Mortal or Venial?

   My husband and I went to dinner last night. It was late, we both were tired and after our Christmas festivities we were all ham and lasagna'ed  out. So after giving the kids some leftovers, we had my parents watch them while we went out.

He didn't want steak, I didn't want Italian so we hoped to go to The Cheesecake Factory. When we got there it was an hour wait. We decided not to wait and went across to another bar and grill where we were seated right away. The restaurant was empty. Our server came over after a bit to take our drink order and appetizers. We both got a soda and French onion soup. A few minutes later when our drinks arrived our order was taken. Pretty typical of any restaurant, but from there it all changed.

The soup was hot and good and fifteen to twenty minutes later our food arrived. The server (not our server) practically threw our food at us and after dropping it, my husband asked for another Coke. She came back a few minutes later with a diet but asked before dropping it if it was correct, we both said no. So she came back with the regular and slammed it down in front of him. At this point, we started on our meals, my fish & chips was freezing , so was his chicken pot pie. There was no ketchup for the fries and since this waitress was so harsh, I figured, I would just wait for our server to stop by and ask him for the condiment. We were both willing to let our not so hot food slide. He never came back to us, he walked by to his other tables a few times, but even after me saying excuse me and making eye contact with him he never came to our table. I got my own ketchup from the server station, while two waitresses watched me with angry looks. I said thank you on my way back to the table. After twenty minutes of waiting for him, I finally went to the host stand and asked to see the manager. He came by our table promptly and we told him how our server had not come back by our table, the meals were cold and I had gotten my own ketchup. He said he would take the fish & chips off the bill. He was really nice, offered us dessert on the house (we declined), and then said he would be back with the bill. We waited. Bob had his credit card out, I was getting my coat on and we waited, and waited, our server never walked by our table, manager never came back. No one was at the host stand. Forty five minutes went by, and so we left. We paid no bill, left no tip but walked out, got in our car and left. My coat is red, I looked like a waddling pregnant target briskly walking up the parking lot, scared we were going to get arrested. I felt so bad leaving without paying.

I called the restaurant this afternoon to relate my story and pay for our meals. Both my husband and I lost sleep due to our chewing and screwing. I spoke to Sean, the manager, and told him everything that happened, and he refused to accept our money and asked us back to the restaurant any Friday thru Sunday for a meal. My last words to him, I really don't want to go to hell over fish & chips. He had a good laugh and so did I. I wonder, is this mortal or venial? I would love to read your thoughts.