New Restaurant in Lubbock? How Much Grace Should Diners Give?

Lubbock has a tumultuous relationship with new restaurants, especially chains. We tend to love bomb them, and when they don't deliver immediately, we complain, OR, we continually make excuses for egregious mistakes and look like foolish enablers of poor service and product. Geez, we need therapy or something.

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It all leads to a key question: At what point should diners judge a new restaurant on what it is, rather than what it might eventually become?

How Long Should You Give a New Lubbock Restaurant to Get It Right?

Apparently, there's an actual quantifiable answer here: 3 months, at least according to this article written by a professional in the business. In Lubbock, that's an eternity, and well past the "shiny, new" phase our town seems to be obsessed with. If restaurant owners can't get it right (at least most of the time) by then, well, maybe they should reconsider their career path.

You Are Brave Enough For A Soft Open

You are an influencer, a friend of the owner, or just really adventurous. Or you work in radio/ moderate a food group, and they enticed you with the promise of free food (me).

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The first couple of weeks tend to be pure chaos, even for well-established chains. Equipment malfunctions, staff drops the ball, and there are questions no one can answer (bad, bad if this has to do with allergies, but I'd also like to know what the house wine is too). You can expect some lag in service, with the manager hiding behind the bar and the hostess in tears in the walk-in. I've even seen a review of a new restaurant which included the little whoopsie of they set a lady on fire, but I wasn't there, so I can neither confirm nor deny that happened, and if it did, I hope she's okay.

You Have Waited For The New Whiff To Dissipate

Perhaps wisely, you've given a new place a month or two for the crowds to die down and for some kinks to be worked out. You could have the best meal this restaurant will ever serve, because they haven't figured out how to cut food or labor costs yet. Or, it could be a little mediocre, as they made some menu changes and it hasn't all quite settled yet. I would still be at least 60% gracious at this point, but you can and should address any issues with the manager so they can fix them now- but probably hold off on the toxic Google review.

It's After Three Months, The Gloves Are Off

At this point, if you get poor service, you tried and failed to find a manager, the hostess popped gum in your face, and the waiter put out a cigarette in your mashed potatoes, well, yeah, this place stinks and probably won't get better. Of course, every place can have an off night, so please do consider that and give the place the chance to make your poor expereince right (remake your food, comp an item off your ticket, apologize and own the mistake, etc.)

If you gave them a chance to make it right and they failed, go ahead and leave that review. You will have some people crying that's mean; those people have to pay their bills, etc., but as someone who has both worked in food service myself and has been married to (2) restaurant managers (not at the same time), I hereby give you professional permission to air your grievances in the right places. Just leave it off LBK Foodies because we don't allow it.