A true little story.
Went out for lunch today with a friend to an Italian restaurant. Nothing fancy. Part of a chain.
He ordered a 'special deal' meal and got a starter, main course and a glass of wine. Not bad value at £10 IMO.
I did not fancy anything from the special deal, so I went a la carte and ordered a pasta with prawns, calamari and mussels. Cost £14. Glass of wine was extra. Imagine my surprise when after poking around my lunch there was only 1 PRAWN, 1 TINY CALAMARI and 3 EMPTY MUSSELS out of 5!
I called the manager and politely requested him to explain this dish. His excuse, that's how much goes in and it's standard. When I questioned him about the empty mussels, he felt they must have dropped out of the shells between the cooking and the serving. Cheeky sod.
To cut a long story short and sensing my fury, he re-presented the dish now with 10 large juicy praws, 10 calamari and 10 non-empty mussels. Very tasty.
But the waitress was a sullen creature. So I refused to tip her and told her why and that she should enrol in 'charm school'. She went white as a sheet, then rosy red and then stamped her heels and fled in fury.
Three other tables around us (a total of approx 7 people) left their meals and walked out! Never seen this happen before!
BTW, this restaurant has, previous to today, always provided excellent food.