Indeed (which is how waters in my restaurant will say ‘this’. 
) Though in fact, if I’m paying in cash, I’ll usually not give them the chance to ask, if I mean them to keep the change. They take the bill, with cash, and I’ll just say “Don’t bother with the change” or something like that.
I sure hope not. I often do. IMO, it’s better not to waste than to be gauche.
I remember when I was about 13 my parents took us to Atlanta on a slash vacation/business trip for my dad. We ate at the Abbey (is that still around?) and my mother took home her leftover Beef Wellington in an aluminum foil swan. I think that’s the swankiest place we ate while I was growing up. I remember there was a harpist.
So maybe the server won’t roll his eyes at you for asking to take home the rest of the filet mignon with the cinnamon bacon port wine reduction sauce?
Well what’s wrong with saying “how much change would you like back?”
Functionally it serves the same purpose as “would you like any change.” But this would seem rude and presumptious, wouldn’t it?
It’s a dance you play. Servers don’t ask about the tip and guests don’t flaunt the possibility of a tip in the server’s face. Both need to pretend to be chaste about the issue even though the transaction’s going through the vast majority of the time.
It’s like going on a date with a wayward Catholic schoolgirl. It would be uncouth to start the conversation asking for a handjob behind the stadium bleachers even though everyone knows she’ll be giving it up every which way but one by the end of the night.
Well, I haven’t eaten at any really high-end establishments, but in my experience, the fancier places will offer to take it back to the kitchen and package it for you to take home, while the lower-end places will bring a styrofoam container to the table. (Of course, in the really low-end places, you can just re-wrap the sandwich in the paper it came in. . .) 
I like when a server will just address the entire table during a refill check by asking, “Can I clear any plates?” That makes it sound like they’re doing the table a favor by taking away anything that’s no longer needed and crowding the table.
But that’s what the delivery dude says… Okay, I see your point. I personally don’t get annoyed but I guess I can see why others might.
Can we still agree that “No problem” is pretty innocuous?
Nope - it closed three or four years ago and reopened as - get this! - a church!
Well, probably about half the time I eat out at restaurants that have waiters (i.e., the kind where you don’t have to unwrap your food), I’m alone. Still, I guess even solo, there’s probably unnecessary crap on the table where the waiter can say “Can I take any of this out of your way?” Leaving me open to say “Oh, yes, and can I have a carry-out box please?” or “Yes, and could you wrap this up for me, please?”
That would be a good alternative. When I originally posted, I was below my requisite sleep hours and put in a hard day of work! Thanks for looking out for me! (I’ve since had a nap, and feel much better!)
It’s not rude, exactly, but it’s overly familiar/brusque for some people. No, I am not *working *on anything. I am eating.
I don’t mind “No problem” but sometimes colloquialisms get annoying. Once at Bertucci’s the female server responded to almost everything I said with, “Awesome!”
“I’ll have the fettuccine.”
“Awesome!”
I hate to be asked if I want change. If I don’t want change I say so when they pick up the payment. Asking me if I want change might as well be, “Are you going to leave me a tip?”
63. Never blame the chef or the busboy or the hostess or the weather for anything that goes wrong. Just make it right.
This is one that everybody who works in any public-facing business needs to learn. You are the business’s face to the customer–you *are *the restaurant. If something goes wrong, apologize to the customer on behalf of the business and make it right. Do not assign blame, nobody really cares whose fault it is. I have had servers blame the kitchen for problems many times and it’s very tiresome.
#52 (“Know your menu inside out”) brings up a pet peeve of mine about servers. If your restaurant/bar has 18 beers on tap, it’s a pretty good bet you’re not catering to the Bud Lite crowd, so teach the staff SOMETHING about beer before turning them loose to serve the public. It really chaps me going into a place like that and asking if they have a porter (or stout or hefeweizen or some other common style) and having the server not know what it is. Many don’t even know the difference between a lager and an ale–which is akin to not knowing the difference between a red and a white wine.
I agree, but as norinew said, it’s nice to have the server say something like, “No hurry on the check. Take as long as you like.”
This one’s easy to take care of. Just say, “I’ll be right back with your change.” Then the customer has the opportunity to respond with, “No, it’s yours,” or “Okay.”
This brings up another one. I have no objection whatsoever to receiving my fish ‘n’ chips in a plastic basket. But when I order something that requires a knife and fork, put it on a plate, please. I don’t like cutting through the paper and spilling sauce all over the table.
Similarly, teach the servers about booze, period. I remember the time I was in an upscale place and ordered a martini made with Bombay Sapphire; only to have her tell me she had never heard of Bombay Sapphire and didn’t think they had any of that kind of vodka, but would Smirnoff be okay? A little discussion, and, I realized I was dealing with a server who had never heard of a martini made only with gin and dry vermouth–she thought they were always vodka-and-whatever (as in cosmopolitans, appletinis, chocolatinis, and other abberations). Once we got that cleared up, and I told her what to have the barman do, he made and she served a pretty good martini.
As a beer geek myself, YES!
My old practice, if there wasn’t a tap list, was to politely ask the server, “What beers do you have on tap - besides the Bud, Miller, and Coors stuff.” This is because most servers when asked what’s on tap start with their most popular, the above adjunct lagers, and sort of pause after Bud Light, because 90% of the time, that’s enough of the list.
That tactic wasn’t as successful as it should have been. Servers were spacing on the three other beers on tap too often. So these days, I swing through the bar and read the damn taps myself. Works every time.
The problem is that often in business there’s no-one who can make it right.
In my own experiences in retail, for example, there might be a situation where a customer’s mobile phone was sent off for repair and the repair place would knock it back, claiming “water damage” or “this phone has been dropped” or any one of a number of reasons that invalidated the warranty. And about 50% of the time, the customer would hit the roof and demand a new phone or something like that. Store management didn’t have the authority to do that (phones being expensive), and the Area Manager would never approve it because Head Office had a policy saying UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL PHONES BE EXCHANGED OR REFUNDED OUTSIDE THE EARLY LIFE FAILURE PERIOD.
And none of us at store level were paid enough to be abused by customers whose phones had stopped working for whatever reason and the warranty people had determined that reason was due to customer mistreatment of the phone.
Modern corporate structures (in retail) are basically set up so there’s no way for front-line staff to “make things right” without risking their jobs- which they’re unlikely to do, for obvious reasons.
Heh, I worked at a Chi-Chi’s in college, in Raleigh, NC. Most people ordered beer or margaritas, very few alcoholic drinks. Some guy ordered a Dewar’s, I had never heard of it, he had to say it for me like 2-3 times (mortifying!) and I think I finally wrote something like do-ers on the ticket. Bartender laughed at me. Looking at the huge racks of bottles behind most bars, I can’t imagine knowing everything about each kind of booze!
Well, in all fairness I have seen a really nifty, wine label, steam peeler designed specifically for the job, back in the day. The new removal technique, or the modern technology in the wine label removal kit is this laminate tape system.
I can see this as a signature service, and not something that automatically takes time away from my table. Standards are good, I just don’t like the wethering of the flock. It’s all relative.
When I think of it, so it is. A cousin of mine and a friend of his had once finished their meal and were sitting talking when the waiter suddenly handed them the bill. Their reaction was “This is the first time ever that we’ve be thrown out of a restaurant without having behaved like arseholes first”. The waiter immediately took back the bill and apoligised, very embarrassed.
I, actually presented chilled salad forks, as a flair and special care unto tables where I worked. Folded neatly in a white linen napkin, origami pocket… Lukewarm fresh salads served upon a chilled plate, with chilled dinner service. It had a certain temperate panache. It was actually a selling point because I guarantee nobody was ever offered a chilled salad fork with a slight bow until that point in their lives.
I understand that sometimes you can’t make the customer happy, based on company policy. But at that point you have to make a decision: Do I represent the company as an employee, or do I represent me? Am I going to explain to the customer why my company won’t replace his phone, or am I just going to say how it’s not my fault? In such a situation the best approach is to say, “I’m sorry, that’s company company. Would you like to speak to my manager?”