In California, I don’t believe this phrase would be incomprehensible. I don’t believe it would be incomprehensible in Hooterville, either. 
However, I do agree that “all set” often seems to indicate that you are “all ready to go” or whatever.
Though in the context of being asked (in the middle of the meal) if you want another drink, “all set” would certainly be interpreted to mean that you are fine for the moment. I see no reason for any confusion.
O.K., this is getting confusing, but all I meant was that I don’t remember a waitperson ever asking the question “Are you all set?”. As you say, they usually say something like “Are you O.K. here?”, or “How is everything?”.
Reading your first post in this thread, it seemed like you thought that the waitperson was asking the first way, which would not be typical in my experience either. But the reply seems to be typical, at least to some people.
we’ve been “all set” for ages down here, Seems like all y’all have been too. In fact, it seems like we’ve all been set nationwide for as long as we can remember.
I think your friend owes you a beer. While your at the bar, you might want to let him know that he should get out more often.
He could take a train.
one more thing, round here it’s common to hear the waiter/waitress ask “Y’all set?” right before she goes to get the bill.
This is a common phrase used in Washington state, so I doubt you’ll have problems.
I live in New York. I was born in Seattle. I grew up there and in DC. I went to college in Minnesota. My mother was from Austin (Tx) and my father grew up in Grand Forks, ND. My step-mom and step-sisters grew up in western Maryland. All of these people have used the phrase “I’m all set” to mean “I don’t need anything else” in all of these places and many more. I have never once seen even the slightest of double-takes in response.
LL, you’re friend’s a :wally!
And besides, he’s from Philly, where they’ve never learned how to speak. 
Being that I was born and bred in West Texas, only moving to Central Texas, I would never use all set quite the way you described. I would and have said it meaning “Lets get on outta heah,” but using it concerning beverages is strange to me and I am pretty sure that is the first time I have heard it in this particular context.
So it seems that the phrase is not completly alien to most of you, although in some parts of the country (maybe Texas and the South) and possibly Canada as well…matt mcl is from Canada, right?..it generally means something like “I’m ready to go” so I run the risk of getting the check earlier than I wanted! I’ll have to be more careful when I travel. I would still like to hear from some Brits, Aussies, or Kiwis, and maybe someone else from Ireland.
First time I heard it was in New England. While I understood the phrase, I’d never heard it used in Tennessee or upstate NY, in both places with a fairly cosmopolitan population. In fact, the day I heard myself using was a realization that my God, I’m becoming one of them, and will soon be asking for anotha’ beeah from the bahtendah.
So my humble opinion is that I think it is more of a New England thing.
I lived in Chicago for over 40 years (yes, that was past tense 
), and it was common for waitresses in diners and informal restaurants to ask “Are you all set?,” meaning “Do you need anything else?” In diners, they would often return immediately with the check.
However, it would be rare – though certainly not unheard of – for the customer to reply “Yes, thanks, we’re all set.”
It is far more common to use the phrase as an abbreviation of “all set to go,” meaning “ready.” Though that would usually be used in connection with something requiring elaborate preparations – like getting dressed up for the evening – rather than something more casual, like leaving a restaurant after a meal.
– Beruang
I grew up in the Akron/Canton, Ohio area, and now live in central NY, and “All Set” is just fine wherever I’ve been. Them’s Philly people are crazy.
I grew up in the DC area and this would be my interpretation of the phrase. I think I’ve probably heard it used in the OP sense, but it wouldn’t be particularly common.
As for the Irish relatives, I can’t think of any particular reason why they would find it so funny - there’s no other usage of “all set” here that I’m aware of. FWIW, in the same situation in Ireland (or at least in Dublin), the customer would most likely say “No, I’m grand”.
Born in Washington state and lived here all my life and I don’t think I have heard that phrase used mayby half a dozen times. My wife lived many years in upstate New York and said he heard it a lot there but not very often here. A regional accent would get more looks than saying ‘all set’.
racer72 writes:
> My wife lived many years in upstate New York and said he
^^^ ^^
> heard it a lot there but not very often here.
So, racer72, you want to tell us about this relationship?
Laughing Lagomorph writes:
> O.K., this is getting confusing, but all I meant was that I don’t
> remember a waitperson ever asking the question “Are you all
> set?”. As you say, they usually say something like “Are you O.K.
> here?”, or “How is everything?”.
It seems to me from other people’s responses in this thread that this is not consistently true. It does not seem to be true that “all set” is more common in the question asked by a waitress than in the answer given by a customer. In any case, as I think about it now, it seems to me that the most common thing that I’ve heard waitresses say is the most obvious thing: “Do you need anything else?” While I would understand what it would mean for a customer to say, “Yes, I’m all set” (although I might find it a little confusing), I’m pretty sure I would never say it.
Can anyone figure out anything consistent about the pattern of use of this phrase? Except for the fact that it seems to be more common closer to New England, there seems to be a wide variation in other regions of the country as to whether it’s the standard thing to say by either the waitress or the customer. Nearly everyone recognizes what it means, but they don’t consistently think that it’s the standard thing to say in those circumstances.
In California, I’m okay, you’re okay.
In a casual restaurant, wait-person might say “Are you guys okay?” We’d say “We’re okay!”
Okay?
Umm, in that last post I was trying to underline “my wife” and “he” in racer72’s quotation.
Oh, no. That’s just what I was afraid of myself. I might next find myself rooting for the God-cursed Red Sox. :rolleyes:
By the way, I lived in upstate New York from ages 7 to 22, and “cosmopolitan” is not the first word that springs to mind to describe its population…
FWIW, I grew up in South Jersey and lived in Philly and never knew anyone who didn’t understand it. Can’t say I tested everyone I met, though…
Now, this might be a good reverse illustration of the “Irish relative” phenomenon. If I were at a party and I heard a person refuse a beer using this phrase, I would think it sounded funny. Not “wrong” or incomprehensible, and no double meaning, just not what I would be used to hearing someone say. And I just might start laughing if I heard 3 or 4 different people say it several times.
I grew up in Texas. I don’t think I would ever say “I’m all set”, but I understand it’s meaning. I think the only place I’ve heard it used is in a restuarant, by a waiter or waitress. I think that I’ve only heard it used right after they bring the food…
“Let’s see… I brought your spicy brown mustard, your diet coke with no ice, and your pizza with no cheese. Looks like you’re all set…”
It kinda means “ready to start eating, because you have everything you need” to me, which incorporates a couple of different meaning of the phrase already tossed about.
Like, if I’d been eating a while and was nearly finished with the meal and a waitress asked “Are you all set?”, I’d be totally confused. After a while, it turns into “You okay here?” and after you’ve overstayed your welcome “Anything else I can get for you?”