Top 15 Things That Annoy Me in Restaurants

I'll add 2 more to the list:

* When you're in the middle of an important conversation with the other person at your table and the waiter comes by and interrupts to deliberately ask "How is everything today? You enjoying your meal?" This typically happens and I forget where I left off. It pisses me off. Whenever this happens, I reduce the waiter's tip by 75%.

* Restaurant Websites! They're all horribly designed! I just want a menu, happy hour menu and time, parking info, hours of service, daily specials, etc. But instead I get things like this: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/restaurant_website

 

What the hell, waiters do that purposely to try to be more helpful especially since people often realize they want some kind of add on to their food after they start eating. If your short term memory is so bad you can't remember what you were talking about 7 seconds before hand, 1. smoke less weed, 2. don't take it out on waiters.

*edit*
The irony in this is when I was reading the new posts one joke I was about to posts is restaurants is one of the few examples where the free market truly works in favor of everyone, but nope, a person who constantly argues against government regulation and such has to come and ruin it by saying how they won't tip when a waiter does their freakin job.

 

There will always exist that type of person who strives to be as much of a bitch as possible in every situation.
The stupid variation of this sort will attempt to rationalize their choice to not tip, the clever will simply revel in being a bitch.

 

It's proper etiquette for the waiter to only do that if and only if there's a pause or silence in the conversation of the patrons. Don't fuckin' interrupt, simple as that.

 

Do the world of food service a favor and please don't eat out, ever, ok? Your waiter isn't your personal valet, if you want someone who waits for you to stop conversing(which if you have a good group of friends is fucking never) than stop going out to eat until you can afford your own personal waitress.

I guess once again the free market proves why it can't stand up against human nature.

 

I don't really like being interrupted when I'm talking, either, but I'm not going to cut someone's tip just because they're checking up on our table. When you start nitpicking that much, it's kind of asking for a loogie in your salad...

 

Leave it to our friend Syd here to turn any thread into a political discussion for no good reason.

I understand their intentions are to be helpful, but all it takes just some simple body language reading to figure out whether or not the patrons are having an important discussion which may get a negative response for interrupting. Such as if the patrons look strait faced and serious about something, not looking around the room for assistance or any other reason, then it's probably bes to wait and ask later. There's lots of factors to consider here, understandably. Supposedly if the restaurant is busy and the waiter has a handful of tables to monitor, then it is understandable that a "how's everything?" may occur in the middle of dialog. I've been known to give leeway when necessary

 

Yes, because every waiter is a master in body language and doesn't have 15 different tables to look after, christ. Leave it to our friend Coffee to demonize someone trying to do their job.

Do you go to restaurants where waiters give full speeches instead of just asking if everything is ok and if you need anything, because if so I'd like to know of this place since I like speeches.

*edit*
The point is, if you don't like people talking to you, then freakin get your food to go and don't eat out.

 

Observe the patrons as you approach the table is all it would take. But from the waiter's point of view, it may not be the easiest task in the world. So maybe I'm kind of harsh by tip reduction. But hey, how many customers do they get a day that don't tip at all.

No not really. Every now and then you have the waiter who plays 20 Questions with you rather than the brief question which comes once in a while. Especially when everything is ok and you just want to resume eating. Thats kinda irritating.

I once had a narcoleptic waitress, she put her head down while taking my order and nearly fell asleep on my table. That was a weird day.

But the restaurants I've been avoiding are the ones that get really obnoxious and sing and blow whistles when they're handing out a small cake to the birthday victim at the table near you.

 

i want to beat the ones to death that start vacuuming while i eat

 

^^^ I LOVE that...and would like to tell that to every jackass manager or supervisor or whothehellever MAKES the person vacuum. I've seen many ( managers & similar chastise and basically make a waitress go and do just that). I got into an argument with more than one jackass supposedly "over" me about that very snappin thing.! And No, I did NOT vacuum while the patrons were eating. Thank you very much. (When I waitressed, I'd make a big deal out of asking the customer what they wanted. Most of them were normal and said NO VACCUUMING. hah)

YES BBAD!

 

Thats a really hard one for servers too, cos when we've got a bunch of tables to wait on and we're runnin around and we stop by your table to make sure things are ok or if you need anything, it's obviously very awkward for us to interrupt your conversation, but if we don't ask you right now, while were on the way to the kitchen already, if you want ketchup, then were gonna get the ketchup anyway and you don't want it, or you do want it and we have to go back later and your burgers already half done by the time table number two finishes asking for extra napkins and another sprite and a mint and the bill and by that time it's just a clusterfuck

 

Do you ever tip at Tim Hortons? I've worked there too, tips were anywhere from $1.75-$3.00 a day. People usually give a nickle or dime and it gets put in a cup and shared amongst those working the shift.

 

if restaurants upped the price of their food, substantially fewer people would eat there, and half the servers would lose their jobs anyway.

they want to beat you to death for coming in 20 minutes before close when they're trying to go home.

 

Yeah, I've never even worked in the front end of a restaurant, but even in the backroom when you're trying to clean up and you get an order coming in 15min before you close it's annoying as shit. I just hope those people tip well.

 

why do we presume these places don't make enough money to pay extra anyways? we had a pretty bad recession in the u.k, yet people still ate out. restaurants came out of it stronger in some cases, this particular industry seems demand inelastic.

 

No one presumed that, it's the waiters and waitresses that would make less if they were paid more ironically.

 

underwear said fewer people would be eating in restaurants if prices were raised. probably should have quoted it.

in the end, i don't care how much a waiter or waitress gets paid. i've done it, it's a crap job - but there are worse and people have just glorified one trade rather than another. you don't deserve to be paid that highly for a job an untrained monkey could do - that's the logic behind education, experience and progression.

if you don't like low wages, set your heights higher.

 

They would, especially poor people. Tipping leaves you the option of leaving what you want or what you can, you don't have that luxury on the bill. Plus it's the psychological aspect, it's why both in resturaunts, and every other aspect of the food industry companies will lower the serving sizes or packaging size of something before they start raising prices.

It's not a reason to lower someone's wages, it just reminds me of the people who support the union busting bill in Wisconsin "If I don't get sick pay than either do you!"

Considering a majority of a front end person's wages at a restaurant come from tips, which is a truly free, supply and demand type of environment, if anything they're not being over compensated because they're being paid what the public has decided to give them.

 

i'm sure it depends on the nature of the restaurant. i've been working in various pizza places for the last several years, and you can definitely tell the difference in volume when prices either rise or fall.

i will admit that the volume seems to increase more for a price drop than it decreases for a price raise.