Yesterday evening, my wife, daughter and I went
for a relaxing bite at the Coliseum Pool and Grill at the Pelican Hill
Resort. It's an amazing place to enjoy delicious food and watch the
beautiful sunset views overlooking the gorgeous pool, golf course and
Pacific Ocean. My wife and I have been there before; for my daughter,
this was the first time! What was interesting about yesterday was that my wife ordered the Thai Pasta with mushroom without meat. I ordered Veggie Burger, and my daughter asked for Cheese Pizza. And the server made the appropriate notes, and took the proper order. However, since their computer systems were down (we found this out later), the order was not communicated correctly. What she got instead was the regular Thai Pasta with mushroom and beef.
We are Hindus! My wife is 100% vegetarian, and has never had any meat all her life. For us Hindus, cows are sacred and we can never, ever think of eating cow meat or beef. Unfortunately, this is what happened. My wife inadvertently ended up eating beef. She asked me a couple of times to check her food... but I couldn't imagine, in my wildest dream, that her order can get messed up. I am glad I did check, and realized that her food indeed had lots of beef. You can see the look on her face. She was both disgusted and shocked, surprised and lost. Her initial reaction was that we will never visit this place again.
Everyone makes mistakes. In this case, the mistake was that their computer systems were down, and the order was not communicated correctly from the server to the chef (he wrote it down on paper!). We told the server what happened, and shared our displeasure and disappointment. I told him that we are Hindus and having beef in our food goes against our religion. The server apologized and said he is going to check what happened. We asked him that we would like to talk to both the chef and the manager. The manager promptly came, and apologized multiple times. Even he was surprised about this. He shared with us what really happened. He offered to provide my wife a new Thai Pasta completely made from scratch and assured her that he and the chef will personally make sure that there is no meat. Which they did. My wife slightly enjoyed the new pasta (since she had lost her appetite by then).
What makes a good restaurant great? Well, the manager came back and offered us an entire dessert tray at no cost, compliments of the house. Also, since he wanted to please my wife profusely, he offered her anything to drink along with the dessert. She went for coffee. The assortment of desserts and coffee were incredible. Finally, the manager told us that we would not be billed for the Thai Pasta (which we declined, since we indeed got the pasta, and wanted to pay). All in all, the customer service after this unfortunate incident was over the top!
As we were paying the bill, the manager came back again, and gave his business card and told my wife and daughter to come back any time for a day trip at the award-winning cabana and pool. My daughter was so excited by the pool and the water, that she was wishing all along that she should have brought her swim suit and would have loved to take a splash. Well, now the manager made her day!
We stayed a bit longer after the dinner and enjoyed the cool breeze that had just begun.
Life is indeed made of memorable experiences, and yesterday's was nothing short of it!
Check out Coliseum Pool & Grill
Connect with Sanjay Dalal, Founder & CEO of oGoing, nation's leading social network for small business, here