The example he gave was someone complaining about the size of the portions. How much control, in general, do you think that a server has over this particular decision?
It’s not that there aren’t limits; it’s that reasonable and intelligent people can at least recognize roughly where those limits might be. Do you think you could manage to give it a try?
Given the collosal portion sizes in most American restaurants…
This makes you sound less than a treat, in fact.
If you know of a better way to get an Oompa Loompa, Veruca…
I’m a vegetarian. I once ordered a vegetarian calzone pizza at Zizzi’s and they brought out a meat one. I just ate it.
Actually, another time I ordered a margherita pizza and bought my friend a pepperoni one and the guy made two pepperoni ones. He said he would remake it and I said it was fine, that I’d just take the pepperoni off, but he did it himself.
Speaking of tipping (hijack) AOL’s welcome page is talking about how servers and others in the service industry are now rallying for 20-30% as a tip. I don’t have speakers so I couldn’t listen to the video, but THAT really gets me going!
I also don’t think it’s a big deal, but I use guys for guys and folks for couples, or groups with both genders.
Screw that nonsense.
Look, I’m normally a good tipper. If the meal and the service was good, I give around 20%. But if that is the new “standard”, then I guess it’s just going to turn me into a bad tipper, because I’m not fucking tipping 30% for good service.
I agree. Lighten up, Francis. You take yourself too seriously.
Wow… Tough crowd! :eek:
I can see that I left a few false impressions with my OP, but please understand…
I am not “THAT guy”! 
I’ll be 49 y.o. in November, but thanks to my Mom’s DNA I’m often assumed to be 10-15 years younger than I really am. I live in a western Cleveland suburb, in a small, quiet apartment building, so I don’t get the privilege of yelling at the kids to “GET OFF MY LAWN!”. 
I also don’t walk into any establishments with the first (or last) words out of my mouth being, “I’d like to speak with your manager.” I don’t own a monocle, spats, walking stick, or top hat. Actually, as the child of blue-collar parents, and having spent the past 18 years working in manufacturing I’m as blue-collar as they come. I was raised by my mom to be a gentleman, and my personality is easy-going, and not at all confrontational. When I go to a restaurant I ALWAYS tip 20%. (Even to the young lady who took my debit card, then stood in a doorway on the other side of the place and spent the next 10 minutes chatting with a co-worker!) If something is amiss, I just take it in stride, figuring stuff happens; It’s LIFE!
I’ve NEVER raised Hell with the staff, and never asked for a manager. Only once in all the years that I’ve frequented eateries have I ever sent something back: That was a steak which I ordered “Well Done” but which arrived “VERY Rare”. I cut into it, and after seeing the blood filling my plate I asked the waitress to take it back and have them cook it some more. She offered to have them cook another steak! I asked, “Why? This one was fine. It just wasn’t cooked long enough. Pop it in the microwave for a minute.”
I’ve NEVER been, and I feel that I’ll NEVER BE that “pain in the ass customer” who employees dread seeing come in the door. I know that those workers are just like I am at my job: Trying to do the best they can, and go home with all of their body parts in the same condition they were in when they arrived at work.
I worked in the service sector years ago, and was very good at it, so I think I have some idea about how to treat customers: I delivered pizzas from 1985-1988, did valet parking from 1989-1991, stocked shelves in a department store in 1992, and did telemarketing at separate places in 1989 & 2007. At no time at any of those jobs would I have ever considered calling my customers “Honey”, “Dear”, or “Bro”. In my mind, you just don’t do that! Single men were always “sir” . Men in groups “gentlemen”. Single women were always “ma’am”. Women in groups “ladies”.
So, “guys” is gender neutral now? Really??? :dubious: Please tell me why in the Hell would I ever call a group of women “guys”??? For me, couples and combinations of men and women were usually “Folks”. As in “Good evening, folks. How are you tonight?” Or I’d make it a point to call them out collectively, “Ladies… Gentlemen.”
The original issues that I pointed out were spread out over weeks at different places… Hence, my inclusion of “Other Service Workers” in the subject.
It wasn’t just last week’s visit to Dianna’s Family Restaurant that raised my dander. Yes, the “sweeping waitress” was there, but I’d seen the same thing happen in several other places prior to this. Also, to those who railed against me for ASKING the waitress to clean, then getting pissed when she did, if you re-read my OP you’ll see my thoughts about the debris under the next table were only shared with my girlfriend. At no point did I ask the waitress to clean under the neighboring table, but, hey… Maybe she WAS psychic! 
But here’s a thought: How about you don’t seat people in areas that need to be cleaned? That’s how they do it at the Applebee’s where my ex was a part-time hostess. That ex was also the person who called my attention to people greeting us as “guys”. She hated it, and as primary trainer at her location she instructed the new hires never to use it. Ultimately, it became one of those things where once she pointed it out to me I couldn’t stop noticing it. More recently, it was both the hostess and waitress at Red Robin calling me and my current lady “guys”, the female grocery store cashier calling me “hon”, the female gas station cashier calling me “babe”, and several young male station attendants, grocery stockers, and men’s clothing store personnel calling me some variant of “bro”. Granted, most of those mentioned were in their early-20’s, but I feel that youth is still no excuse. I delivered pizzas from the ages of 21 to 25 and I never did it, and even today I find younger staff who don’t. (Special shout-out to Gary at Guys Pizza in Lakewood, OH, and the ladies at Pelicano’s Pizza in Rocky River, OH who ALWAYS refer to me as Mr. Slaughter!) And, I did smile when I went to AutoZone last week, and an older gentleman working the register greeted me warmly with, “Good afternoon, sir. Is there something I can help you with?” My first thought was, “Finally! Here’s someone who GETS it!”
mHendo, and Kaylasdad were quick to understand the fact that I here came to drop some bullshit that simply rubbed me the wrong way at times. Its never been enough to make me cause a scene, I just thought I’d find some others who felt the same, and/or were willing to share their own petty grievances.
(I can say that I’ve never had a server sit down with me, or touch me while taking my order, and I hope I never do!)
As far as the name calling: (“pain in the ass”, “retard”; “jackass” and the demands by some members that I should stay home) I’ll simply respond in the immortal words of Ice Cube: “FUCK ALL Y’ALL!” 
Well, well, well. Look who comes crawling back, wanting to be a brotha man again all of a sudden. No dice, you rat soup eatin’ jive turkey.
-Dolemite
Nzinga, I wanted to ask you about a comment you made in your post about “tipping heavy out of black guilt”.
What exactly do you mean by that?
Look. It’s my sole indulgence to white racism. Don’t take it from me. They think we don’t tip well, and god help me, it bothers me. No idea why this one bugs me when I couldn’t give a shit about any other stereotypes they have about blacks. Maybe this one grates because I know a **lot **of black people who don’t tip or who tip low. So I over-compensate. I know how dumb it is. Leave me alone about it.
I’m 43 and I grew up in Ohio. “Guys” has been gender neutral my whole life.
She’s just afraid people will think she’s Canadian.
May I add one? Putting my napkin on my lap. I am all grown up, I know what to do with a napkin, and I am not comfortable with a stranger’s hand in that general area.
I do not go to restaurants for a friendly, personal experience. When I want that, I invite real friends over. If by chance I invite my friends to the restaurant, I intend to socialize with them, not the waitstaff.
I don’t want anyone to call me ‘dearie’, not even my spouse. Okay, I do expect it from a diner waitress, I think it’s in the contract.
Those long handled dust pans with covers are for cleaning under a table during business hours.
I can’t even imagine waitstaff touching me.
I eat out a lot; I seldom have any issues like this, and there are waitstaff that are genuinely please to see us and wait on us. (Yeah, we tip okay, though not like it’s an ego thing.) I suspect these practices are used primarily in those big national chains that specially in dry chicken and watery drinks.
And I eat in all kinds of restaurants, even fast food chains. In fact, the closest one is one of the cleanest and most professional places I’ve been to.
However, I have taken “guys” as gender neutral for several decades now, so I disagree with that.
Having worked in retail, I can tell you that some people really object to ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’ (makes them feel old, I think). And lots of women definitely object to ‘ladies’. I can’t say I particularly like ‘ladies’ myself, or think it’s at all preferable to ‘guys’. Your preferences Re just that - your preferences, not the absolute correct way for everyone to do things. Why does it matter so much that everyone recognize your gender anyways?
As for the sweeping, I really don’t get that. How much dust was in this place that the waitress raised a choking cloud of dust just by sweeping under one table? I’ve seen waiters/waitresses sweep up messes plenty of times, and there has never been an appreciable amount of dust raised. This sounds strange to me.
Heheh I do exactly the same because New Zealanders have a reputation for being poor tippers. 
Hey, (makes sure no white people are looking) this is about half of why I tip so well. It’s cool. Don’t care if they think I’m fat, lazy, dumb, on welfare, but I’ll be fucked before they think I don’t tip. This is why the few times when I’ve had unacceptably bad service and have left a poor tip, I left a note on the tab. Don’t want them thinking, “Pfft, black people.” Nope, that’s not it, terrible waitress; you just suck! I think I’ve given three bad tips in my life, once I left a single penny, twice I’ve left a note. It’s ridiculous that I care about this considering I don’t care about anything else, but here we are.
This.
OP, you sound like you just plain hate young people. You might want to get that checked out.