With blogs, Twitter, Yelp, Instagram and Facebook, is there any need to hand-write comments? Why directly tell a restaurant what you think? Isn’t the point of visiting a restaurant to show friends and frenemies that you are out, dining extravagantly, enjoying life—and able to communicate instantly about it?
If something is wrong, nothing will fix itself with an anonymous comment card. Maybe you’ll get a 15 percent off coupon on your anniversary, but there will be no free meal, unlike when you tweet at the restaurant. There will be no dialogue with your friends, complaining about service and drooling over that bacon cupcake, hued in Lo-fi.
The comment card, tucked in the left side of the check holder, across from the bill, has helped passive aggressive diners gripe about a cold soup and unpolished silverware for years. But now it sits there, specked with food, faded and wrinkled, blank, as we turn to the keyboard to rant.