Restaurants

[BuffaloBud]

there is a system, the order is supposed to be entered in the computer in order( first person on the left and on around), then the order is supposed to be placed on the try in that same order with the ticket on the first item, that way you just take the ticket off and pass everything out clockwise, announcing each item clearly as you place it in front of each guest

 

System shmistim. More times than not the staff person that took our order has to ask "Who had the (fill in the blank)?" Sends me into orbit.

[CarolinaBill]

System shmistim. More times than not the staff person that took our order has to ask "Who had the (fill in the blank)?" Sends me into orbit.

well, thats the way its supposed to be, the order is taken clockwise from 1st left, arranged on the try in the same order, obviously it doesnt always happen that way, but its a pretty universal system, been used in every restaurant i've ever worked in.

[DrFishfinder]

You order a Weineken with that meal? Geez, step 1, move out of Miami. I have lived in Broward County for over 20 years and go to MIA maybe once a year, maybe...and that does not include the Bills/Fish game.

Gosh, that never occurred to me. Why.....I'll move right back to Coral Springs, tonight! Maybe even Delray.

[The Dean]

I believe it was already mentioned, but it deserves to be fleshed out a bit.

 

The restaurant (or bar) floor is no place for a waiter/bartender to be grousing/bitching about their life/boyfriend/wife, etc. Customers don't want to hear the BS. From experience, I can pretty much assure you if you ACT like you are happy and give a crap, your tips will be better. If your tips are better you just might be a bit happier and actually start giving a crap.

 

Also try to pay attention and make eye-contact with your customers. I hate when a bartender is holed up at the end of the bar with his/her back turned having a conversation with a friend or customer. You should be able to carry on multiple conversations, and should always be surveying the bar to see if anyone needs anything. Likewise, I see many waiters/waitresses avoiding looking around to see if a table needs something. Yes, I know you are busy. Just acknowledge you see me and convey you will be there when you can...or send another waiter/busboy/etc to see if they can help.

 

Also, contrary to what some others have said, I prefer friendly service. I will take a friendly waitron with a good attitude who may have to ask "who had the Caesar Salad" to a personality-less stiff who gives great service. Obviously I prefer great service from a friendly server with a good attitude, but attitude probably means the most to me. That may change a bit if I am in a very high-end/expensive restaurant with formal service. But to be honest, someone filling my water glass every time I take a sip is a bit intrusive to me.

[Bullpen]

Me: What beers do you have on tap?

 

Server: Bud, Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Lite and Yuengling

 

 

What were you doing in Jamestown, NY?

 

By the way the following situation happened to a friend of mine when we went out to get beer and wings during the NCAA championship last month.

 

A buddy of mine orders 12 cajun hot chicken wings with ranch (he's from Wisconsin, he has no taste). The place wasn't OVERLY busy, but it was steady business. The wings took 45 minutes or so to reach our table. My friend recieves 10 regular hot wings w/o cajun seasoning (it was 25 cent wing night so you could vary your order amount). He informs the waitress that he ordered 12 cajun wings NOT, 10 hot wings. She says (and I quote) "No you didn't, you ordered regular hot" and walked away. We all sat for a minute actually stunned that someone would say that. About two minutes later she returned, my friend hadn't touched the wings yet, and she said "this is someone else's order, I'll get yours out as soon as I can" AND TOOK THE WINGS OUT FROM IN FRONT OF HIM AND DELIVERED THEM TO ANOTHER CUSTOMER! My friend simply cancelled his order and we left at halftime. This wasn't a high school kid either, she was at least in the mid 40s, so you would think by that age she would have some idea of how a customer is supposed to be treated.

[KD in CA]

I signed that check and and wrote "Act like you give a ****" in the Tip line.

 

 

That's great.

[Chef Jim]

If I order a steak medium please feel free to kill me for ruining a good piece of meat. But for the sage of argument...

 

That is an obvious kitchen error. Who am I going to talk to about it? I'm going to tell the waiter. If they want to bring a manager or kitchen staff to the table I'll voice my displeasure to them, but still...they are my conduit.

 

If the plate is prepared wrong...rice instead of new potatoes...that's the waiter/ress/'s problem. Their job is to get it right and in this case it is my order. I don't care about how busy the place is, I don't care that someone didn't show up. I care that my order is delivered as ordered. My expectations grow based on the cost of the meal. If my rare steak at Texas Roadhouse is delivered MR...that's ok, I'll eat it. But, if I'm dining 'upscale' I do expect everything to be perfect. I am an ass at times, but my expectations are high (on a sliding scale dependent on the price of the meal).

 

Just as my boss expects that my projects are delivered on time as 'ordered' I expect that my meal be delivered as ordered.

 

Great news everyone!! I'm getting back in the restaurant biz and I'm opening a place right down the street from Beerball. Woohoo!!! I'm so excited.

 

 

Oh by the way, Beerball....you already banned for life. No food for you.

 

BTW I'll address a lot of these posts when I have time.

[Fan in San Diego]

My pet peeve of restaurants is that when the meal is over and I sitting there waiting for the check, the waiter/waitress seems to ignore me forever to bring me the check. When my dinner napkin is folded in the plate and the plate is pushed to the center it's time for the check. Is it that hard to see?

[Dan]

This thread is further confirmation of my long-standing hypothesis that many people should just not go out to eat. If you're a picky, SOB that's wants severything to just be a certain way... stay at home and make it that way. Part of dining out is the experience and the socal interaction.

 

 

For CarolinaBill, you have defneded the restaurant industry well. However, as usual, from only the waiter/waitress point of view. And, in that point of view, the majority of all mistakes and bad tips are someone elses' fault.

 

In my former life, I too worked in a restaurant. But, I was on the other side of the pass. Yes, I was a cook. And the majority of mistakes were always on the Waiter side. It's easy to say the cook prepared the steak wrong. But, how many times does the server write down the wrong temperature? Or writes so poorly that no one can deciper it? It happens a lot. Or forgets to call in the order and then frantically tries to get it rushed. Well, as the cook, I can rush it but it probably won't taste as good.

 

We've all had poorly cooked food in a restaurant. And that is often the fault of the cook. But, not always. In the end, bot sides of the pass share in the blame. But, as others have said the server is the face of the restaurant. In most restaurants you receive all the praise (tips) when things go right; you should receive all the critisicm (no tips) when things go wrong.

 

In my day, I prepared a lot of food that got a lot of servers very good tips. Hell, I even had some patrons that wouldn't eat unless I was the cook that night. But never did anyone come back and share the wealth. On the other hand, I always heard about it when someone didn't like the food -regardless of the reason. So, suck it up and deal with it is how I see it.

 

 

My biggest annoyance, to bring it back to the subject at hand, is being rushed through the dinner just to get me out of there. I'm there to dine and enjoy a nice meal with friends. Not, eat some crap and move on. As someone else said, if I'm still eating appetizers, don't bring the entree. Don't come by with the dessert menu while I'm still eating the main course. For that reason, I usually avoid the chain restaurants at all costs.

 

Oh yeah, another major annoyance is eating with whiny people that complain about everything and then tip low. I know some people that I do all I can to not eat out with because they're never satisfied and then try to stiff on the tip. It's embarassing. If the food or waitress sucks, do you really thing sending it back/calling a manager is going to make it better? Just pay, get out and never go back.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

My pet peeve of restaurants is that when the meal is over and I sitting there waiting for the check, the waiter/waitress seems to ignore me forever to bring me the check. When my dinner napkin is folded in the plate and the plate is pushed to the center it's time for the check. Is it that hard to see?

 

My biggest pet peeve too.

 

I think they ought to have some kind of automated credit card swipe machines at the tables, so you can just swipe your card, sign, and leave (i.e., like they have in the self-check lanes at the grocery store).

[NobesBLO13]

When you write your number down on the check and the waitress doesn't call you back...

I had a friend who was a self proclaimed ladies man. He wrote the area code with his number for a waitress, he actually started it with 716...she didn't call..

[MattyT]

I just don't like the blame game when something goes wrong. The waiter/waitress says we haven't been waited on for 15 minutes after being seated because the host/hostesses put us in the wrong section, or blames the kitchen for preparing something incorrectly, the host/hostess blames the waiter/waitress for bringing the wrong order. Please just acknowledge that a mistake was made and make the expedited correction.

 

Last time we were out the waitress basically called my wife a liar!

 

My wife: "I think I got the wrong sandwich."

Waitress: "What did you order?"

My wife: "The ________ Chicken Sandwich"

Waitress: "That IS the ___________ Chicken Sandwich"

My wife: "The menu said that the chicken is supposed to be fried and this chicken is grilled."

Waitress:"No, it comes grilled. That's the way it has always been."

My wife: [Gets out the menu and points to the description of the item she ordered.] "The menu says 'FRIED CHICKEN BREAST'."

Waitress: [Reads the word "FRIED CHICKEN BREAST" in the description.] "Huh, that's weird. I guess they cooked it wrong. Do you want a new sandwich?"

[TheMadCap]

Going out to eat with friends that don't know how to tip....

 

 

One time I went out to eat with some "friends" from college at the local pizza joint in downtown Wilmington. I made the mistake of not having separate checks, so when the bill came, we all had to pitch in. These two bums had enough for thier meal and that was it. ZERO TIP. Of course, I left 20%, but I was essentially the only one, so on a $50 tab, the poor girl got like 6 bucks. She was so mad she actually left the restaurant and ran us down. "Was there something wrong with the service", etc? I felt like giving her more money just for that, but alas, I gave her all I had at the table. I was completely mortified though, and never did really recover respect for them...

[Just Jack]

Easy. I hate restaurants that sing humiliating "birthday songs". Dude or dudette just wanted to have a nice lunch/dinner with her friends or family and now they have to stand at or on their table like an idiot while the humiliated wait staff have to sing some inane song that the entire restaurant finds shameful. All for a lousy piece of free dessert.

I had a waitress one time that saw her fellow employees start to gather, so she kept chatting with us so she wouldn't have to join in the group singing

 

Maybe it is just a personal thing, but, I don't like when a waiter or waitress acts too familiar, even if I have been there a load of times.

For me, it depends on the waiter/waitress. I used to work across from an Applebees on the weekends. So on Saturday I'd go over there for lunch. The bartender soon started to keep an eye out for me crossing the road after 12 and would have my drink (diet Pepsi) waiting for me when I walked in.

 

How come in most fields, a certain degree of human error is expected and acceptable, but when it comes to restaurants people get their panties all up in a bunch over simple mistakes as if the employees are supposed to be perfect?

Those people haven't worked in a restaurant. Go ahead and ask the next time you're out and someone in your group starts bitching, ask if they've ever worked in a restaurant.

 

Also try to pay attention and make eye-contact with your customers. I hate when a bartender is holed up at the end of the bar with his/her back turned having a conversation with a friend or customer.

A couple weeks ago while on the road for week, the guys I was with and I ended up bar hopping. Two bars that night the bartender spent more time with their friends and the locals than checking to see if we needed anything. A few times we had to call over to them to get more beers.

[CarolinaBill]

This thread is further confirmation of my long-standing hypothesis that many people should just not go out to eat. If you're a picky, SOB that's wants severything to just be a certain way... stay at home and make it that way. Part of dining out is the experience and the socal interaction.

 

 

For CarolinaBill, you have defneded the restaurant industry well. However, as usual, from only the waiter/waitress point of view. And, in that point of view, the majority of all mistakes and bad tips are someone elses' fault.

 

In my former life, I too worked in a restaurant. But, I was on the other side of the pass. Yes, I was a cook. And the majority of mistakes were always on the Waiter side. It's easy to say the cook prepared the steak wrong. But, how many times does the server write down the wrong temperature? Or writes so poorly that no one can deciper it? It happens a lot. Or forgets to call in the order and then frantically tries to get it rushed. Well, as the cook, I can rush it but it probably won't taste as good.

I worked as a cook also, before I was a server. And you're right alot of time its the servers fault, i guess my position comes from the view that after my first 6 months on the floor, roughly 95% of the things that went wrong in my section were b/c of dumbass food runners or the kitchen, however, the place I worked wasnt exactly "high-end" so we attracted alot of trashy people that didnt know how to act in public. The result, I got stiffed alot for stuff that I had no control over.

[Buftex]

I had a waitress one time that saw her fellow employees start to gather, so she kept chatting with us so she wouldn't have to join in the group singing

 

For me, it depends on the waiter/waitress. I used to work across from an Applebees on the weekends. So on Saturday I'd go over there for lunch. The bartender soon started to keep an eye out for me crossing the road after 12 and would have my drink (diet Pepsi) waiting for me when I walked in.

 

 

Those people haven't worked in a restaurant. Go ahead and ask the next time you're out and someone in your group starts bitching, ask if they've ever worked in a restaurant.

 

 

A couple weeks ago while on the road for week, the guys I was with and I ended up bar hopping. Two bars that night the bartender spent more time with their friends and the locals than checking to see if we needed anything. A few times we had to call over to them to get more beers.

 

What it did to me, was make me order things I didn't really want, or, order the same old thing... I know it is silly, but it really did irritate me more than it probably should have...

[Clippers of Nfl]

2 annoying things: (fast food included)

 

1. annoying picky @ customers. no lettuce. no tomatoes. no meat. no buns. damn what kind of hamburger is this?????

 

2. this one is weirdy. some may like. some may find this annoying. "is everything ok?" EVERY 5 MINUTES. give me my food, give me my drinks and dont really bother me 100 times. 50 times is ok, not 100!

 

by the way im kidding. i really dont care too much. check out this story. i went to bubba gump shrimp in sfo and i thought to myself, i am giong to have the weirdest seafood they have. REALLY. however.........the waitress welcomed us and said something like this, "im sure you would love this plate. it has shrimp, fish and its my favorite. you and your wife will love it" i said, "ok, give us 2 of that"

 

after she left with our order, i told my wife, "damn hun didnt we just have shrimp and fish at red lobster yesterday?" she said, "yes" and we ate the same non exotic thing 2 days in a row. thats funny.

[Clippers of Nfl]

Easy. I hate restaurants that sing humiliating "birthday songs". Dude or dudette just wanted to have a nice lunch/dinner with her friends or family and now they have to stand at or on their table like an idiot while the humiliated wait staff have to sing some inane song that the entire restaurant finds shameful. All for a lousy piece of free dessert.

this is annoying too. but like some other poster said, its part of the whole experience. deal with it or leftovers. take your pick.

[Clippers of Nfl]

Maybe it is just a personal thing, but, I don't like when a waiter or waitress acts too familiar, even if I have been there a load of times. There is a restaurant near my old job, that I used to go to about once a week...there was a certain waitress that would "guess" what I was going to get, every time I came in... for some reason, it made me kind of uncomfortable (I hate small talk, and meaningless chatter...I get enough of that every day), and, eventually, I just stopped going there...

 

Also, while I appreciate good service, I can't stand being interrupted constantly, to ask me if I need anything else... I guess I got issues...I am always a generous tipper, sometimes when it isn't really deserved.

 

I live in a crowded college town. Most places, if they are any good, are packed. I can deal with that. But, as the employees and the clientele tend to be younger, loud music, in a restaurant is also a big turn off for me. I work with music, I live in the "live music capital" of the world, I love music, but eating a nice meal in peace is really a pleasure...

this sucks. poor little waitress/waiter making a great effort to remember YOU, and EXPECTING that you will like his/her memory skills....

 

by the way, couldnt you just tell the waitress in your story that your taste changes all the time. im pretty sure she would have stopped attempting to "guess" your order.

[Clippers of Nfl]

What it did to me, was make me order things I didn't really want, or, order the same old thing... I know it is silly, but it really did irritate me more than it probably should have...

why couldnt you speak your mind and tell her....she misses your tips.