There’s nothing like the disappointment of being served a bad meal. Whether your soup comes cold, your pizza came with olives even though you explicitly asked for none, or your burger is burned to a crisp, it’s painful to have to suffer through a gross dish. But if you’re paying for it, it’s even more painful to waste the food!

Some of us are far too polite or anxious to complain about a bad meal, but shouldn’t we be happy with what we ordered? Well, if you want to have a game plan for the next time you’re served a plate of disappointment, Food & Wine has some tips. First, they recommend resisting the urge to get angry. You’re likely to receive much better service if you’re polite and respectful. Plus, nobody wants their server spitting in their dinner!

If you’re tempted to channel your inner Karen and ask to see a manager when you’ve been served a bad meal, Food & Wine notes that this isn’t always the best choice. It’s likely that they’ll offer you the exact same solution that your server did, so you probably don’t need to escalate the issue to this point.

And if you are interested in speaking with the manager, first consider if there’s actually anything they can do for you. If your server has informed you that the kitchen is out of the dish you wanted or is missing a key ingredient, the manager can’t magically make it appear. And if your waiter offered to comp your dinner, that’s probably enough to satisfy you. Try to keep calm and remember that everyone makes mistakes. Yes, even people working in restaurants!

Eater has also shared some advice on how to politely complain when a restaurant messes up your order. First, it’s important to know when it’s worth it to say something and when it’s best to keep your mouth shut. For example, if you asked for mild curry, and the first bite of the dish burned your tastebuds off, don’t hesitate to tell your server. However, if you forgot to ask for your salad without tomatoes or didn’t realize that there would be some onions on top of your guacamole, it might be best to just pick them off and carry on with your meal. 

Eater also suggests that diners remain on their best manners when sharing concerns about their dishes. Don’t be a jerk, and always remain calm. It’s not the end of the world if your steak was cooked the wrong way. Just politely explain the situation and ask for a new one. 

If you have something in mind that will resolve the issue, be specific when requesting it. If it’s as easy as getting a new meal, ask for that. And if it’s too late, you might want to ask the restaurant to comp your dish. Or, if you ordered an appetizer that was incredibly disappointing, you might be able to swap it out for a different one. Have suggestions, but be reasonable.  

When expressing concerns about your food to restaurant staff, you also have to remember that they might not always be interested in hearing your feedback. It’s possible that the chef will double down and assure the customer that there’s nothing wrong with their food. And you know what, they might be right. If you’re really uncomfortable with your dish, no one will force you to eat it. But you might still have to pay and simply decide to never return in the future.

It’s also not a great practice to fail to speak up in the moment when you’ve been served a disappointing meal, and then write a scathing Yelp review after you’ve left. Give the restaurant an opportunity to right their wrong while you’re still sitting at your table. Negative reviews can really hurt a business, and it’s possible that you just caught them on a bad day. Don’t make the restaurant suffer forever because of one bad experience.

Everyone loves to enjoy a delicious meal, and it’s natural to hold restaurants to a high standard. But the reality is that there are a lot of ways an order can go wrong. First, the customer must correctly explain what they want. Then, the server has to relay that information to the kitchen. The line cooks must pay attention to what’s written and properly plate the order, and then, the server has to deliver it to the correct customer before it gets cold. Let’s have some sympathy for the staff when dining out!

Are these photos infuriating you, pandas? Keep upvoting the ones that you find particularly atrocious, and let us know in the comments below what the worst experience you’ve ever had when ordering food was. Then, if you’d like to check out another Bored Panda article featuring similarly disappointing photos, look no further than right here!