Walked out of a restaurant tonight for the first time in my life

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

I always speak up for waiters and barkeeps because I’ve worked around nightclubs and casinos all my life, and had many waitress, barmaid and dancer girlfriends, so I know the biz through their eyes … however, I’ve had some pretty rough dining experiences, especially out on the road.

In one coffee shop, after the food was hurriedly dropped off (cold, eggs and toast, yuccch) and the waitress disappeared, we got impatient, and since I didn’t see another waitress or manager nearby, I got up to get more coffee from the server station, and a couple of other items, extra butter, a spare spoon, what-have-you. When the waitress walked by, ignoring us, but then turned around and saw me getting up to get some Tabasco Sauce, she went ballistic. She stormed over to our table and read me the riot act … how it’s her job to get me Tabasco, and I’m not allowed to get condiments from the shelf, etc. etc.
I was amused by then and simply told her that since she couldn’t do her job right, I’d do it for her, at least where our table was concerned; then I asked to see the manager.

First time I saw him all night, right away I could tell he was having a fling with the waitress, and she was bossing HIM around. I told him his waitress needed remedial training in serving and customer service. … basically said she was a rude, inattentive worker, and we’d like a different waitress. She wouldn’t let him budge. She dominated him to the point he was afraid to say anything., then she went in the kitchen and never came out. No big deal, I just paid what I though the food was and left no tip. Put the money on the table, walked out.

Several months later we’re going through the same area (Las Vegas), and stop at the same place (it’s a big chain coffee shop, right next to the gig). Guess who’s still there. That waitress nervously begged another server to take our table … I’m sure she described us as the customers from hell. Turns out we got a great server, had a good time, left a big tip, and asked for her again when we toured back through there.

Things like this happen at fancy places, too, but in the wee hours when you’re drained from working all night and just want to watch the sun come up over some breakfast and coffee, it’s especially trying.

42

In another thread there are claims that the act of tipping ensures good service from Wait Staff. Apparently that is not true, and it can still be a crap shoot.

43

I had one where the waitress more or less ignored us and spent all of her time flirting at another table. And as we watched, the other waitress in our area was hustling and bustling, bringing food, checking on ALL her people, not just flirting with one, and I looked at her, wishing she was our waitress.

AND she took forever with the check! That to me is a clear indication you never want me to come back again.

44

We were visiting wine country in upstate NY and had stopped at one vineyard that also had a restaurant attached. The restaurant had a new seating Hostess who was organizing what customer would sit where & be served by whom with a marker & a marker board,
irregardless of table number. In other words table 1 could be served by waitress 5 and after that meal, it could as well be served next by waitress 2. None of that fancy tech stuff, she knew what she was doing, and she was going to run that lunch time with perfect efficiency.
She seemed very confident.

The Hostess sat us in a corner, telling us our waitress would be by shortly. It was 15 minutes before I got up to ask her where our waitress was. The board was suddenly looking pretty busy… and she seemed a little frazzled. The waitresses were even PO’d and confused by the new system and a few were telling her that. Still, she moved us to another table and we got a waitress. Drinks came, a food order was taken… but it was taking another very long time to arrive. Again, I got up to ask the Hostess if she knew where our waitress was.

She did… she’d left early 15 minutes before. :smack:

I asked who had our food order & she gave out a name all while continuing to update that board. The board by this time was starting to look like a failed John Madden draw play that had been over run by the Red Army and she was clearly freaked and in way over her head.
The customers were 20-30 deep in front of her and behind her were easily 2 dozen empty tables. The waitresses who were working had realized by now that they were hemorrhaging tips by this point, and rather than work for free, had just decided to go back to seating customers
and serving tables by zone, totally by-passing the marker board.

I went back to my table, gave them 10 more minutes, and when no one showed, I left a $20 for our drinks and we left. Yeah, I could have skipped out on the tab, but who needs a NY State Trooper in their rear view mirror or a theft of service arrest?

45

You ought to tip after the waitstaff serves you, as a reward for good service. If you tip a waiter preemptively, you may find your powers of predicting the future to be less than reliable.

Also, latest newsflash: traffic laws meant to prevent accidents! … but some people still drive badly … what’s up with that?

46

Thanks for the stories all. Shocking stuff!

47

Interesting to note that that specific type of thing (waiting in vain for the bill) can also occur in the US. It is a perennial problem, noted by a lot of my acquaintances also, here in Germany (I posted about one instance back in 2007) - you usually get attentive service right until you ask for the bill, then they forget about you. In some cases I have had to resort to call the restaurant’s number on the phone and say something on the lines of ‘I am the guy at the table back at the right, and asked to pay three quarters of an hour ago’.

BTW we do not get interrupted with questions whether everything is OK, do we want something else etc. except when the waiter is at the table to serve or remove something, and that I consider good customer service.

48

The wait staff are the ones who should be preemptively good at their job, in anticipation of a decent tip. But apparently wait staff can quite often not give a shit no matter what. Tipping, therefore, is not necessarily achieving anything.

I don’t think the randomness of accidents (check the definition) can be applied to the forethought and consideration of a human being doing their job well. Poor service is not accidental.

49

Neither is poor driving (texting, lack of signals ,speeding) accidental.
Tips achieve gratitude, and tipping is a sign of civil behavior and good manners.
Ill-mannered boors are not expected to tip well and they rarely disappoint in that regard.

50

Raylan Givens would say if you are served by a bunch of shitty waiters, then you’re the shitty waiter.

51

:eek:

52

A few years back, on my wife’s 50th birthday (her birthday is in June, just for the record), we went to one of the nicest places in town. It was a Monday, typically not a busy night, but I wanted it to be special, so I made a reservation earlier in the day. My wife absolutely hates the practice of many restaurants on making a big deal of people’s BD, so they asked if this was a special occasion, I told them “Yes, but I not allowed to say what it is”. Perhaps this was taken wrong?

Anyway, when we arrive, the parking lot is nearly empty. We go in and tell the hostess our name and that we have a reservation. She is nice and seats us. Now, this restaurant was an old farm house, with many rooms, from large dining rooms to small ones. Since business was light, we were seated in one of the rooms with 8-10 tables; there was two other couples in the room. Couple A was giving their drink order and Couple B were looking over their menus. We get seated and given dinner menus and a drink menu. We wait. Couple A gets their drinks and Couple B gives their drink order. It is obvious that tonight is “Training Night” as each waitperson is accompanied by a wide-eyed side-kick. They seat Couple C in the table next to ours. Still no service. Couple C gives their drink order. I guess I should mention this now makes the third time we’ve heard their drink spiel with “we have a very lovely raspberry iced tea that is becoming famous”. Still we wait, patiently. Couple D gets seated and they bring the drinks to Couple C.

My wife is furious. She makes the observation that every one of the other tables has a young woman seating at it with blonde hair and in her early 20s. When they start to tell Couple D about their raspberry tea, my wife gets up, makes a comment loud enough for everyone to hear “I guess you have to be 20 and blonde to get served in this restaurant”, and we leave.

Wait, there’s more. I mention this incident to a coworker whose wife works in the restaurant biz. I get a call from the owner, saying he has heard that we had a unfortunate experience in his business. I was nice, and related the story above. The owner tells me that he is still trying to find out on his end what happened, but he wanted to make it up for us and if we would come back we could have whatever we wanted off the menu, on him. I told him that was nice, but my wife was pretty mad. He kept on, repeating “anything on the menu”. I ending up telling him, “OK, but it will probably be in December, or January, because it is going to be a cold day”. Going right over his head, he said “OK, that will be fine, just ask for me personally when you see the hostess; if I’m not there, I will have your name at the hostess station”.

We have not been back.

excavating (for a mind)

53

This does create a feeling of uneasiness, but not as much as when it happens while you’re awaiting abdominal surgery.

54

I work on the road and probably eat 95% of my meals in restaurants of some kind or another. The vast majority of times the service is fine and it’s an unmemorable experience. So the times where it breaks down are memorable.

The most striking was once a small group of us went for dinner to a modest chain mexican restaurant. Once we were seated, no one ever came by to drop off water or chip & salsa, or greet us and take a drink order - nothing. Everyone who walked past did that thing where they studiously avoid any eye contact. It was comical.

Finally I decided to try an experiment - I placed a $5 bill on the floor right in front of our table. I figured someone would at least make some motion of noticing it or say something, then we could get their attention. BUT NO! NOTHING! The $5 bill sat there for a good 10 minutes until I got up and went to find the manager.

His excuse was that there was confusion about who was assigned to the table, etc. etc. OK, sure, whatever.

55

Not quite a restaurant, but the Barnes & Noble near me has an in-house Starbucks shop. We stopped in one night to browse through the books, about 8:45, and decided to grab a coffee before the coffee shop part closed (at 9, while the bookshop was open until 10). Up to the counter we go, where the girl is busy wiping down the counter, with her back to us. I didn’t want to be rude, so I figured I could wait the few minutes until she’s finished, and just place my order then. She finished. She turns around, to face the counter- obviously seeing three people standing there- and goes about cleaning out the dessert case. Thinking perhaps they closed earlier than I thought, I asked her if they were still open. “Oh, yeah. We’re open until 9.” And continues cleaning the snack case. I’m so flabbergasted at this point, I can’t even think of a thing to say. Feeling rather pissy and passive aggressive, I just stood there and stared at her, waiting for her to get the hint. Perversely, I wanted to know how long it would take. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. After about 5 minutes, the manager came out from the back room (kitchen?), saw us standing there, and asked if we needed anything. I told him how long we had been waiting, and why, and the girl’s reaction was “Oh, I didn’t think you wanted anything.”

I realize that this is partially my fault, because I didn’t say anything directly to her (though I did gripe to the friends with me in a not-whisper), but really- there are people standing at the counter of your establishment for 5 minutes. Why did she thing we were there?

56

Which is what I always do in that situation.
I used to frequent a restaurant that had good food at cheap prices, but the staff never looked when I wanted to pay the bill. So I just walked up to the counter and paid the bill on the spot.

I can’t believe that you left a tip of any size. I wouldn’t have, or I’d have left the smallest coin I had as an obvious insult, depending on how angry I was.

57

Some people don’t have the ability to think like that. So yes, you should have said something to her.

58

That’s what I was thinking when I read this thread. I thought, “Why didn’t the OP just speak up?”

If the restaurant is busy, it is going to take some time, however if you are being neglected, just speak up. Sometimes, the waiters/waitresses themselves get side-tracked with all the shit they are doing, and forget about other customers.

However, I would have found it very rude for the original waiter to just walk past in ignorance. Now that was over the top.

As for the tipping, usually you’re supposed to tip in the range from 10% - 20%. 10% meaning that the service was crap; 20% meaning that the service was exceptional. So it’s times like this where you would tip 10%. No matter how much you think they deserved nothing, unless they really went over the top (and by “really”, I mean profanity and just extreme rudeness), you should always tip at least 10%.

59

But what if I already give 10% to God?

60

That depends, what did God bill you?