What makes a good meal? Good service

Let me know if this has ever happened to you in a restaurant:

You enter with another couple, sit, have drinks, appetizers and spark up a pleasant relationship with your young server. (The other couple has been here before, so that makes things flow more smoothly.)

You order your entrees. One of you orders something that seems familiar, though it becomes clear that everything on this menu represents the chef’s personal take on the dish that’s offered. Which in three of the four cases tonight works out well.

But that fourth dish … well, it’s just not what anyone at the table was expecting. Moreover, it’s nothing anyone likes.

So when the server returns and delivers the obligatory line – “How is everything?” – we are honest. We say that three of the plates are good, superb actually, but that the fourth just doesn’t meet our expectations.

Here is what I’ve experienced in Spokane and most everywhere else:

1, the server says, “I’m sorry.” And walks away.

2, the server says, “I’m sorry.” And asks if you want something else.

3, the server says, “I’m sorry.” And offers you a free dessert.

4, the server gets the chef, who argues with you, making you feel as if you’re an ignorant clown. (This actually happened to my wife in a now-defunct Spokane eatery.)

Here’s what happened to us the other night at an Italian restaurant called Tutoni’s in York, Pa., where my in-laws live. One of us had ordered gnocchi, which turned out to be a seared version of the dish that none of us cared for.

We mentioned this and the server said that she was sorry. Then she offered to replace it with something else (we had plenty of food to share and said no). She left, only to come back saying that the chef insisted that he prepare us something else (we again declined, but thanked her profusely).

Then the owner dropped by and explained the chef’s take on the dish, what he was attempting to do, listened to our reactions and thanked us for the feedback. And never once was she defensive or did she attempt to make us feel uncomfortable.

Finally, the server did not charge us for the offending meal.

Folks, that is what I call good restaurant service. And that’s a place that deserves a return visit.