maintaining quality is hard

Terry and I have been having lunch at our local Mexican restaurant, Victoria’s, for several years now. The quality has always been consistent. We always know what to expect.

Newer ventures don’t always find it so easy to maintain consistent quality. When our new South Asian restaurant, Pineapple Village, opened Terry and I went there on their second day. We both really enjoyed the lunch bento plate. Both the taste and the presentation impressed us. As they became more popular and the lunch hour became busier, they had difficulty keeping up. On my most recent visit, when I went by myself, I had a long wait for my bento plate, and when it arrived the presentation was sloppy and the flavor not what I experienced on our first visit.

A while back a burger place called Roadhouse Jack’s went in to the space previously occupied by Arby’s. We went there a few times and really enjoyed it. On our visit a few months ago we decided that it was our burger place of choice. Our most recent visit was different. First we had a very long wait for our order. It turns out that they needed to fry a new batch of chips for my chips and guacamole. It was nice to have fresh chips, but they could have given us a heads up. Then my mushroom burger had a stale bun and was very chintzy with the mushrooms. Not acceptable.

Maintaining quality isn’t easy.