Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Avoid it: Bucking Bull

Below is an excerpt from what I posted on the Bucking Bull feedback form, under their question "What could we do better?"

You could try cooking your meat, particularly your rissoles, all the way through. I ordered rissoles and vegies yesterday for an early lunch, and the rissoles were quite obviously raw for much of the middle. I would estimate they were cooked only a quarter of the way through from each side, leaving fully half of the meat uncooked in the middle. I returned the uneaten rissoles to the counter, where the lady who had served me agreed immediately that the meat was uncooked. She initially offered to provide something else instead, or a refund. Unfortunately she couldn't provide a refund, apparently only the manager can do that, so offered an alternative meal instead. I thanked her but advised that I'd lost my appetite. She took my name and number to provide to the manager today, when she would be in. I ate nothing before nor after this meal yesterday, and had some unpleasant time in the toilet barely an hour later.

Fast forward to a quarter to 10 this morning when the manager called me and proceeded to deny that the meat could have been raw, and if it had then it was the fault of the supplier. I advised that I had returned the uneaten portion of the meal to the store, where her staff had looked at it and immediately agreed with my complaint, before throwing those rissoles and the ones still on display in the bin.

While I did not return the food intending to ask for a refund, only to advise the staff of the problem, I do not particularly care about getting a refund. However offering other food when what was bought was not cooked thoroughly isn't necessarily the best option, at least in my case. I also do not appreciate having someone question my integrity, especially when the staff member on duty was shown the problem and agreed with me.

Since I'm typing, I will also add that the food from the bain marie was not hot. Lukewarm would be a generous description.

In short, what could you do better? Cook your food thoroughly. Don't make your customers ill.