Me too. My greatest beef with “upscale” restaurants. (And predominantly in NYC). I want to be free to linger, not required to. I know one guy who asks for his check when he orders. I haven’t tried that yet.
I’m sure it’s the last thing so you never have to say how much the Thai place took off the price of your dish for leaving out the eggplant. It’s $0 right? That’s what this is about, not asking for a half portion, it’s about asking for a half portion at half price.
I don’t get this - I don’t like to hang around restaurants, I definitely don’t do leisurely 3 hour dinners unless it’s with a group of people, and we often go to restaurants when we don’t feel like cooking. It’s the time part I don’t understand- there’s no way that going to a restaurant on Thursday night is going to take less time than cooking a simple meal, not even if I have no food in the house and have to pick up a couple of steaks on my way home from work.(rather than having bought food on my normal shopping trip, where it takes maybe 30 minutes extra a week to buy food ) The only way I can see restaurants saving a significant amount of time is if I never used my kitchen at all - the time saved loading 5 meals worth of dishes into the dishwasher rather than 7 doesn’t really make a difference , nor does a stove used to cook 5 meals clean faster than one used to cook 7. I suppose you could save enough time if you don’t use your kitchen at all - but most of the people I know who literally don’t cook don’t eat at restaurants every night either. They get takeout, because it’s not as time consuming as sitting/ordering in the very same place they’re getting the takeout from.
Who did that?
Oh crap. You are right. I interpreted the following post as asking for the half portion for half price.
Larry Borgia, my humble apologies. I was briefly stupider than usual.
This is the first post I found regarding half portions - nothing about half-price.
You brought up half-price when you responded.
There are lots of places that will let you order half portions- not of anything on the menu and generally not of prime rib or a steak (although those often have multiple sizes right on the menu, so you can order a 12 oz prime rib rather than the 16 oz , or a 6 oz filet mignon rather than a 10 oz) but lots of places will let you order a half-portion of salad or pasta or split an order between two people.
Please see above. It’s all my fault.
Agree with OP on both.
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Ordering a special without being told the price is like giving the restaurant a blank check. Nobody is going to impress their date asking for price, especially if it is expensive and you don’t order it after hearing price. Is it the special because it is a bargain or because it is made from an exotic species of chicken that is quadruple the usual price? I also don’t like when rapidly being given a verbal description of several specials, because it can be difficult to keep track and compare the side items and type of sauce that comes with each.
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If you do not know the tastes of your server, it makes little sense to order based on what they like. It also looks very indecisive, and wastes time. There is a good chance the staff is told to push certain items, whether for higher profit margin (also higher tip for the more expensive items) or the fish is getting old and needs to be unloaded soon.
This, but it has to be the right kind of place. Deciding whether some place is the right kind of place or not is highly intuitive – I can’t describe it; I just know. Applebee’s is not that type of place, for example.
I seem to remember if two of you wanted to split an entree, there was a ‘plating charge’… We usually ordered two meals that come with soup or salad. I will eat the soup and/or salad, take my entree home in a container, and pick away at Mr. Salinqmind’s entree - split the inevitable burger in two. He can’t eat the whole thing… But we have my food to divvy up and have at home, (usually pasta and some rolls or bread).
Really good service includes checking on customers frequently without interrupting them to ask questions.
If a waiter appears looking attentive, a customer who feels in need will make his needs known without being asked. Otherwise, he’ll be pleased that his table’s conversation can continue without useless distraction. And the waiter can the more quickly direct his attention to another table
What kind of heavy Socratic dialogue do you generally experience such that answering a simple question “distracts” a table’s conversation? I’ve never felt like a server’s question was interfering with our socializing.
I’ve never seen why a useless interruption - even a short one - is preferable to no interruption.
And I admire a server who can give you all of what you want and none of what you don’t.
I guess I don’t consider it an interruption. It’s part of the process of being served.
I like to be asked if there’s any doubt. I don’t expect servers to try to read every nonverbal queue. Unless it’s one of those restaurants in which each table has its own server, which really only happens in very expensive ones.
Maybe that’s the disconnect here. Some people think of a restaurant meal as necessarily one that is expensive, requires a reservation, goes on for entire evening and possibly well into the night, and has the exclusive attention of one or more servers. That’s not what my mind goes to in the context of eating out.
This whole discussion about being interrupted or not interrupted or not finding your waiter makes me long for what you see regularly in Japan. There is a button on your table, should you want some assistance you push the button and someone comes. In fact, in many cases, that is how you get someone to take you order. You don’t have someone coming up to your table to make you order, you just look at the menu, and once you have decided what you want, you push the button and they come.
Of course this works because you don’t tip in Japan so it does not matter who takes your order or who serves you your food. Whoever is available does either.
Recently I have seen some restaurants in the US where they have a device on your table that allows you to order and pay, so you don’t have to wait for a waiter either way. It does not make your food come out faster though.
//i\
Maybe it’s age related. I’m 61, she’s 60. I try to enjoy each day since it may be the last.
We never eat at chains (Applebee’s). Only a few places require reservations. We eat in restaurants/breweries/bars on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays mostly. Definitely not a rare treat, but we do like to linger over dinner. My gf works 8 hour days with an hour drive each way and a leisurely dinner with wine and maybe live music is how she likes to relax. I work 4 hour days ten minutes from home and have my MMJ card; I’m relaxed af.
At the local places we like, the owners know us. That’s part of the reason we are there. Maybe it’s small town life, plus the fact that we are “foodies”, but they are on the premises and will chat with regulars.
To each his own. I’m just glad there are places that accommodate our preferences.
No problem.
And of course certain things don’t make sense to be halved. Expensive cuts of meat, for one, as you point out. I don’t go to Steakhouses often ($$) but when I do I usually bring an appetite for a whole steak. If I couldn’t eat the whole steak I’d just take the rest home for steak sandwiches the next day.
But a friend asks for half portions of the oversized pasta dishes one place serves, and she gets them for half price. Of course she’s a regular so the place extends her courtesies they might not extend to others. (It’s the place with the anosmic bartender i mentioned in post 6.)
I’ve worked in restaurants forever…I’m just chiming I disagree that it’s silly or really even a hijack with all due respect.
When people ask I just politely say no we don’t do half portions. Cause we don’t. And when I was younger and a bigger asshole (unbelievable I know) I certainly would have thought some of the things he’s expressed.
As for the OP you all have covered the gamut .
- I don’t mention prices cause it implies “you peasants should know in case you’re at the wrong place”
Other day we had lamb for the first time in forever and that time I DID mention it cause it’s $40. And little else on the menu is comparable.
- When the Foodie Craze hit some people started acting eating out is like going to the circus…“Tell me what’s just delightful here???”
Ron Swanson voice: Sir when I return to the table I expect that your testicles will have dropped and you’ve made up your mind.
I ask that people narrow things down from “what’s goioood???”
But I’m just being snarky. It’s been awhile since I was actually bothered by something like that. Live and let live and all that
This one peeves me to no end. Unless you give me something to go off of, like protein, spice, entree type, SOMETHING, I’ve got no fucking clue what’s best. Because I don’t know that you like the same food I do. Outside of a useless year at an Applebee’s, I’ve never worked at a restaurant that would keep a less-than-excellent dish on the menu. If it sucks, get rid of it. If a regular complains, tell them it sucked, nobody but them wanted it, and as much as we love you, we won’t stock five different ingredients just to make a sucky dish only for you. We can try to whip up something close, but we’re not going to keep ordering saffron. That shit’s expensive.
So everything’s awesome. If it’s not, it ain’t on the menu. I’m not gonna lie to you, because my integrity as a server is what brings me regulars, and regulars pay for my skiing. Give me something, like “I like beef”. I can do something with “I like beef”. I can’t do shit with, “Oh, I like just about anything”. You’re getting soup, and you’re gonna like it. Spending five minutes describing everything on the menu is a waste of everyone’s time.
Exactly. 
I always appreciate a quick “y’all need anything?” That’s all it has to be, and if my wife and I both shake our heads, the waiter goes to check on his other tables. But it gives us a chance if there is something we need, including boxes and a check.
The ‘looking attentive’ part may be something you can gauge, but I clearly don’t have the hang of it. Many’s the time I think I’ve caught my waiter’s eye, but there’s no followup on their part, so I clearly didn’t. If I started talking to the waiter when they were nearby and looked attentive, I’d likely be talking to their receding back by the time I actually started speaking.
As I used to tell the Firebug, “use words.”
I’m not Larry, but good on ya for apologizing.