Unfiltered Story #292162

I am a diner at a branch of what was then a favourite Italian restaurant (“cafe”), named after it’s famous owner. I order beef carpaccio. It’s a very simple dish: raw steak, thinly sliced, dressed with olive oil, capers etc. Hard to go wrong…you’d think

Anyone who has ever cooked beef knows how it looks raw: bright red. Anyone who has left raw beef uncovered knows what can happen. My dish arrives, and it’s brown. Not cooked brown, but oxidised brown. It no long looks raw; it’s the colour of an inside slice of a well done beef roast. The underside is still red raw so it is definitely oxidised, not cooked.

So that means it was prepared hours ago. It was either uncovered or inadequately covered. It also means that the waitress either did not know that carpaccio is raw, or what raw beef looks like. It also also means that there is either no one supervising in the kitchen, or the person supervising is not doing a good job, or the person supervising does not know that raw beef is red.

I send it back, of course. The waitress looks at me suspiciously, but takes it to the kitchen. There is a long pause, 5 or 10 minutes. Then the maitre d comes to our table and tells me that yes, beef carpaccio should not be brown. He says it in such a way that he seems to believe he is telling me I have a win, that my complaint has been upheld. It is quite clear he also did not know that beef carpaccio is raw, or that raw beef is red. He had clearly had to talk to someone.

I wasn’t asked to pay for the spoilt dish, and we finished our meal. Everything else was, um, fine.

The menu at this “cafe” isn’t that long. It’s strength is quality ingredients, simply prepared. They messed up on what might have been the simplest dish on the menu. And it seemed only one person (or maybe not that, maybe they had to call Antonio to ask him what colour beef carpaccio should be). I left sad that day, and have never been back.

The saddest thing is this was 10 years ago. Many better restaurants have gone out of business. This one is still trading.