Can you say Health Department No-No?

We went out to dinner tonight. I had a meeting and didn't get home until about 5:45 so TC took us out. We went to a restaurant here in town that shall remain nameless and I was anxiously awaiting my dish (and X-man's because the kid's meal I get him is also pretty tasty and he shares a few bites with me!).

The waiter comes out and brings a kid's meal, but not the one we ordered. He has another plate with what I ordered, but the wrong side dish. "Oh, well," I think. It's ok and I can eat it. But when he said he'd be back with the third dish and it wasn't what TC ordered, I knew we had the wrong order.

I was being very careful not to touch the food at all. And we moved X-man's bowl back toward me so he wouldn't touch it either. I specifically didn't drink any of my water nor did I take a bite of my spring roll. Then I thought I was just being silly for being so careful. Based on my limited knowledge of restaurant food prep (which is really limited), I knew they weren't going to deliver the food that was sitting on our table to its proper table. That's just not right!

The waiter came back with "our" third dish and I told him about the mix-up. He picked up all three dishes, took them to the manager at the food prep area and then I watched him take the very same dishes and deliver them to a table just down from us. They had no idea their food had been sitting on our table! Yowza!

I wondered if I should mention something to the manager or just call them later tomorrow. I don't really like conflict, but I knew I should tell someone. And I was given the opportunity just a few short minutes later.

The manager came to our table to apologize for X-man's food being slow (TC and I had since been served the dishes we did order). X-man's chicken was a little overcooked so they remade it.

I decided to go ahead and ask the manager about what had happened to the plates. I said, "Our waiter brought us the wrong food. Did he really deliver the very same dishes to the proper table?" The manager made a strange, screwy face. I said, "I didn't touch the plates at all, so they're fine, but I watched the waiter take the plates, ask you a question, presumably where they were supposed to go, and then deliver them to that family right there." He assured me that that was not how things were supposed to happen and he thought the waiter just couldn't find the table. The waiter didn't tell him it had already been delivered somewhere.

Anyway, regardless of what the manager actually thought, I hope they have a quick refresher in what to do with food that is misdelivered.