Very true. I'll pay my bill and leave.
However, if no concessions were made, if no attempt was made to ameliorate the situation, it will be the last time I go there. And if anyone ever askes me about XYZ restaurant, I'll be sure to let them know how unhappy I was there and I wouldn't recommend it. But if they do make some kinds of peace keepting gestures, I'll be OK.
Case in point; my youngest had a group of 20 kids over for dinner before the HS homecoming dance. Everyone all dressed up, corsages, the whole 9 yards. We order food from Olive Garden. Pretty big take-out order, about $250. My wife calls the restaurant on the Wednesday before to order so its not a surprise. She calls in the morning of the Saturday to make sure the order is in their queue. No worries Mrs. Tucker, everything is under control. Pick up your food at 6. We're on a little bit of a tight schedule since we want the kids to have a good time.
So I drive over to Olive Garden at 6 and say order for Tucker. To-go order person looks through the orders and says hmmmmm....errr... hmmm.. Roy frowns. Person says let me go check. She checks and comes back saying it will just be a minute. I'm not filled with confidence.
6:05. 6:10. 6:15. To-go person is studiously avoiding my eye contact. Restaurant is extremely busy. I'm willing to cut some slack, but its running out fast. I wave at the to-go person. She flees. My little patience timer goes "ding". I go flag down the bar tender and ask him to get the manager. He says OK.
6:20. 6:25. Now I'm in a full-fledged Roy hissy fit. All of my buffer time has now been expended and now we're in big-rush mode for the kids. Manager finally comes over. I explain the details of the situation we're in. By my red face and talking very quietly yet intently, he picks up on I'm really not very happy. He drops what he's doing and goes back in the kitchen. 2 minutes later, a convoy of wait staff comes out with the bags for my order.
He rings up the bill. As he is taking my card, he says I'm giving you a $30 gift card for a future dinner at our restaurant. I'm sorry for your inconvenience. I hope we can make this up to you then. Instantly defuses the whole situation and I go "oh, well, gee, OK, that's fine.... great". I walk out with a little story thats fun to tell and much better feelings about Olive Garden than I had about 2 minutes before when I was in a torches and pitchfork mood.