Even if they don’t shatter, it would actually take minutes under cold water to cool them off. Maybe one minute to get to room temperature, but trust me, when the servers are demanding salads, you don’t have time to wait even that long.
I’m always amused by people who don’t work in the restaurant business who think they know how to do things better than those of us who do. Yes, we do make mistakes, but as far as the large things are concerned (how/where/when you get sat, how your order is taken, when you get food, who brings it, etc…) it’s done the way that most people would want, to the best of our ability.
I’ve always assumed that a lot of people watched their mothers or wives cook at home, so they figure it must be easy work :rolleyes:
I’ve seen this happen. A local sports bar gets quite busy at times, and glasses are at a premium. At such times, it’s not uncommon for the barman to take glasses straight from the hot dishwasher to the cold draft beer tap. They’re thick and tough glasses, but occasionally, one can’t take the sudden temperature change and boom! Even when they don’t explode, you have the dubious pleasure of a glass that heats up your cold beer.
Sometimes, I wonder why they didn’t just buy enough glasses to begin with. It’s a sports bar in a hockey-mad city, near a university campus, in a province where the drinking age is 18. What part of “you’re gonna need a lot of beer glasses” did they not understand?
Oh come on. Who wants salad on a warm plate? This just sounds like an excuse for sloppy presentation and/or bad organisation in the kitchen.
They do, but then nobody is tracking inventory. You break one or two a night, then you get a rush and find that you are short glasses.
bar managers are tracking the problems in alcohol inventory, bartenders pocketing cash rather than running it through the till, allowable amounts of free rounds to regulars, etc. They don’t always remember to order more glasses until they are told that they are running out.
There is also the storage issue (not enough space for enough glasses in case of a big game / rush / former members of alcoholics anonymous…
We’ve already said why they sometimes come out warm. Could we just buy more plates? I suppose, but space is at a premium in the kitchen. If we get more salad plates, we suddenly don’t have room to put the dinner plates, or soup cups, or what have you.
So either you get a warm plate, or you wait a few more minutes to get your salad. Would you personally prefer a longer wait and a cold plate? Maybe, but a lot of people would not, and we have no way of knowing that. I just do what the servers tell me to do, which 90% of the time is “FOOD NOW!”
My wife once got a salty dog in a wine glass because “All our other glasses are dirty”
We where the only customers at a little sidewalk cafe.
:dubious:
Try to think of your server as a time traveler.
Because really, servers are time traveler’s and arbiter’s of time. We have several tables and we are trying to control the traffic of a matter of time. This is very tricky and requires, guessing, strategy, prophecy, prognostication, adherence to the physics and laws of three dimensions, and your precious contentment as a dysphasic.
It’s amazing that anybody gets good service for all the times.
Sorry, I meant you, the Disphasic, relative to our interzeit travel. Timetech lingo.
I don’t want to insult the Dysphasics by comparing them to you guys.
Minor etiquette-related gripe: when a restaurant tries to appear as “all that” by having attendants scrape the crumbs off the table with their little crumb scooper, but not before first stacking all your dirty dishes up on the table in front of you and then removing them. Class!
I’ve got another one. My children will order soda with their meal, and that’s fine, but I want them to have water after that first glass, because otherwise they’ll guzzle down umpteen Coke refills. Before refilling a child’s drink, check with the parent first. I got caught up at a big family dinner the other night and didn’t realize my daughter had drunk five glasses of Sprite.
I get sick of waitstaff asking how things are or if we need something, when I have food in my mouth, and then being impatient. I will not talk to people with half chewed food in my mouth. They then fidget while you take 15 seconds to swallow the food.
The family went to a restaurant tonight for a birthday. I didn’t go because I’ve made it clear the place sucks so bad I will never set foot in it again. Six adults went and one baby. They charged a percentage for the baby being in the group. Nothing was provided for the kid. What a bunch of bullshit, but no surprise coming from a place that charges you for every condiment beyond salt or pepper, and makes you cook the expensive food yourself.
I am one of the easiest restaurant patrons to please, ever. If I order something without sour cream, and it comes with sour cream, I happily scoop the sour cream off and eat it anyways. I very rarely tip less than 20%, because I remember being a waitress and how much I depended on those tips. It was often when I was having my worst days that I needed that support the most. I’m not a picky eater and I rarely go into restaurants under serious time pressure, so whatever. If the food takes longer than usual, it will mean good dinner conversation will last longer than usual. 
I once tipped only 10% because I just couldn’t justify the full tip on the basis of the poor service. I think there are certain extreme circumstances where I would not tip a server, but it’d have to be extreme rudeness. In my experience, the vast majority of servers are polite and well-meaning, just not always great at their job.
My #1 pet peeve with restaurants, however, is having to ask repeatedly for something. I recently went through a string of experiences where I could have sworn I’d turned invisible because I was just not getting anything I asked for no matter how many times I asked. I only tipped 15% those days.
My #2 pet peeve is upselling, which often works on me because I cave under sales pressure and end up getting more food than I need. I do not blame the servers for this.
My #3 pet peeve are large and noisy restaurants in open spaces. This is because large, crowded places make me nervous as hell. Again, I do not blame the servers or the restaurant for this, I just avoid them (Mongolian BBQ and our local Olive Garden comes to mind, but for some reason Macaroni Grill is okay.)
If you are a good server, you are going to be a very happy person when you see your tip. I once tipped $10 on $9 bill at an airport café, just because I was in a good mood and it was the last of my U.S. currency. I think of high tips as a way to spread goodwill and kindness in a way that will directly impact another’s life.
And yet if the server did that, your complaint would be:
“I hate how the waitstaff stand a few feet away and just stare at me until I swallow my food, and then come rushing over to ask me how everything is.”
The fact of the matter is you’re going to be chewing a fair percentage of your time once you get your food. The server has several things to do for several tables. They ask you when they get a chance to, and can’t afford to wait until everyone at the table isn’t chewing something.
Isn’t what your children drink more between you and your children than something that the server is responsible for?
No, the government is responsible for that, didn’t you get the memo?
I’m with ivylass on this one, for the exact reason you give. The server doesn’t have any such responsibility, and so the server is wrong to be acting as if they do by serving children in such a manner.
I’m not sure I understand. When we get free drink refills, it’s automatic for the server to refill whatever drink we ordered. I have to tell the server, “No, thank you, my child will have water from here on out.” Like I said, I don’t mind them having one soda as a treat, what I have to keep an eye on is that my children will gulp it down like they’re trying to traverse the Sahara, the server sees an empty glass, ergo they must refill it. I have to make sure I tell them to refill it with water, otherwise it will be Coke…gulp it down…Coke refill…gulp it down…lather rinse repeat.
It’s been explained to me, and addressed earlier in the thread, so I know the rationale behind it (get the food out as fast/hot as possible). But I do NOT like random people bringing my food to me. I once saw my burger paraded up and down the aisles of Ruby Tuesday, inspected, sniffed at, and rejected by 7 or 8 other tables before I snagged the delivery person and claimed it as my own. Yeah, I know, it was Ruby Tuesday. :rolleyes:
When I trained as a server (back in the olden days), we were required to code the order slip by seat number so that each diner would be served his or her meal without holding it aloft and asking, “Who had the rare steak?” I guess it’s a personal bias. Nowadays, I upgrade the tip of the server who places my ordered meal before me because he/she knows it’s what** I** ordered.
A small peeve, to be sure, in light of the allergic or gastro-intestinal distress my fellow dopers have had to endure at dining establishments. Not to mention having water served when no water was requested. But it’s my peeve and I stand by it.