them that he would not return to the restaurant and she replied haughtily that perhaps this was for the best. Couching a sarcastic, know-it-all tone in the “right” words does not constitute good service.

I felt appalled by everything that happened. As we left, I approached one staff member, the one who brought me our son’s stroller, and suggested as gently as I could that working in the service industry frequently entails taking a deep breath and realizing that no matter what we believe the “rules” to be, the customer ultimately pays our salaries and should be treated royally. She asked tersely whether I was telling her how to do her job.

Perhaps it is your policy to hire staff who feel it necessary to ridicule and demean customers, who feel it beneath their dignity to take advice from the mother of a three year old and who insist that their rules must be enforced, regardless of the customers’ wishes. If so, I will end by telling you that you are indeed correct in suggesting that perhaps it is for the best that we not return to your restaurant. Life is much too short to endure such negative experiences willingly – and pay for the “pleasure” of doing so."