I go to a restaurant with my wife. IN this case it’s a little Italian bistro style cafe with small tables. In fact their tables are not much bigger than what you find in a coffeehouse. Now–mark this–their plates and bowls are huge. Unlike the “bizarro Monk’s restaurant” from Seinfeld, they do have big bowls. Do they ever. You could almost put a couple basketballs into one of their bowls. Well, OK, I exaggerate. You could only put one basketball into one of their soup bowls, and it would actually have an inch or so to roll around.
Anyway, we’re seated and we order our drinks, which arrive promptly. Anon the waiter returns and we order our food. Mine comes with soup or salad, of which I select the former. Now notice here that the meal comes with soup, and it’s the fish of the day. The usual custom is that one eats one’s soup at a comfortable pace, the bowl is cleared away, and then–only then do they bring you a big 14-inch plate containing your entree. But not here. I was on about my third spoonful of soup, when the main courses arrived. The waiter skillfully crowded them onto the table, which is so small I have to lean leftwards and rightwards to sample the main course, or continue with the soup, respectively. It was so awkward that I had to send the soup back.
The soup comes with the meal. If the kitchen is pouring the soup (very likely), then he has to ring up the meal “FISH with option SOUP” to get your soup to you. The problem, is that the kitchen automatically pours a bowl of soup and starts cooking the fish.
If it’s pretty busy, this is ok. Because the soup takes a second to pour and the fish is several orders down on the queue so it won’t be coming out any time soon.
But if it isn’t really busy, that fish is going to be cooked immediately. Was it “fried”? That doesn’t take long AT ALL. Even if it was baked or something else, they probably have some ready to go. Maybe they only need to be garnished and sauced or whatever, then put on a plate and that’s it.
So after the waiter brings your soup, he comes back to see the kitchen has already finished the fish. His options are to let it set back there on the line, or bring it to you fresh, hot, and ready for eating. Sure, they might have warmers on the line or something, but one can tell if the meal has been sitting under warmers for too long.
So he decides to bring it out to you so that it will taste best.
They were pretty busy, so I don’t think the fish got cooked right away. That was a good point about not wanting to leave it under the warmers, so I suppose I should be more appreciative.
But in that case, why not wait before transmitting the fish order to the chef? I suppose here a server might run afoul of restaurant policy, so I suppose I can’t be too annoyed at the server over things like this. Which always makes me reluctant to stiff the waiter on the tip, in spite of my comment in the OP. Problems like that are, IMHO, almost always the fault of the way the kitchen and restaurant are being run.
Hey, this is getting just too mild. I suggest a moderator move it to IMHO or close it before it becomes an embarrassment to the Pit.
I disagree with Bear_Nenno. A decent restaurant does not serve a course before the people are done with their previous course. The fish should absolutely NOT be cooked immediately if a salad or soup come with it. I’m with Spectre, I get pissy when they can’t manage to serve the courses correctly, unless I’m at a low-end hamburger joint or something.
Nothing worse than this. Last night I had to wait almost 20 minutes for my coffee, so I had no drink for the first 20 minutes of my meal. Then my salad showed up. Not 2 minutes later-I hadn’t even finished dressing it-my fucking meal showed up.
THen after my meal I waited another 20 minutes for my check after being told twice that my check was on it’s way. Since I always tip too high, I made sure to tip a scant 10% for my crappy meal last night.
Never brings a second course until the first is finished.
Never asks “how is everything” one second after you’ve put food in your mouth.
One of my favorite restaurants is Vicky’s in the Palm Springs area (across from the Esmeralda and Marriott Grand Champions resorts). The menu is simple but the food is excellent. The wait staff have no “in the back” in which to hide. If they aren’t doing something on the floor, they are standing near their station watching to see if anyone needs anything. They are all real pros. The kitchen is also open to the diners’ view.
Check them out if good food AND good service are a requirement for you.
My pet peeve is when they bring your coffee, then come back a nanosecond later and ask, “Would you like a refill?”, then disappear, never to be seen again.
This is obviously a kitchen problem and not a server problem. Servers are usually responsible for assembling things like soups, salads and desserts so that they are timed right, but they can’t do that with main dishes. Your server can’t control the kitchen or precisely time what the kitchen does- they can only serve whats given to them. They could have left your food under heat lamps or let it cool and microwaved it when it was ready- but those are less ideal solutions than just serving it to you.
I hate it when they refill without asking you if you want one. The start to pour more coffee in the cup…I don’t want more coffee! This doesnt’ happen often, but it’s a pet peeve.
On related note, I hate when they bring another glass of soda without asking if you want one. Sure, it’s free, but it’s a waste. I only want one diet coke, thank you. If you’d have asked me if I wanted a refill, I’d have probably said “no, but could I have a glass of water?”.
Do you see the fallacy here? Unless the kitchen was pouring the soup, there’s simply no excuse for this – and that soup should have been on the table within minutes.
If the kitchen IS pouring the soup, though, then they should have been PARTICULARLY aware that fish cooks quickly, and should be started a good 20 minutes after any other entrees.
Any place that cooks fish should have real chefs, not short-order cooks in tall hats.
I’m seeing more of this at better restaurants, too. We went to the famous Formosa Cafe, which is a sort of cocktail lounge cum Chinese restaurant. The food was good, the Martinis were good (those really do go well with Chinese food), but they brought us the entrees only a minute after they brought the appetizers.
I’ve decided the only away to solve the problem is to not tell them what you want for the main course until after you’ve had the appetizer. They can’t bring you what you haven’t ordered yet.
I agree with Athena’s disagreement, and with even sven’s point that it’s a kitchen problem, not a server problem. (It is actually a bit of a server problem too, because the server should refuse to bring out the entree - but knowing chefs/cooks, sometimes challenging one will get you fired. Even when the server is right.) Even a diner cook should know how to time his cooking. If neither the cook nor the waiters at this particular place can figure out one of the most basic of all restaurant skills, then you will have to specify in a firm manner that you would like to take a little time between courses.
If the unthinkable should happen and they cook your entrée immediately anyway and then leave it under the lights - it will be very obvious when they serve it to you - you must refuse it and tell them why. Do not pay for it. Leave immediately if you have to. They’ll never learn if people just keep putting up with their inability to comprehend basic food service.
My situation last night is a bit different than sven’s commentary. My fucking waitress waited so damned long to deliver my drink and salad that it was moments before my food was completed.
I’ve actually (gasp), sent a server back to the kitchen with the entree when it arrived a nano-second after the salad. Further, I made her have the kitchen make the entree fresh, so that it wouldn’t be shitty.
I was really, really nice about it, and appologetic for being so demanding, but I still made her do it. I did leave her an excellent tip (baring absolutely abysmal service, I always do).
It was a really nice restaraunt and the meal was going to be $100+ for two people, excluding wine - as soon as I pointed out what had happened she acknowledged that she had screwed up and was happy to fix it.
I’m probably deluding myself that I didn’t wind up with snot in my food…
Back in my serving days, the kitchen worked fast. So, we were expected to give the order slip to the chefs AFTER we had served the soup or salad. That way everything worked out correctly. So, there’s really no way of knowing whether this was an error on the server’s part or the kitchen’s part, because we don’t know who was supposed to be responsible for getting the timing right.
But, as Spectre notes, this kind of thing does depend on the kitchen and restaurant being well-run enough that the timing can be reliably predicted.
Unless the kitchen poured the soup and the server had to order it with the entree, it’s completely on the server.
At one particular resturant I served for, we servers had to adjust our ordering to fit whatever lead chef was working. Jaime worked like he was popping speed back there, Luis worked like he had a constant hangover. If Jaime was working, we’d wait about 5-10 minutes after we took out the soup or salad before we’d even enter the order. If Luis was working, we’d take out the soup or salad after we’d entered the order. We did this because we were able to gauge how long it would be before our order was up. We had to, it’s why we were there.
I’m usually the first person to stick up for servers but this one I can’t justify. Timing of entree delivery is completely within the servers control at all times. It’s a very important part of the job description. Period.
I recently started waitressing at an upscale resturant and this has been the hardest part for me. We have dinner and lunch set up differently. Lunch is a bit more casual than dinner.
During lunch, we have to place the soup or salad at the same time we place the main course. The kitchen serves both the soup or salad. If it is slow, then I watch the customer and tell the kitchen to ‘fire’ it when I think it is ready. (customers are 1/2 to 3/4 finished depending on how fast they are eating) In the busy time, the kitchen just fires it automatically.
Normally I get things out shortly after the customer’s soups or salad plates are cleared, but once in a blue moon things are brought out too quickly or too late. Sometimes people eat most of their salad really fast and then dwandle on the last bites, or the kitchen is super speedy. I hate it when that happens, but I’ve learned to coordinate things so that it is a rare occasion.
At dinner, the rule of thumb for us is to fire the main course after the starter arrives on the table. If there is a table of 4 and they get one starter, then I will sometimes fire it sooner, especially if it takes a long while to make. If they have 3 starters for 2 people, I will wait longer before firing the main courses. Today a main course came in 7 minutes, which is WAY sooner than it should be. I chose to bring it out anyway, but the customers were fine with my decision.
Being a waitress has been the toughest job I’ve had so far. Every customer is different and you have to guess about their personality, how long it will take for them to eat their food, etc. I’ve been suprisingly good at it though.
This is probably your best option if you want to avoid the situation described by the OP. You folks have to realize that, “finer,” privately-owned restaurants excluded, most places enforce a timeframe in which food must be prepared/delivered. Negative consequences follow failure to routinely meet this timeframe. If you want to blame someone though, blame the impatient asshole customers who, don’t you know, are going to starve to death if they don’t get their food RIGHT NOW FOR GOD’S SAKE!!!
I’m in agreement with the OP, and there’s no point in “explaining” the situation. It isn’t the waiter’s fault, maybe, but the manager needs to hear about it. I suspect the main reason they bring you everything so quickly is to get you out of there and get the table free, but it’s annoying and I am increasingly reminding myself to TELL the waiter that I want time to enjoy each part of the meal before another, to come back and ask about dessert AFTER we’re done with our meal, etc.
I should point out that the worst part of this, for me, is being brought a salad and a Martini. A cocktail is to be enjoyed in a liesurely fashion before dinner, not WITH dinner. Now it’s true I can push the salad aside and finish my cocktail at my liesure, but when the salad comes I know the entree is 5 minutes away, so I feel compelled to quickly dispatch with the salad. I have taken to ordering the drink, and not even ordering dinner until I’m done with it.
