I witnessed a horrible dressing down of restaurant staff at the Andaz Delhi in Aerocity that left me shaking my head in disgust over the entitlement.
Entitled Family Demanded Free Meal At Andaz Delhi
After a long day, I sat down for a late dinner at AnnaMaya, the main restaurant at the Andaz Delhi. I was seated next to a family of three (mother, father, teenage son) who did not appear to be hotel guests since they did not ask to sign for their for dinner. We ordered food around the same time. The mother ordered a vegetarian dish, the father ordered chicken, and the son ordered the lamb shank (same thing I did). They also ordered drinks and some appetizers.
They ate their food…they ate all of it. It appeared the dad ordered Makhan Wali Dhungar Murgh (butter chicken), but whatever it was, it was something with chicken.
The waiter eventually came over and asked how everything was and then dad went on a tirade about how he had found a small bone in his chicken. The manager came over, profusely apologized, and said his dish would be comped along with the appetizers. He also brought over a bag of baked desserts, offering them on a complimentary basis.
Nice solution, no, considering dad had eaten the meal?
Oh no. The dad blew up, bloviating about how “outrageous” and “unacceptable” this was and saying, “At a reputable place I would expect the entire meal to be comped! It is incredulous that you would try to take any money from me!”
Without making any gross generalizations, maybe there’s a cultural aspect to it and I don’t get it?…how is it proportional to comp and entire meal when all three meals, appetizers, and drinks were consumed? Of course it is unacceptable to find a bone in your food when you are not expecting one, but come on…that strikes me as a sign that food is freshly made.
A back and forth ensued. The manager gently tried to explain that it was unreasonable to comp the entire meal but the man grew angrier and angrier as his wife and son looked embarrassingly away. They went back and forth for several minutes before the meal was ultimately comped.
He still stormed out, leaving the baked goods on the table and huffing about the “horrible service” at this place.
I was so disgusted I flagged the manager, probably causing him to skip a heartbeat by first saying, “I’m outraged that there was a bone on my lamb!” before bursting out in laughter. I went on to have a very nice conversation…I felt so bad for him. He tried to so hard to be polite, but this entitled loser was going to play the full charade of faux outrage in order to save a few bucks on his dinner. He lamented that he deals with stuff like this all the time…
Disgusting person. Sorry, absolutely disgusting. If it were my restaurant, I would have thrown him and told him never to set foot in m restaurant again. No, the customer is not always right and you will not talk down to my employees like they are trash.
Frankly folks, it would not surprise me if this cheapskate brought the bone from home and staged the whole thing…
What do you do with folks like this?
He probably did bring the bone.
Many years ago I worked at a pizza chain. Someone reportedly found glass in their pizza. I was very skeptical as we had a strict no glass policy in the kitchen but it was a hectic Saturday night service so I comped the meal to resolve the problem.
Imagine the shock on the guests face a couple of weeks later when I arrived at the table in another branch I was covering where she’d reportedly found glass in her pizza again! I gave her the choice of paying her bill or I’d be calling the police and she wasn’t welcome back.
Her family were also extremely embarrassed and I felt for them having to live with someone like that
Hope India is treating you well and not spending too much time in traffic!!
welcome to India…
and most of all, welcome to Delhi.
Plenty of cheapskates worldwide that will always try to get something free. Stories abound about blackmailing for bad reviews. Didn’t Josh Cahill try something similar? Anyway you eat it, you buy it
Alain Ducasse of the Essex House, NYC, was known for tearing up the checks of complaining patrons and telling them to never return.
That’s India for you. Service workers are treated like scum.
I really hate to stereotype, but it honestly didn’t surprise me that this guy is Indian. What a disgrace. I’ve met so many great, generous Indian people in my life—including my wife, who is from Punjab. But as she has told me herself, and from my own observations, there are always individuals who seem to constantly reinforce the worst stereotypes. How much good does the Indian community have to do just for one bad actor to ruin their reputation and force everyone to rebuild it all over again?
Please put him to jail. And never release them again.
“Without making any gross generalizations, maybe there’s a cultural aspect to it and I don’t get it?”
Yeah, it’s the Indian concept of “jugaad”- being sneaky to extract as much as you can from the system is seen as admirable. Izzat as well, cultural honor comes into play- once he’s gone about all this jugaad he needs to come out ahead to remain honorable and anything short of a total victory may seem to question his honor and reputation.
It’s the same concept with Indians boasting about how they’ve been able to get all sorts of free food from food banks intended for the truly needy. An Indian who can get free resources is seen as being wise and cunning, the ethics of depriving the poor of food doesn’t enter into the picture.
When Indian jugaad comes up against “the customer is always right, so let’s make it right” mentality of most luxury hotels the result is a net extraction of benefits for the Indians.
A majority of Indians are a horrible, horrible people, slightly ahead of the Chinese.
You mean fake Chinese from the People’s Republic of China? The people from the Republic of China (Taiwan) are among the nicest people that I’ve met, from hotels to restaurants to corporate acquaintances to ordinary people on the street.
Chinese? Yes – the mainlanders. Agree 100% on Taiwan.
If you take a look, there are good and bad people in every nationality. It might be a matter of mores and how they were taught what was right, wrong and what is culturally accepted. I have seen fellow diners take all of the sugar bags off the table. The couple that did this was probably in a higher socio-economic level than the rest of us. I’m no better. I like the washrooms that have the plush paper towels. I have taken one or two extra for my purse. That’s wrong too and I have stopped. These business have to pay money for these things and taking more than you need/use while at the restaurant is theft.
Enjoyable reading, and one typo: “set foot in m restaurant again.” (m–>my).
Yes, I have restauranteurs in the family and that is exactly the correct attitude. Some people will not be happy, and some will leave negative reviews, but losing your only source of revenues to make up for an honest mistake (bone in food) is one thing. When they didn’t call the server over AND ate the entire meal, it’s a cultural thing.
TBH I don’t care which culture finds it appropriate to attempt to steal a meal, browbeat the staff, and act like pricks. It’s not appropriate in any restaurant I’ve ever been, and while I haven’t been to India and Africa, I’ve been everywhere else my ilk isn’t unwelcome.
Worst part of all this is the purposeful shaming of the staff. Servers don’t put bones in food. Second worst is making a scene. You and yours and the other diners should not have been exposed to that. Last is the theft itself. Despicable.
What did you do wrong that required you to go to India in the first place??
Exactly like Dear MAGA Leader. Read about his exploits many years ago in NYC and AC, he was very well known for not paying vendors because, according to him only, the work had not been done properly.
And of course fascinating that all the comments here about “this guy” could very easily be accurately written about the lying, corrupt, brain dead (literally and figuratively) Heel Spur in Chief.
The full quote is “The customer is always right IN THE MATTER OF TASTE.” Most people don’t realize that.
False. From Wikipedia- “In the 21st century, social media users and TikTok videos began claiming that the phrase had been abbreviated from “The customer is always right, in matters of taste”, with some directly attributing this longer quotation specifically to Selfridge. Fact-checking website Snopes found no evidence for this.”
In any event, the concept of “The customer is always right” has been expressed since the rise of modern retail in a number of different ways without some obvious and sole origin that whether or not one person said it in one way or another isn’t relevant to the discussion- the idea that retailers should default to pleasing customers has been firmly expressed for over a hundred years.
People get hung up on a literal interpretation of what is a pithy idiom and never meant to be an actual ironclad statement of truth. “It’s good as a retailer to behave as though the customer is right by default, grant him the benefit of the doubt, assume what he is saying to you is correct, and that what he wants is what he should have as a general heuristic to maximize your reputation and revenue, and only in cases where the customer is being completely ridiculous, outright criminal or constantly incurring unreasonable burdens on you should you decline and then in the most courteous way.” is more correct but not so catchy
What do you do with people like this? You tell him that he’s a horrible man, that you feel sorry for his wife and child, and that idlf he doesn’t pay the check you’ll call the police. People act like assholes because everyone else lets them get away with it. A customer having a tantrum isn’t scary, it’s pathetic. Call the cops.
That’s when the staff is supposed to play it cool, say, sorry, and bring out a special “cake” with a delightful ipecac syrup, and enjoy the show… /s
A great idea, except even the smell of ipecac is revolting enough to induce vomiting.
What?! No… /s
He needs a generous slice of “special pie” from The Help.
Lawdy!
“as his wife and son looked embarrassingly away.” Good to see that it doesn’t run in the family and that someone has common sense.
Nobody does entitled like wealthy Indians.
30 plus years ago, they were very appreciative if they got 2 meals a Day. Now they are out of control. The worst are the South Indians, 25 years ago, they were climbing coconut trees to pick coconuts or attacking poor women working in the Rice Fields. all of a sudden they discovered they are good at Math and the next thing you know, Facebook,Google ,etc became impressed and started “Importing” them via H1B1 visas.
Google,Facebook,Apple started offering them Free Lavish Meals at the Job sites. they also Built Fancy restaurants for them at Google,Amazon (Not the warehouses), and other Tech Firms. During the past 2 plus years most of the Free Food & Restaurants are Gone. Why? Indians are to be Blamed. even when they are making $250,000, to more than a million Dollars a year, they were still stealing Food from the work place,taking so much Food to have parties at their homes for Friends & Family.They were Boasting about how Important they were to the Tech Firms. NO MORE!
I am reading these comments and have to say that the world is healing.
I completely agree that the behavior described in the article is unacceptable. At the same time, I strongly disagree with many of the comments that use this incident to stereotype Indians or speak of “Indians” as if one family’s conduct reflects an entire country or culture.
Entitled or dishonest guests exist everywhere in the world. Turning a single story into a justification for calling Indians “horrible people” or implying that this is “just how India is” is unfair, prejudiced, and frankly racist. Indians live, work, and lead successfully across the globe in medicine, technology, finance, academia, entrepreneurship, and public service, and they are widely respected for their talent, work ethic, and integrity.
It is entirely possible to criticize what happened at Andaz Delhi without demeaning over a billion people in the process or ignoring the enormous positive contribution Indians make worldwide.
Totally agree. EVERY culture group, race and color have their rascals. There are the great, good, bad and the ugly EVERYWHERE.
I love India and I love Indians. This guy is an a-hole. His nationality is irrelevant.
The “unspoken” culture aspect you bring up put me in bankruptcy due to 2 charge backs from 2 sets of travelers we sold a *complete* package to (airfare, hotel, cruise, excursions, transfers, etc) to the tune of $67k for one and $22k for another – both paid with Amex. We’ve dealt with “these” people a lot, but holy moly I think these 2 travelers (from NY but had a last name that points to this “culture” you mention did chargebacks (we sadly charged both packages at once, one time – never, EVER again).
family 1 – Princess cruise – ship skipped 2 ports and they missed out on 2 excursions. Our contact with them was very good, promised them a refund of the excursions, but they wanted “more” – said that has to be handled onboard.
Family 2 – a few weeks BEFORE family 1, but had an issue with the train in Alaska and missed 1 day (rockslide). Same, was texting with wife via our texting feature (which, we turned off after this) and said we’ll get them some reimbursements and compensation. The Husband instantly emailed us and said “don’t worry about it, we have it taken care of”. Two days later my accountant called me in a panick saying our account was down to just a few thousand dollars.
Then the 1st family hit, AFTER our busy season and we had everythind paid (for everyone/everything) – and we financially “coast” until January when bookings hit – well they gave me a Thanksgiving present of Amex doing a FULL chargeback which put our account in the negative; the bank made me sell off my stocks / retirement and even my own personal accounts to cover it; I was still short and had to borrow money from friends.
Had to hire an attorney, to make this all worse, and sadly we couldn’t serve either family -theymysteriously went back to India.
So yeah. Lesson learned. I now NEVER do business via TEXT, and I sell *all* components individually after giving someone a total.
Indians. Did they by chance order 1 coffee and as for 7 empty cups?