This is usually my policy, too, since I figure bad word of mouth is worth a bit. Once we had an opportunity to really pay back a bad restaurant. My partner had ordered their lasagne, and it came out cold in the middle. He sent it back, asking them to heat it some more. We were sitting at a bench that separated the galley kitchen from the dining room of the cafe, and we saw the waiter go to the chef and explain the situation. The chef STUCK HIS THUMB into the middle of Chris's meal, then shook his head. So not only did he defile Chris's food with his digit, he also refused to heat the food further. When the lasagne came back to us, we refused to take it, telling the waiter what we'd seen. He actually tried to deny it had ever happened, but we just pointed out the thumb sized hole in the middle of the lasagne. They tried to make us pay when we left, too, but we utterly, hands-down refused. Then, a few months later, a friend of ours was hosting a talk show on a local radio station, talking about just these kinds of situations. I rang her during an ad break and filled her in, and she told the whole of Melbourne our sorry tale. Now, that's what I call payback!!

You're like a doctor, prescribing my personal dream cure!!! If you insist, I will choke down some more gelati. And continue to shop for the perfect handbag (although my Kenzo bucket bag from Paris already fills that slot, I think!). The food in this restaurant was average through the starters, then slid to inedible for the mains. The entree was bruchetta - in Australia and other parts of Italy, this is served on crisply toasted, olive-oil brushed bread and is usually made from freshly sliced onions, tomatoes and herbs. This was soggy cold bread, fridge-cold tomato pulp with some dried oregano sprinkled on it. Then, our pasta dishes arrived. Mine was cream-based, and it was congealed, as though it had been sitting somewhere for quite some time before it made its way to our table. But the piece de resistance was the main. Supposed to be roast turkey with baked potatoes (we were taking a break from regional food for the night). The meat was dry, and cold-to-warmish. And the whole plate smelt a like a kitchen sponge that has gone a little off. That smell turned out to be the potatoes - cooked in rancid or very old oil. I put one in my mouth and had to spit it out it was so vile. And I will eat almost anything. How do you ruin pototoes? I would never have thought it was possible. Since we had chosen a "set" tourist menu, which was hard to avoid in the area of Venice where we were staying, we decided that trying to argue for a partial refund of the set price in a language that was not our own was too hard. As for telling the waiting staff - well, our waiter came and took our full, untouched plates away and did not meet our eye. We suspect he's seen it happen before...

Ew, ew, ew!!! I have no words...

Ack!! That would have prompted an immediate upchuck reflex! Disgusting doesn't even come close to describing that!! I'd have made a quick call to the board of health!