I had some fabulous meals and some not-so-fabulous ones. Waitstaff ranged from the most attentive and courteous to the downright rude. There was one restaurant, though, that deserves special mention — due to their combination of superior customer service and fabulous food.

The restaurant is in the town of East Greenwich, RI. It’s a little Thai place, called Herbs and Spices. The ingredients were incredibly fresh, and I had a fabulous lunch.

But I’m getting ahead of of myself.

I have some crazy food allergies, and the craziest is an allergy to soy.  This often makes dining out somewhat of a challenge.

I love curry and I really love mangoes, so I was intrigued to try their signature dish of mango curry.  I don’t usually have issues with Thai curry, so I ordered with confidence and didn’t question whether there was soy in the dish.

The waitress (to whom I had mentioned my allergy upon arrival) went back to the kitchen, and took it upon herself to  examine every ingredient the chef would use!  She returned to the table carrying two unopened cans of curry paste – one yellow and one red.  She noted that the yellow paste appeared to have soy in it, whereas the red paste did not.  She offered to have the chef substitute red curry paste for the yellow, which I gratefully accepted.

All I can say on so many levels is, “wow!”  What great customer service!  It was a great catch on her part, and I learned something new about red and yellow curries.  As for the dish itself?  It was absolutely the best Thai curry I have eaten in recent memory.

If I were an official restaurant reviewer, I’d give Herbs and Spices five stars.  I can’t think of another thing they could have done to make our dining experience more pleasant.  I definitely plan to return for another meal the next time I visit RI. 

The server told me that they changed their recipe and now mix two sauces together.

Since the second sauce has ingredients I can’t eat (allergies), I asked him to give me plain pulled chicken instead. I then proceeded to pick up a bottle of Carolina BBQ sauce, and planned to mix it with the chicken at home.

No sooner had I put the sauce into my cart when he said, “since I’m pulling the chicken anyway, why don’t I mix up a special batch for you with just the Carolina BBQ sauce?” And he proceeded to make me my own fresh container of hand-pulled barbecue chicken!

He didn’t have to do that.

When I thanked him, he said with a smile, “No problem. Whenever you come in, if I’m here, I’ll make you a batch.” Wow.

One often hears that customer service has declined through the years, and is no longer an integral part of doing business. “The customer is always right” philosophy that once drove business owners has been replaced with a lingering societal complacency.

But thankfully, in a little smokehose kiosk of a big supermarket retailer is one young man who understands that a happy customer is the key to business success.

He definitely brightened my day.

And you know I’ll be buying more pulled chicken.