A common rule in restaurants seems to be to offer the worst table first. If you’re meek & take it, then they won’t have some pushier person walk out later because the only tables good enough for them are already taken.
I (or wife & I) get offered tables next to kitchens and bathrooms more often than not. Haven’t actually sat in one for years. I’m not a hog and demand a 6-person booth when they’re almost full, but if they’re not I just say “how about that 4-booth over there; you’re nowhere near full” & away we go.
Remember, seaters are not independent thinking rocket scientists; they’re robotically following whatever harebrained scheme Corporate or the nutty owner says. Or they’re following their own one-size-fits-all habit. Me, I tell I’m I’ve considered their legitimate interest in not turning away a later larger party, and then I pick what I want which won’t harm that interest. They go along.
From my several years of restaurant experience, it’s a combination of three things already mentioned.
We never know when it will get busy. Anything can happen, such as having to rearrange the entire dining room for a group of 20 unexpectedly showing up (we had only tables, no booths) I almost always got favorable responses if I informed the customer if they wanted a four top it was fine, as long as they didn’t mind relocating if I got slammed (which is more of a pain in the ass than one might think, considering most restaurants have tables assigned to specific numbers/sections although it’s usually pretty easily handled for just one table) I never really liked moving people while they were trying to eat/relax, though, which brings me to:
We never know how long you intend to stay. All servers have had campers who sit and do their work/read a book/chat for hours on end. Since, as I’ve stated before, we really don’t like to move anyone unless we have to (seems kind of rude) we’d rather position you where we think you’ll be comfortable for a while and not need to be repositioned.
Our slow time is when we get everything ready/do our side work. Chances are that the cook & server are scrubbing the restaurant down and getting everything ready for the big rush to come. Since we’re probably the only two in the restaurant at the time, I’d always try to place you where I could have the best view of you for your convenience and mine. That way when your drink is getting low while I’m breaking down the espresso machine/prepping the new salad etc. I have you right in my line of site most of the time. Of course, at my old restaurant those seats weren’t located right next to the bathroom/kitchen, but next to a window.
I’ve never turned down anyone for a better seat when it was slow if they asked. Most of the time I just informed them that if they needed something and they didn’t see me, feel free to come to the server area and I’d get them whatever they needed. I rarely had a customer who didn’t appreciate the honesty and left happy during these situations.
No, easy is speaking up and telling the staff that you’d like a better table, please. Why should I shovel fast food into my gob while perched on a hotel bed when I could eat in a nice restaurant I’ve never been to before, just because I can’t speak up for myself and request the service I’d prefer?
Also, eating alone doesn’t have to be unpleasant – it can be quite nice, actually. It’s only unpleasant if you decide ahead of time it’s going to be unpleasant.
I went to Morton’s solo, and they treated me like a leper, seating me at the bar, not giving me the “show” etc. I did ask to be seated in the regular area, and they said the seated all single in the bar. Needless to say, I have never been back, solo or no. (In fact, I talked my work out from using it for a largish party).
Just out of curiosity, what makes dining alone as a female more difficult in particular?
I do a lot of traveling alone as well, and like Claire I enjoy visiting the locally famous upscale type places. I’ve learned to just ask for a better seat, or better yet just tell the host/hostess what I’d like on the way to the dining room. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t accommodated. In fact just tonight, dining with family in tow, I asked to be moved to a different table to be out from under the too-loud speaker in the ceiling.
There could be a dozen reasons for it. But hosts usually have some good reason for putting people where they do. You wouldn’t believe how much abuse hosts get for things that are ultimately in the customer’s favor (waiting five minutes for a seat in good section as opposed to being seated immediately in a section that is slammed and fifteen minutes behind) or just impossible (being seated in an “open” seat that is broken.)
Probably they are keeping their options open in case of a big rush. It’s always better to have more options than less. Or they are about to go through some shift changes and having someone at the “1” table makes it easier to figure out who serves who than having someone at the “14” table. Or any one of many things. Really, even working at a slow restaurant can be a fast paced job where conditions are changing rapidly and you need to be able to deal with it.
I think you are going to far here. I’ve worked plenty of jobs (I’m a college teacher these days.) But the most physically and yes, intellectually intense job I’ve ever worked was as a restaurant hostess. The best I can describe it is playing some very physical, very complicated version of Tetris for eight hours at a time. And both sides- the customers and the waitstaff, want something different out of you, so you are always trying to make sure both interests get served (though the waitstaff tips out to hosts, so their interests come a little more first.)
I often ask to be seated in a quiet section. This is usually followed by the seating of children all around me. I end up looking like a teacher on a field trip. What part of quiet does the waitress not understand because I understand how to calculate a tip.
Wow. I don’t know where you got the impression that I prefer to “shovel fast food into my gob” but if it makes you feel better to think I’m some shrinking violet, afraid to speak up for herself, well, have at it.
If I implied that I decide ahead of time that eating in a restaurant is going to be unpleasant, that wasn’t my intention. I should have clarified that some small towns that I needed to visit frequently had few “good” restaurants, and the choice of getting deli or pizza delivery was preferable to the previous experiences I’d had. And the hotels I stayed in tended to have tables and chairs. Some even had kitchenettes. I wasn’t sitting on the bed to eat, but it’s so much more colorful the way you describe it!
To respond to Speak to me Maddie!, my solo dining experiences as a traveling female happened in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s. I’m sure I’d be much more vocal about my displeasure now, but I’m older and a bit wiser. At least I like to think so.
In a few of the nicer local places and hotel restaurants, I had unpleasant experiences involving unwanted overtures from people who were just positive that I’d prefer their company to my own. Some were quite persistent. I was alone in a strange town, they were irresistible…
There’s been waiters in the Southern USA who lost their tip for trying to conmiserate with me for being alone. Either there’s people out there who like it, or those folks hadn’t yet learned the difference between “customer friendly” and “nosy.” Plus I already hate the waiting times, I don’t need anybody to make them longer on account of saying “oh, you’re aloOOOoone!” and wringing their hands rather than bringing me the menu.
There’s also been guys trying to cozy up in the hotel’s restaurant and having problems with that most complex of words, “no.” Since most hotels provide the same dishes for room service, two of those led to me figuring out I’d rather eat in the room.
They hate single diners because it’s always a small tip. The bad table is their way of getting back at you. They don’t care if you do not return. This is server logic, not manager logic or even common sense, since single patrons are proportionally the same amount of work per tip. Servers cannot do math, except calculating the tip.
And pretty bad logic, considering that the single diner is quite often scouting the place out as a place to take people. If I get bad service alone, I’m damn sure not going to bring my boss or my girlfriend.
I LOVE dining alone. I have a book, someone brings me my food, I’m happy.
As far as seating after the rush, it’s possible some servers got cut (meaning they’re getting ready to go home) and their station is closed. You may be seated in the area that still has a server available to wait on you.
Also, I tip well when I’m dining alone. I’ve been a server, my son works as a server, and I figure whoever is waiting on me is working their way through college, so I make sure waiting on little old me is worth their time.
Curiously enough the ‘worst’ places that the OP describes sound in part like the places I choose when dining alone (being seated is rare in restaurants in Germany). A small table (because I don’t need more, and it’s embarassing to me to find myself hogging space when larger parties arrive later) and a bit out of the way if possible for quiet (but not out of sight of waitstaff).
Keep in mind that the vast majority of restaurants are divided into sections by server. That is the purpose of a hostess, to seat an equal number of patrons in each server’s sections so we all have an equal chance to make some money.
Small/single tables are for single patrons. It’s very annoying when someone insists on being seated alone at a large table and then the restaurant fills up and a larger party has to wait for the appropriate table. A server with a set amount of tables needs to sit parties of the appropriate size at the appropriate table and maximize turnover. You never know when business is going to pick up, it always happens suddenly with a large number of people arriving at the same time.
You’re within your rights to ask (pleasantly) for the table of your preference, or to sit forever at a table, but you’re making everyone’s job harder.
