The Food Critic??

All employees of the restaurant business often battle the disgruntled and difficult customers that visit restaurants daily with an iron fist. However, there are certain restaurant etiquette requirements reserved especially for professional food critics. This leads me to my tale of the faux "food critic." On a Sunday morning, a heavyset woman with long hair loosely tied back and piercing blue eyes and her potentially bratty son entered the restaurant and sat down to view the menu. I politely greeted this woman out of habit and courtesy and I took their drink requests. For the next 5-10 minutes, I made a piping hot slow-drip espresso and a strawberry smoothie for the young child, which I delivered promptly to their table. I then proceeded to take the order and the woman only requested one order of summer rolls. Here comes the first dilemma: Had this woman been a little more observant and cautious, she would have noticed the $7.00 minimum charge per person for dining in only. The second dilemma: There are two summer rolls in an order for just the price of $3.50 for the two of them to share. The third dilemma: Children and summer rolls do not mesh well and children tend to throw their noodles all over the place. I delivered the summer rolls with the assumption that this woman was going to continue with the ordering process. However, I was extremely dismayed when she simply replied that the summer rolls were all she was going to order and I politely informed her of the restaurant policy and that it would be advisable for her to order another item from the menu.
The general manager decided to take this matter into her own hands and politely spoke to the woman about the restaurant policy and the disgruntled customer gave her complete attitude and her tone was harsh and brash. She acted as though we had clearly done something completely wrong and unlawful and she proceeded to order another order of summer rolls and a pork vermicelli. I delivered the second order of summer rolls and this awful woman snapped "JUST WRAP IT UP." She then proceeded to say, "So let me get this straight. I can't eat here with my son because we aren't spending $7.00 a person? Are you saying that EVERY person that comes into this restaurant has to pay $7.00?" I politely answered yes and she proceeded to tell ME how wrong this policy was and I said to her, "M'am what you ordered was only $3.50 cents and our restaurant simply does not allow two people to share a dish or an entree, especially only one appetizer. Would you like the pork vermicelli wrapped as well?" She gave me the dirtiest look and said, "Maybe I'll eat it, maybe I won't." My patience was growing thin and as I sent the pork vermicelli out to her she snapped "Just wrap it up" which I sloppily proceeded to do so." She walked up to me to pay the bill with attitude and she said, "I just want you to know I am a food critic." I did not respond and I handed her the change and she asked for a business card. I simply told her that we were out of business cards then she rudely requested a receipt with the name of the restaurant so she could "write about it in her article" and she left, leaving a $1.00 tip on the table.

To the spoiled woman:

1. If you are a food critic, aren't you supposed to remain anonymous?
2. Isn't the purpose of a food critic to EAT FOOD?
3. And who the heck are you to treat people like complete trash, just because things did not go the way you intended?

If you had done your research more carefully, you would have realized that every other major newspaper has given the restaurant extremely positive reviews, including the most recent article written in the Philadelphia Inquirer. I would like to know what supposed "newspaper" you are employed by and who gave you the authority to become a food critic. If so, I would like to say that your and the employer's credibility is pretty much shot to hell and that one lousy "article" will not cause this restaurant to lose its credibility nor its loyal customers.