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I am fairly certain that my wife got food poisoning from the restaurant we ate at last night, and I'm curious whether or not I should call and tell them. We've only been back in New Orleans for a little over a month, but we've eaten at this place more times than any other restaurant (at least 6 since we've been back) and we obviously like eating there. I'm not sure if my wife will ever be able to go back, but anyway, I'm not sure what to do here. Yalls thoughts?

I never return to a restaurant where I suspect food poisoning. To me, it is a matter of managerial concern and control.

Discarded food is a loss to restaurants, consequently lots of food is served that is actually past its' time. Salads are a pet peeve. Inspect salad greens closely and you will find a lot of lettuce you would throw away at home. Poultry and fish, also.

Of course, the better restaurants are better managed and they take better care. Just another, practical reason to support good establishments.

I have wondered lately, how good restaurants survive economic downturns, in regards to inventory turnover. There has to be a ton of expensive product going to waste. Do they freeze it, eat it, or throw it away? I guess they downsize their daily/weekly purchases.

Well, in my view and probably most of yours as well, this restaurant is a good establishment, probably a very good one. Whether or not I'm going to go back is yet to be determined, and when my wife stops puking she may have some thoughts on the matter. I guess I'm wondering if any good can come from me letting them know

May I ask what type of food you suspect was the poison? And yeah, I'd probably call and talk to a manager.

I did call a couple of minutes ago and talked to the manager, he seemed very genuine and concerned. He asked what dish it was, told me that the batch had been made that night and he hadn't had any other reports, but he also conceded he just got in and it was still very early. He took my name and number and told me that he'd call me back.

The dish was an eggplant dish with shrimp, crabmeat, and ham. What's real nice is that I was the one who pointed it out to my wife and suggested she'd like it. I'm sure I'm her favorite person today

The most suspicious item my view would be the crabmeat, not that it helps any at this point.

It's nearly always a good idea to inform the restaurant about suspected food poisoning. If it's a well-managed restaurant and good citizen, they will want to know. From the public health standpoint, it helps to have a database of affected people if investigators need it. You can also check out ww.cdc.gov for any known issues out there.

Food poisoning is difficult to trace without detailed medical expertise.
Most restaurants will deny any blame as advised by their legal counsel.

If they had any other complaints I'm sure they might offer some compensation but a night of retching is hard to put a value on.

I don't want anything from the restaurant, just their best efforts to make sure no one else gets to go through that.

I have had food poisoning 14 times and there is nothing they could do to compensate me for my pain & suffering that would be equal.

I once ate a chicken salad sandwich at a local eatery (that shall remain unnamed because they changed hands) which was definitely the culprit.
I called & spoke to the owner (who I knew only from going in there so much).

He said he was sorry that had happened and he'd like to invite me back, well, not only me, but please bring in my whole family, as many as I wanted to bring in, for a meal on him. What? You think I actually could stomach going back in there for a meal? And by the way, my family gets invited too? It took about 6 or 7 yrs before I could go back in there.

I realize some folks think that you need detailed medical tests to trace food poisoning, but I personally have no problems accurately tracing food poisoning.

So Jesse, what's your wife doing for it?