Yesterday I had what was probably my worst take out experience ever at Bombo’s at Grand Central Market. Ordered the Seattle Fish Stew and a Salmon Roll to go. When I got out of the car when I arrived home, I lifted the bag only to have all of the contents spill out onto the street because the stew broth had leaked out and ripped open the bottom of the paper bag.
I tried calling Bombos on their direct line and through the GCM info desk. Could not get through. I emailed through their website, so we’ll see what happens. They need to know that this happened in hopes that other peoples dinners won’t be ruined.
So a little later on I go to check out the salmon roll. It was unscathed from the fall, just a bit messy now. THEY DIDN’T PUT ANY SALMON ON IT. I’m not kidding. No salmon on the salmon roll sandwich. Just chick peas and lettuce. They left out the main ingredient. WOW.
It’s almost laughable.
so did you basically toss $30 into the trash?
You should be grateful that the Fish Stew was not spilled inside your car. 
Yeah, I had a small natto spill in a rental car during a hot summer day a few years back. Ultimately we wrote the car off as a total loss.
Good point!
Yep. Not happy. At All.
Hopefully they attempt to rectify the situation and respond to your email.
How is this Bomb’s fault?
The salmon roll, or, uh, the roll, I can see, but the soup spilling out? After a car ride?
The soup leaked through the flimsy bowl they packed it in. It was not packaged properly. It’s Bombo’s fault, not my fault or caused by the car ride.
terrible packaging job. Even the small ghetto japanese sushi place down the street has the sense to tape up the styrofoam miso soup containers and then double bag it.
no salmon on the salmon roll is clearly a violated expectation.
i don’t know enough about bombo’s to have an expectation on how things are packaged. it may well be that they expect folks to take their order to a table and consume it there, with worst case scenario being to survive traveling within walking distance, carried by hand and packaged accordingly. having said that, anything clearly understood to be ‘takeout’ IMO should be packaged accordingly. the point is that perhaps it would have made a difference to let them know that this order was going to be driven home.
They knew it was going with me out of the market. I explained that before I even ordered. I still haven’t received a response back. Emailed them at their info email address as well as through the contact form on their website. The phone number listed goes straight to voice mail. I guess I’ll try leaving a message later and see if they return the call.
‘violated expectation’ – i like that phrase 
fair enough, but phrased as such, that have been interpreted as a leisurely walk of a block or two back to the office.
You should just stop trying to defend an indefensible act.
i’m not defending anything. i’m suggesting looking at the expectations. you should expect salmon in your salmon roll. but to me GCM is a place where you go to buy something to eat and eat it there. it would be a colossal waste of time and resources for every merchant there to package every order to survive a car trip where maybe 95% of the time it only need survive a 20 yard walk to a table. another 4.9% it might get walked back to a nearby office. i doubt they’ll lament the loss of .1% of their business because they chose not to add maybe 5% overhead in terms of time and resources on every order.
i don’t understand why you refuse to grasp that.
Because it’s soup to go. If a restaurant offers soup to go and can’t package it so it doesn’t spill, they are assholes.
They don’t need to do it for every order - I mean I go to McDonalds and they ask me dine in or to go, I assume Bombo can make the same overhead free process change.
I assume when I pick up my food at certain ramen or Chinese places that there will be spillover. I think they overfill the container?
I ask for a box and, failing that, an extra plastic bag. Then when I get home, I pour the spilled soup from the bag back into the container.
Also, you should always (1) check the packaging before you leave a restaurant; and (2) carry paper bags from the bottom.
Be a problem solver, not a problem blamer. 
When I buy ramen from Jinya it’s always half-filled so center of gravity is low, taped up, and bagged SUPER TIGHT, with styrofoam containers that won’t soak up all the broth and die.
Local chinese place + japanese place, when buying soup, will tape up the top, bag it tight, and then put it in another bag, and then bag that one up tight as well.
I imagine the .00005 cents worth of plastic bags per customer isn’t breaking the bank.
I have no idea who is right or wrong in this but as of now we have only one side of the story.
Maybe that’s the correct side, but without knowing what the other side has to say, or better yet without seeing how the food was packaged and how it was handled after it left GCM, it’s a bit irresponsible and unfair to condemn one side or the other.
It’s an unfortunate incident, no doubt.
Bags (especially the standard cheap plastic bags) are very prone to having their ingredients ‘tilt’ even when just carried. The containers inside shift or lean due to how their centers of gravity are affected by the unbalanced way the ‘handles’ cause the items to not lay flat. I take out from Panda Express (I’m sorry but I do) and even their essentially non-liquid items shift around I side if the styrofoam boxes aren’t kept completely horizontal. I always check them before lifting them up and adjust as necessary, or just pick the whole order up by the bottom.
It’s not surprising that a liquid might leak from a container that is filled too high for the way it will be carried. I’d be upset too if I were Clyde, but I’d likely also be a bit shed-critical for not having checked the packaging myself and just assuming it would be OK. That doesn’t absolve Bombo, especially given the other part of this fiasco, or forgive their lack of response.
My local favorite Chinese place packs soup in heavier round containers with rather tightly fitting lids that come down the container sides, but I’ve always made sure I check how they’re ‘seated’ in the bag and make sure the whole package is laying flat on the floor of my car.
Hope you get some kind of satisfaction on this though.