I don’t particularly enjoy reviewing a favorite restaurant negatively, but the purpose of a review is to accurately inform potential customers, and it also allows the business a chance to improve.

My boyfriend and I frequent New York City’s Cafe Centosette on Second Avenue and Tenth Street for weekend brunch. The menu, intimate space, bar and outdoor seating have always been enough to keep us coming back for Sunday brunch — and the service was always up to par.

Until last weekend, it had been some time since our last brunch at Cafe Centosette, so we were both excited to dine there. I ordered the western omelet with egg whites, and my date ordered the vegetable omelet with sausage. I don’t particularly like ham in my omelet, so I made a simple request — substitute sausage for the ham. The waitress told me it would be okay to do this, and she left to promptly place our orders.

I was a bit disappointed when our waitress brought me an omelet with ham in it, but this happens. I was a waitress in high school and throughout college, so I know the stress that comes with the job. Yes, sometimes orders do get mixed up. It is how the problem is fixed that really matters. When I addressed the situation with the waitress, she had an opportunity to make good. Unfortunately, on this particular day, Cafe Centosette seemed to fail in all aspects of service.

Here is a little Food and Beverage 101 — when a customer informs you that you’ve brought them the wrong order, you immediately take it off the table, no questions asked. I know people who break into hives as a reaction to the steam from cooked shrimp. Customers can be allergic, temperamental, or just plain picky — get the order out of their face.

Instead of doing this, the waitress questioned me and said she didn’t hear my request. Then she left me with my plate while she went to check with the chef. Instead of replacing my order, the chef brought me a side of sausage. By this time, I was really aggravated, my food was cold, and I still had the wrong order. I regret deciding to just stick with what was in front of me, but I was tired of trying to spell it out for everyone. The waitress came and apologized after I told her it wasn’t what I ordered. She offered me a complimentary dessert, which I did not want. At this point I just wanted people to stop coming to my table with the wrong items!

The experience doesn’t end there. When we asked for the check, we were charged for everything. And after talking to the manager and waitress twice, they only removed the side of sausage from the bill — a whopping $2.50. I was most disappointed when the manager, who should care about customer service more than anyone else, could not have cared less. I’ve never wanted to walk out on a meal so badly. We didn’t walk out. We kept our cool and paid for both meals, mainly because we were tired of continuously asking someone to fix something. At this point, I just wanted to get the hell out of there, so we did.

I can safely say I probably won’t go back there again. And I hope the manager of Cafe Centosette considers customer service if he would like to keep his frequent customers, and perhaps they should reevaluate their service training for the sake of keeping a healthy business.

– Courtney Centeno, account executive