Is anyone else tired of bad food/service at expensive restaurants?

[stevebody]

Late as usual but I have to chime in:

Like that time-honored mystery-novel axiom that most crimes are solved in the first 48 hours or not at all, criticism of a restaurant's performance carries a lot less weight when noted later on. I may be, as has been noted in this forum, unusually crotchety, but I really think that the reason that cities like NYC, New Orleans, San Fran, et al, are such good restaurant environments is that diners in those places demand good service and their food as advertised or they simply say no. NO payment, NO tip, NO return appearance. I've mellowed quite a bit over when I was 30, when I simply bit the head off whomever was closest, but I still call the manager over, say what was wrong, ask for restitution if it's not offered, and only come back if they do their best to make good. Your experience was just flat wrong, on so many levels it's hard to find anything right. The relative quality of the food is the ONLY thing here that's at all debatable.

I know that a lot of people in any dining party may be put off when one of their bunch complains but I think it has a lot to do with style. Seattle, for its soild handful of good eateries, will never be a great restaurant town because we're so studiously laid-back that we'd rather die than appear "confrontational". Restaurants here die all the time with the owners truthfully saying, "But we never had anything but compliments!" Polite criticism is the right of any diner and you should do it on the spot. Your email was a good follow-up with the owner but it won't have the impact of fixing things when they happen, IMO.