We go to Blue Frog a few times a month for their (underrated) brunch and for the occasional dinner. I've always liked the burgers there (though their policy of "only cooking to medium" is total bullshit) and sitting on the patio with a burger and a cold beer, well...there are far worse ways to spend an evening.
Last night though, our waiter was kind of dickhead and I was willing to let that pass, but the problem is...dude forgot to put in our order. At first we didn't notice. It was busy and we had beers so we were pretty patient. But after 30 minutes we decided to ask and in reply got the standard "mashang." Okay, they are "mashang-ing" and it's all good. 15 minutes later, one of the floor managers stopped by and we asked him. His answer: "mei wenti." So "Mashang" and "Mei Wenti" have both assured us that there is no problem and our food will soon be served. Once we crossed the hour mark though, we asked "Mashang" where the hell our food was, at this point "Mashang" turned into "Aiya, Wangdiaole!" He forgot and by the look on his face it was clear he didn't give a f--k about it. He'd put our order in right away, but hey--whadddyagonnado? "Mei Wenti" came over and tried to ply us with free nachos but more in a "if I throw food at the foreigners maybe they'll shut up about their unrealistic expectations for 'quality service'"; the whole time looking at us as if we, instead of asking for 'burgers,' had requested instead that he bring us the 'nearest small child for satanic feasting.'
Fortunately, the manager, and I wish I knew his name, he's either British or Australian, and he's always been a good guy to us, was there. I just happened to stop him and tell him the situation. This guy SPRINGS into action, apologizes profusely, and within 10 minutes we had a round of drinks and our food...on his tab.
Mistakes happen. No restaurant is perfect. But I judge a restaurant's service not by their mistakes, but by how much they seem to care about fixing them when shit happens. An all too common attitude (around the world, but especially here in Beijing) is: "If you don't like it, go. If you don't come back, who cares?" If it had been up to "Mashang" and "Mei Wenti" we would have probably finished our drinks and then gone to Flamme (also a good place) likely never to darken the threshold of Blue Frog again. Now, because of the manager's quick and sincere response to our complaint, I'm actually likely to patronize Blue Frog MORE in the future.
Customer service isn't hard. It's listening, giving a crap, and then taking real action to make it better. It's how you keep your customers. Last night, Blue Frog kept us. Kudos to them.
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I've always found the Blue Frog, Beijing staff to be surly and rude. More than once I waited 20min for a draft beer. When my wife and I ordered Cheese fries they came out without cheese and were told we had to pay for "extra" cheese. Oh, and their Lasagne is a disgrace.
That said it's good place, just treat it like a Dan Ryan's or TGIF