Feedback
Each year, my wife S and I try to create a fun Christmas gift to give some of our friends. A couple years ago, we gave friends DIY Molten Chocolate Cake Kits. Each kit came with detailed instructions, chocolate, molds, and other essentials for creating this (way too) popular dessert. This past holiday season, instead of creating something edible, we decided to design something that would (potentially) enhance the restaurant-going experience. The intention was to create a tongue-in-cheek gift for friends with a good sense of humour.
The result was a little something we’ve named “Feedback: Calling Cards for Discriminating and Opinionated Diners”. We created 4 different calling cards, printed (as you can see) on cream/off-white cardstock with a cutlery logo in 4 different colors. Two of the cards provide the user the chance to offer a restaurant either positive or negative feedback, depending on which words on their cards they cross out. This is the text on these two cards: “Wow! What a disappointing / fantastic meal. Truly, I’m amazed. I’m definitely telling my friends and never / definitely coming back here again.” and “Hi, I just wanted you to know that the service in your establishment is staggering good / bad.” With just a swift stroke of one’s pen, the diner can tell a restauranteur what they did or didn’t like about his or her restaurant. A third card is entirely positive, giving the diner a chance to tell a restaurant which food item they enjoyed most: “Thanks for the great meal. The appetizer / main course / dessert was particularly good today.” And, of course, we left a line for our friends to fill in their names because if you feel the need to leave a comment, you should always have the courage to take ownership of your opinion.
The fourth card is meant to be used on fellow diners. It reads, “Hi there! I love your shoes / eyes / smile / appetite. Would it be a little too forward to ask if I could join you for dessert?” One friend has already complained to me that her husband has grabbed all of these for himself, to use on upcoming business trips. Each box that we gave away had 80 cards, 20 of each design. As you can see, we also made labels for the tops and bottoms of the boxes. It was really, really fun designing these and we’ve been happy with the response from friends. A couple of them are even trying to convince us to retail the cards. And while we’re giving the idea some thought, for now, we’re just happy with them being rather exclusive gifts for good friends. We just hope that if and when our friends do use these, they do so lightly and the restaurateurs who receive them either (a) see the humour in them or (b) take the opinions as real, heartfelt, constructive criticism.
About Aun Koh
Aun has always loved food and travel, passions passed down to him from his parents. This foundation, plus a background in media, pushed him to start Chubby Hubby in 2005. He loves that this site allows him to write about the things he adores--food, style, travel, his wife and his three kids!
Some lucky friends you’ve got – these calling cards are such a cool idea!
What a novel gift idea! I’m from the Philippines and not enough feedback is given to our food establishments. And when restaurants do ask for comments they give out these long tiresome surveys. This keeps things simple and straight to the point. I also like the card for “fellow diners.” =)
Very charming idea – you and S make such a great team working together. You’re very lucky to have each other 🙂
Hi there! This is really the best gift idea I’ve ever seen so far. 🙂 It’s ingenious! Man, I so wish I had a pack of that too, not just for Christmas but at any time of the year.
Honestly, yes, you should consider retailing it. Serious foodies would appreciate this.
Wonderful gift idea. I wanted you to know that my husband to be and I took your write up of Vienna on a recent trip with us. It was very helpful and we pulled it from our bag on more than one occasion.
Happy new year to you and your wife.
Cherry
What a fab idea – I wish I were on your Christmas list 😉 It is true that you sometimes want to tell a restaurant that the service or a particular dish was great/awful but don’t feel strongly enough about it to write a letter later – so these cards would be perfect!
Happy New Year to you and all the best for 2007.
This is such a f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c idea! Really, really cool!
That’s really cute. You should sell these!
These are gorgeous and a perfect gift for foodies. Let me know when you’re taking orders.
Wow, that is such a cool gift for friends! You & your wife are so creative. On a different note, you’ve probably mentioned this some where in your blog (or not), but I was just wondering what is your job, if you don’t mind telling? Is it food critic? 🙂
Well, hope 2007 bring lots of exciting and new experience (with food) to you and your wife.
id buy some of these. please sell them. you should contact MOO.com and see if they can mass print them for you.
Can I be in your list too? ;p
Love this idea!
Great idea Chubby Hubby, very well designed and thought out. If I saw these for sale I would definitely buy them, we diners do not leave nearly as much feedback as we should, and this would encourage people to do so. In fact the restaurant people should be the ones buying them and putting them on their tables for people to fill out, rather than their boring forms!
Oh, do market these — and let us know where we can buy them! What a wonderful holiday gift idea.
sheer BRILLIANCE.
you should sell these!
Thanks guys for the really sweet words. One of our friends who is in retail has taken a box to a show a friend of hers who owns a cool store in town. She thinks he’s be interested in selling them. Now we really have to decide if we want to retail these. If we do, I guess we’ll also start taking orders via email. I’ll post if we get around to this.
Cheers!
wow, both you and S are so thoughtful and creative in your gift idea… lucky friends!
Want!
So- if you were to use one, would you leave your blog address as a possible contact point, or keep it anonymous?
Mcauliflower: Nope. I’d use my real name. 🙂
can i be your good friend then? heehee would love to be on the receiving end of these box of cards.
wait- Chubby Hubby isn’t your real name?
😉
funny how these monikers are ours now…
Great idea. I especially love the fourth card. Very cheeky! 🙂
Could you please confirm that Feedback Cards are available at Kapok G/F 9 Dragon Rd, Tin Hau, Temple Rd, Tin Hau, Hong Kong? I am travelling to HK from Tokyo on May29-June2 and would love to pick some up.
Thank you.