fluffythewondercat
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posted on July 17, 2008 01:47:33 PM
We eat out a lot because I don't cook. I couldn't cook even if I wanted to, since the stove has a computer sitting on it.
So last night was The Cheesecake Factory. I'm weak for their orange chicken. We get seated and the server comes to take our order, which for me includes a frozen iced mango smoothie. The food comes, but no smoothie. The server stops back and with a completely-unwarranted smug grin, says "So how's everything?" He is speaking loudly since it is obvious we are ancient people, oh in our fifties at least. I ask him if my drink is on the way. The grin disappears. He fetches it.
A few moments later I take a break from scarfing down chicken to do some urgent work on my iPhone. The server chooses this moment to come up behind me and try to take my plate. I'm working on something and don't even notice; my husband has to reason with the guy ( "I think she's probably going to want that for lunch tomorrow." ) I said, "Honey, you shouldn't have to explain to this person what our future plans are for the food we're purchasing. I'm busy right now. I will resume eating shortly."
Normally I am extremely polite to servers. I use "please" in every request and "thank you" when I receive something. I even wear shoes and a shirt when I go into a restaurant. But there are people who set my teeth on edge.
The server comes back, slams the check folder down on the table and says, "Take your time!" I pay it, he comes back and says (oh how I hate this) "Do you need any change?" Upon receiving a negative, he says it again, "Take your time!"
My husband's theory is that The Cheesecake Factory only owns about 60 plates, so they want you to clean them off as fast as possible. If you flag in your duty, tant pis (as the French say).
fLufF
--
The Fourth is over but we've still got Fireworks...
[ edited by fluffythewondercat on Jul 17, 2008 01:47 PM ]
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sthoemke
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posted on July 17, 2008 01:55:53 PM
There is a Chinese restaurant I used to go to, where every 5 minutes the waitress returns to fill your water glass. (really annoying)
I believe they think that they will get a better tip for such service.
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cashinyourcloset
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posted on July 17, 2008 03:01:34 PM
We don't cook as much as we should (my fault), but we usually get take-out and bring it home. Our dining facilities are much nicer, we can drink what we like, and NOBODY is in a rush to clean the table 
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agitprop
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posted on July 17, 2008 03:57:21 PM
Looks like I'm the odd one out as we grow our own food from the beef, chicken and lamb on the farm to the vegetables at home. We always have being a farming family. The kids are the only ones hovering around wanting to take our plates away so they can do the clean up (and get dessert as a reward)...
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cashinyourcloset
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posted on July 17, 2008 06:06:39 PM
Man that sounds good agitprop. When can I come over?
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davidsmom
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posted on July 17, 2008 07:16:21 PM
We lived in and traveled to Turkey and Europe for many years. You can sit in any resturant, all day long and they will never bother you unless you ask for a refill or need something. They never even bring the check until you ask for it. Just different cultures.
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davidsmom
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posted on July 17, 2008 07:19:29 PM
Excuse the typo. I meant restaurant.
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profe51
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posted on July 17, 2008 09:33:08 PM
We raise our own food too. I might eat out once in two months or so. When we do, it's a splurge and someplace pretty nice. I have noticed that even in restaurants where you might drop 200 bucks on dinner for two or three, the quality of service is going down. When this happens, I leave a miserable tip and let the server know he or she has not done their best. When I was a waiter in college, a lousy tip was a clear indication that there was something wrong with my service. No tip I could chalk up to the customer having forgotten or being a cheapskate. I've never been asked if I wanted change, but if it happens, change is all that server will get.
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roadsmith
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posted on July 17, 2008 09:55:54 PM
I actually did a karate chop on a waiter's wrist once, when he was trying to take my half-full plate away.
My pet peeve is the waiter who pours a refill of my iced tea without asking. I always use sweetener in it, so I have to start over with sweetener even though I had a half glass left.
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ewora
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posted on July 17, 2008 10:39:14 PM
We eat out a lot also...probably 3 or 4 nights a week. The servings are so big that my husband and I always end up sharing one plate of whatever we've ordered. It bugs me when the restaurant takes it upon themselves to split the plate up for you. I really don't want half. I want about a 3rd. I prefer when they just bring an extra plate and let us split it ourselves.
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tonimar1
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posted on July 18, 2008 04:53:24 AM
I was a waitress for many years before I became an Antique dealer and I loved serving and getting to know my customers. I sent my oldest daughter to Pace University sleep away college for 4 yrs on a waitress salary.
And as you mentioned some waiters/waitress just don't know or understand people. Knowing when to go over to the table and when to stay away comes with experience and love of your job. And knowing not to think for your customer is #1,
Knowing when to not talk or repeat what you saw and what your customers tell you comes with experience and love of your job.
My boss was very well connected to the Police Dept and to lots of Movie stars, he would always ask me to serve these people when they came in. One I remember was Pauly, rockies manager with a group of other guys that worked in the movie Rocky. (too bad Rocky didn't come..lol)
During the day we had school teachers come in and for some reason no matter how good you were they always left you a few quarters...in our area the teachers were the worse tippers.
A waitress has a hard job knowing when to talk and when to keep quiet, knowing how to greet your customers because each customer's personality is different so what works at one table will not work at another table.
I find that today there are very few waitress/waiters that understand people, without this quality you will have a hard time making good tips.
If I had to go back to work I would go back to being a waitress.
toni
http://www.moulinrougefashion.com
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photosensitive
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posted on July 18, 2008 08:33:07 AM
I still tease my husband about an incident from our dating days. He stuck the hand of a waitress with a fork when she reached for his salad plate with one olive left on it. He always swears that he did not see her reaching and it was an accident.
My pet peeve in restaurants is the constant filling of my water glass. The better the restaurant the more often the person with the water pitcher shows up. At a very fancy place on an anniversary dinner there was a little woman with a pitcher who stood against the wall and every time I took a sip she ran over and topped up my glass. I could swear that she was assigned just to me or she would not have been able to catch every sip!
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
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roadsmith
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posted on July 18, 2008 09:17:14 AM
In the 70s, a TV/movie actor named Hans Conried (anyone remember him?) came to Las Vegas and we were invited to have dinner at one of the hotels with him after a performance. The restaurant was closed, so our table of 8 was the only one being served. There were violinists serenading us. Each of us had a waiter behind us who was quick to fill our water glasses.
The worst, for me, was that every time I ate an olive and put the pit on the side plate, "my" waiter would reach down with silver tongs and remove it. I've never been so uncomfortable as a dinner in my life. Conried was a terrific guy, fun to be with, but I'll never forget that dinner. I have no idea what we ate or how many courses we had; my only memory was of those silver tongs descending on my left.
Too much service!
And. . . some waitpersons start talking as they're approaching our table, interrupting whoever was speaking, to tell us something like "Now I'm going to fill your water glasses." "Now I'm going to give you a bread basket." Annoying.
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[ edited by roadsmith on Jul 18, 2008 09:18 AM ]
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niel35
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posted on July 18, 2008 09:29:46 AM
My pet peeve is when your food is served and you no sooner take a mouthful and here comes the waiter/waitress and asks, "How is everything?" Mmmmfffehh, "Fine." Then 5 minutes later this happens again and then the manager comes over to see if everything is OK.
Annoying and I don't usually go back to that restaurant.
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glassgrl
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posted on July 18, 2008 04:53:40 PM
I told my husband I wanted him to take me someplace really expensive for our anniversary....
so he took me to a gas station.
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otteropp
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posted on July 18, 2008 07:03:45 PM
glassgrl
I LOVE that one and that will be my 'joke of the week' that I will tell to anyone who will listen!
[ edited by otteropp on Jul 18, 2008 07:05 PM ]
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aintrichyet
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posted on July 18, 2008 07:58:28 PM
lol glassgrl 
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mcjane
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posted on July 18, 2008 08:40:43 PM
I remember Hans Conreid very well.
When I was young I worked as a waitress at the Treadway Inn in St. Davids PA
My most famous customer was George Carlin who also happens to be my favorite comedian for years & my two sons' as well, still is or was. He was staying at the Inn & came in right after lunch to make a dinner reservation & I asked him for an autograph for my sons. He wrote: Que Pasa Jim on one & You Too Robert on the other. I went home & picked the kids up & brought them back & to their delight they ran into him & his daughter in the gift shop & got a chance to talk & get another autoograph.
My birthday is in November & son Roberts is in October & Jim bought three tickets to see him at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, PA this past December 1st for our birthdays.
It was a very, very sad day for us when he died.
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profe51
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posted on July 18, 2008 09:20:33 PM
I really dislike those 3 foot long pepper grinders that the waiters bring around when your salad arrives. It's pepper for pete's sake, not gold. In my dream, good restaurants have small pepper grinders at each table in place of those infernal pepper shakers filled with tasteless dust.
As waiter in college I worked at a large discotheque that had a very extensive continental menu. Lots of tableside cooking and flaming this and flaming that. One night, Jackie Gleason came in to eat with a woman and another man. He proceeded to get pretty drunk as I waited on them. Towards the end of the meal, when I was clearing their table for coffee he asked "What's the biggest tip you ever got pal?" I said I couldn't remember exactly, he said "if you can prove it I'll give you double". Of course I couldn't prove it. In the end he left 150 dollars. About a month later he came back with the same man but minus the woman. He pulled the same stunt. That time I was able to tell him HE had given me the biggest tip I ever got and his friend just smiled and nodded his head in agreement. He was good to his word and gave me 300 bucks.
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roadsmith
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posted on July 18, 2008 11:11:22 PM
McJane: Nice story about George Carlin. It was indeed a sad day when he died. We were shocked, and these days it takes a lot to shock us.
My birthday is November 1st. When's yours? And we're both scorpios!
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carolinetyler
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posted on July 21, 2008 12:43:21 PM
My husband was at a restaurant in Talbot County the other day (Maryland's Eastern Shore) - casual place, there was a long haired guy there in his 50's with a 20 year old gorgeous blond. Turned out it was Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) who was doing an East Coast solo tour.
Waitstaff usually try to move people along when they either need the table for others, or they want to turn it over quickly for another tipper. I don't blame them, they are usually just kids and are not trained properly. I blame it on the management.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Caroline
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glassgrl
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posted on July 21, 2008 01:17:23 PM
I wish I could find a really really GOOD pepper grinder.
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zippy2dah
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posted on July 21, 2008 01:33:50 PM
Try a Peugeot. They can be a bit pricey but they last forever and they grind like a dream.
http://peugeot.125west.com/html/peppermills.html
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otteropp
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posted on July 21, 2008 09:00:46 PM
I can second that motion!
I call my hubby a 'Pepper Snob". Every year I would buy him a new pepper grinder and none were quite to his liking then 3 years ago I bought a Peugeot for him and there has been nary a complaint since!
I couldn't get the spelling right the first time either...I am just such a dunce!
[ edited by otteropp on Jul 21, 2008 09:01 PM ]
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pixiamom
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posted on July 21, 2008 09:35:42 PM
Hans Conrad - I remember him from his "Make room for Daddy"/Danny Thomas days. I and my son are noshers. We eat a half dozen bites, are satiated, wait another half hour and eat another half dozen bites and so on... When we go out, we eat the soup and ask them to bag the rest. My favorite is to order a large weekend breakfast to-go from the fancy Cuban restaurant around the corner and have both of us nosh on it all day.
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