When you don't write a yelp review.

[janedoe]

I bought a Groupon on sale and with a Groupon coupon for a seven course mystery meal at a French restaurant. It was a really great deal. And yes, every red flag just went off. But a lot of people had actually reviewed this place positively and I thought, how bad could it be?

First of all, it turned out to be Japanese. Or French/Japanese fusion. More specifically, a restaurant with French servers and a Japanese chef. Needless to say, it was flat out bizarre. It went from sashimi to head cheese and just about everything in between. The same sauce on three courses (and a similar one on a fourth), including the dessert. Then we got a fully American white chocolate chip cookie at the end.

I would love to go on yelp and talk about this restaurant. It was eight different kinds of completely weird and I could help those who might think that it would be a good idea to spend the insane regular prices at this place. But I'm not going to. And it's because of the server.

This poor guy was new and he was French. And he was just as confused about the menu as we were. Mind you, he understood French wine and was happy to help and I'm just he was well versed in French cuisine. But he had absolutely no idea about Japanese food whatsoever. I just can't help but think that he was just as duped as we were. In his case, he was hired to sell the French side of the restaurant but there really wasn't one other than the wine list and the desserts and we thought we would be eating French food but wound up with mostly creative Japanese food with some other stuff thrown in including a "house" dinner roll that I could swear was King's Hawaiian that I could coupon for about 25 cents a bag.

It was so bad that at one point the server was asked about a miso salmon dish at the table next to us. The customer didn't know what miso was. Neither did the server. But the server tried and he tried hard. "It's not a bean," he said, "it's like a vegetable but" and he just kept pausing. Finally, I looked over and he looked straight at me and I could tell he was about to start laughing. I whispered, "It's fermented soybeans." He came around the table and we were both kind of laughing and he asked me to repeat it so I did and he actually started laughing, turned to the other table and said in a heavy French accent, "Yes. Fermented soybeans." My husband was looking out the window because he had just discovered what head cheese was and might have been about to cry.

But I can't write that yelp review because I liked the server so much and I don't want to get him in trouble. I figure he'll last about a week but it should be his decision to leave, not the influence of an "OMG what was that!" customer.

[sparky]

We had a similar experience at a "Greek" restaurant. The food was fresh outta the can & freshly thawed. Our server was fresh out of the mountains and her use of grammar was hysterical. Trying to pronounce "Gyro" was funny but when it came to dessert and "Baklava" I had to turn away to hide my laughing. I felt bad for her and didn't want to make fun of her. We just went with it and chalked it up to- no cars in the parking lot at 7:00 on Friday, keep driving.

[Woody]

Head Cheese? You are taking pretty well I would probably be pretty mad about the whole thing. They had some deals on car undercoating around here and I drove past a couple of the places and thought there is no way in hell I am letting these lunatics have my car for any length of time. The places were totally shady and run down looking.

[POPTOP]

You could write a review about the restaurant and the food while still singing the praises of the waiter.

[barry581]

I'm with Fran, give each a honest review, great friendly waiter, and a restaurant with an identity problem.......

[smartrock]

On OpenTable people just lay it out there, the good, the bad, and the ugly, sometimes all in the same review. I agree that you can write a review of the food and still indicate that the one bright spot of your evening was your waiter. People reading the reviews can decide if they want to take the risk but I prefer to know both sides, if there's more than one.

[Maxx&Emma]

I like what Fran said and that is what I would do! I do have to say I found what you wrote very funny. Especially your husband's reaction to head cheese!

[AlexS]

I do not trust yelp reviews anymore. There are a lot of false ones out there. My wife even last year got a yelp review for her personal chef business and it was someone she had never even cooked for before. Our favorite part was saying how provocatively she had dressed when cooking. When she always wears jeans and a chef coat lol Open table is the best place to get reviews, because people actually have to have a reservation at that restaurant to review them.

[CraftHer]

Wait a week or so and the server will probably have moved on by then Then write the review and still praise the server.

[janedoe]

I do not trust yelp reviews anymore. There are a lot of false ones out there. My wife even last year got a yelp review for her personal chef business and it was someone she had never even cooked for before. Our favorite part was saying how provocatively she had dressed when cooking. When she always wears jeans and a chef coat lol Open table is the best place to get reviews, because people actually have to have a reservation at that restaurant to review them.

I'm sorry to hear that for many reasons. I wrote a great review for our mechanic emphasizing his attention to detail, noting that he would take the time to do the job right after he restored our Camry's engine when Toyota had written off the car. He's a real artist. It was the first review for his business. It turns out that he works on antique cars and says that the review generated interest in his work and he has had more jobs as a result. He thanked us again just this morning when we got the oil changed.

I do think that people ignore outrageous reviews but are amused by them. I hope your wife's review was one of those for the people reading it.