I had a chance to observe an attraction of increased arrogance in a small cafe claiming to be a restaurant. Guests were served pasta (pasta) in a state close to mushy. Well, in appearance. And the guests dared to be indignant about this, because pasta with seafood - it, you know, means that consists of several components - directly the pasta itself, seafood and sauce, and not a lump of something incomprehensible.
Such lumpiness happens if not too high-quality pasta is cooked in a small amount of water. It turns out something incomprehensible.
It is for this reason that I, for example (and most of my friends) order pasta only in well-studied places.
And here - someone took a chance. It’s unsuccessful. And the waitress, and then the manager, proved with a white eye that everything was OK with the food served, as intended. It is of high quality, hot, you won't get poisoned with it, what else do you want?
The situation is actually ambiguous. Food service points must provide a product suitable for use. Food must be fresh and healthy. And, in fact, the pasta served met these standards, which the staff rested on.
Completely ignoring the fact that there are also organoleptic quality indicators - for example, consistency. In pasta in dishes, it is soft, elastic, moderately dense (not boiled). As far as I remember, these requirements are provided for by the technology of food preparation by catering enterprises and, adequate the manager would simply quietly apologize to the guests, sending spoiled food to the kitchen and arranging a headwash (or even dismissal) the cook.
I know how such situations were resolved in establishments that value their reputation - the chef there arranged a mess for everyone and the account was closed at the expense of the establishment.
But the definition “adequate” in our country is not always applicable to catering points. Especially if these points are "checkpoints", that is, they have almost no permanent clientele, but are designed for a one-time visit - by passing tourists, for example.
In addition, the guests of cafes and restaurants in our country do not know their rights well... So it turns out that they are sometimes fed with dishes with the general name "gorbled". For their money, and a lot.
Honestly, when they bring an inedible dish, I do not hesitate to send it back and give the reason. Excess salt, undercooked or overcooked meat, ice cream flowed in the dessert, ice chips in the salad (this also came across, once brought "Caesar" with the same unfortunate seafood, cooked, apparently, in the evening and even earlier, frozen, and then, before serving, thawed in the microwave, because the salad turned out to be hot on one side, and in ice on the other) - all this, even if the food does not smell like rotten meat, gives us the right to return the order to the kitchen and not pay for it.
But my mother won't do it. She just won't eat, but she'll pay for what she ordered - the perfect guest! And I know a lot of people with such an attitude. They can motivate this even by the fact that “I myself am to blame, you sucker, that I went to such a place to eat”, but, in fact, there is only one reason - a person does not know how to defend his rights, it is inconvenient for him.
I also know those who send the dish back, but the development of the situation is different and most often depends on the level of the institution, the lower it is, the less likely it is in favor of the client.
What are you doing? And - another question - what results were there if the food was sent back with the verdict "it's inedible"?