A few years ago my Mom went to a local restaurant; when she paid her bill they gave her the currency change, but not the coin change. They said it was “policy” to keep the coin change. She said she would never return. (She eventually did.)
Another time, a woman whose daughter was a high-school classmate of mine, went into a local Thai restarant, alone, for lunch. They said they would not seat single persons, only even-numbered parties. She asked to speak to the manager, saying that if that’s their policy she’ll go outside and invite a passerby to have lunch with her for free! The management relented and let her come in and eat alone.
Any comments or other strange restaurant policies?
I was at a restaurant last night (an old favourite that’s recently become much bigger) and was told that it was their policy to only serve tap water on the ground floor. If you were seated either in the basement or on the first floor, you only got bottled water. I was rather annoyed, but not enough to wait 20 minutes, move tables, and get my damn tap water.
I’d have returned to the table to execute my policy of not tipping at establishments that steal from their customers. And of course never return. Might even call the local TV stations investigative reporter.
I would have explained my policy of not returning silverware.
Looking for shared experiences? Moved from GQ to IMHO.
samclem, Moderator
Those are really bizarre.
I once ate at a place that had a policy of not seating latecomers to a party. If you were in a party of six, then all six of you had to arrive at the same time.
Years later I asked them about that, and the owner said that there was never such a ploicy. He denied it up and down. Good thing, as people dribbled into our Dopefest over the course of about an hour and a half.
This is standard practice in most busy restaurants, from my experience. If you’re meeting a bunch of friends after work, you might work 5 minutes from the restaurant and can get there at 5:30 and get a table before it fills up. You can then sit there not ordering food while your friends trickle in. Your party can effectively clog up a table for 2 or 3 hours of prime spending time for a single meal.
I don’t understand pizzerias with a “no double topping” policy. Ever see this? They have a two topping special deal. They will put on 12 pepperoni and 14 mushrooms without a problem, but you can’t get 24 pepperoni or 28 shrooms.
When I was a kid, my family ate at a little restaurant in the town where my sister went to college. I don’t remember the restaurant very well, having been about 10 at the time, but I do remember it having kind of a hippy-ish feeling to it. To drink, I ordered a Coke, and was brought a bottle of something called “China Cola” that called itself an “herbal cola” and had a distinctly herbal taste (at least, as I remember it.) I was really annoyed that, not only did they not have Coke (or Pepsi, or whatever), they apparently didn’t bother telling customers this and just brought something different when Coke was ordered.
Was it in the south somewhere?
Or of relieving my bowels on the table after a meal and wiping with the tablecloth.
This sounds like an issue with an obnoxious loss-control system that doesn’t have a doubling function built in. There’s likely a hyperactive manager who will want to know where his extra 12 pepperoni slices went to at the end of the week.
South-western Virginia. I ended up going to school in the same town and it wasn’t one of those places where “Coke” meant any generic carbonated sugary drink; “Coke” meant “Coca-Cola” everywhere else in town, as best I could tell.
I’ve seen that and always wondered why some places did it.
I also saw a pizza place with some promotion that offered a free topping if you bought a side dish or large drink or something like that, but excluded extra cheese from the free topping topping offer. If you price extra cheese the same as you price anny otehr topping, why would it be exculded here?
I once ordered from a new small sandwich shop where they screwed up my order and even acknowleged that they did. However, they were completely miffed that I wanted what I ordered. They thought I was being picky because it wasn’t exactly what I ordered and then asked me what I expected them to do with the other sandwich. Then they told me I was being wasteful because they were going to have to throw that sandwich away.
They only stayed in business for 2-3 months even though they were right across the street from a community college where the closest other restaurants were a 1/2 mile away.
I would’ve asked to speak to the manager. If he or she confirmed the policy, I would have found out the owner’s name or the corporate address, and contacted them about it. I suspect that to avoid a fuss, someone would have given the coins back.
As to weird policies, I’m not sure this counts, but I once ate at a small restaurant with a twelve-line poem on the menu. If a child younger than ten could memorize it before the waitress got to the table, the child’s meal was free. I did it, and got the freebie. (My folks must’ve saved 75 cents, wow!)
Cost would be my guess. A pizza shop owner once told me that cheese was his biggest cost in sending a pizza out the door, and that the box was the next costliest component.
I remember when me, a Yankee to my bones, was in Georgia and I ordered a Coke and was asked “What kind?”
Big busy restaurants not taking reservations - yes, I know you want me to chill in the bar and order $18 drinks, sorry, not gonna happen. Yes, I know you want to have massive crowds of people hanging out in front because it makes you look “happening” - but honestly, hire another hottie to manage the list, install a phone line and GET THE F*CK OVER YOURSELF! (I’m looking at you Cheesecake.)
That reminds me of a place that I used to go to many years ago. French fries and onion rings cost the same. They had a special that was a cheeseburger and fries. But you couldn’t substitute onion rings for the fries. You had to pay the price for the special PLUS the price of the onion rings.
And the service was attrocious. But the food was delicious and it was cheap. Too bad they only stayed in business for about a year.
Not in mine. I’ve only seen it in two places, and they had the same owner.
I get your explanation for why they might do this, but in both cases that I remember, they lost our business.