Restaurant etiquette

[dks64]

Never ever ever ever take up a booth for 4 hours during a busy night and not tip $20+.


Yesterday I had a couple who came in, ordered water, sat for an hour, ordered $4 guac and chips, watched the entire Laker game, and tipped me $1. 4 hours in one (8 top) booth I could have made great money on. I want to nominate the couple for a**holes of the year.

[NyaChan]

Also, customer, please move your belongings from your place setting.

YES YES YES! It makes me so nervous when people have their iPhones on the table when I'm reaching full cups and hot food over to them. I don't know why people think it's a good idea to leave phones and other expensive items on the table in the first place. I wish people would at least move them to the other side of the table (or booth). People usually set them down on the end near me, so I'm forced to hand things over it or where I'm about to set their plate down. A restaurant is a place to eat, not your office desk.

Whoops    Sorry, I never thought about it that way.  Duly noted!

[snowdragon]

Do not reach over to another's plate and steal their food,,,,I don't care that you want a taste. It's gross.  Nor does everyone at the table have to share with your kid because you want to save on buying them a dinner. Do you hear hear me, dear cousin?

If some one is on a special diet it's even ruder to "share" their dish...it means they will likely not get enough to eat since they can share everyone else's food.

[dks64]

Also, customer, please move your belongings from your place setting.

YES YES YES! It makes me so nervous when people have their iPhones on the table when I'm reaching full cups and hot food over to them. I don't know why people think it's a good idea to leave phones and other expensive items on the table in the first place. I wish people would at least move them to the other side of the table (or booth). People usually set them down on the end near me, so I'm forced to hand things over it or where I'm about to set their plate down. A restaurant is a place to eat, not your office desk.

Whoops    Sorry, I never thought about it that way.  Duly noted!

Thank You 

[Bottlecaps]

not sure if this has been mentioned.  I don't go out to eat a lot but I have friends (an older couple) who do. They are always telling me about how their waitresses are doing what I call "dry begging" - telling them sad stories about their life and hard times (usually involving kids). This couple is a soft touch and I think the servers can tell. The gentleman said he was thinking of giving the waitress an extra $50 to help her out. I finally mentioned to him, "If you owned a restaurant and you found out the servers were telling hard-luck stories to the patrons, would you think that was professional behavior?" He admitted it was not.

There used to be a waitress at the restaurant in which I work who would do this all the time. She would always tell customers about her kids and how expensive they were and how many bills she had (which, it might be rude of me to pass judgement, but it was her own fault her bills were so high because she constantly tried to live way outside of her means). Ninety-nine percent of the time, the customer hadn't even so much as asked if she had any children, let alone that she had two children, their birthdays were coming up, and she had so many bills and not nearly enough money, yada yada yada. It was downright embarrassing to be near her when she was doing this, and I can't imagine how it made the customers feel. The thing is, she was known for not taking very good care of her tables then wondering why she didn't receive very good tips. Hmmmm, maybe because she didn't take good care of them and then "dry begged" for a good tip that she didn't earn. Thank goodness she doesn't work there anymore. I very rarely discuss my personal life with my tables, and I *only* discuss my personal life if I am asked about it. Even then, I keep the answer short with a smile, and then move on with the conversation. They didn't ask for details, and I'm not the type to volunteer them.

[purplemuse]

For the kitchen staff: please time the courses appropriately. I don't want to receive my main course 5 minutes after the appetizer came out.

For waitstaff: please don't serve the food, then come back 10 seconds later (while I'm probably still "condimenting" my meal and haven't had a chance to taste anything yet)and ask if everything is okay, then disappear for the rest of the meal. Give me a little time to check things out, taste, etc.

Also, just to avoid the appearance of impropriety, I think that waitstaff should be careful not to spend more time than absolutely necessary with a customer's credit card in their possession.

[snowdragon]

Waitstaff: Do not seat people so closely that one table has to disrupt another table to get up from their seats. If there is  not enough room for a reasonably sized adult to sit there with out blocking another table in - don't sit another table there. Diners should not have to leave/interrupt  their dinners in order to solve your seating issues.

Diners: Do NOT ever place your hands or allow another in your party to touch another Diner - no matter what your reasoning. Yes, this includes the above situation or kids playing, or any other situation you can think of.  Your hands, ect belong in your seat/booth/ect not touching or interuding on others ( in any way shape or form.)

[dks64]

For the kitchen staff: please time the courses appropriately. I don't want to receive my main course 5 minutes after the appetizer came out.

For waitstaff: please don't serve the food, then come back 10 seconds later (while I'm probably still "condimenting" my meal and haven't had a chance to taste anything yet)and ask if everything is okay, then disappear for the rest of the meal. Give me a little time to check things out, taste, etc.

Also, just to avoid the appearance of impropriety, I think that waitstaff should be careful not to spend more time than absolutely necessary with a customer's credit card in their possession.

The kitchen staff shouldn't have anything to do with coursing unless it takes them too long to get an appetizer out. That's usually the servers who do that, although it can happen when you time it right and the kitchen is behind.

Servers have to follow certain restaurant standards. You say don't like it when they come back 10 seconds later, but I've had people upset when I didn't come by that fast because "their fries are getting cold and they need ranch." They definitely shouldn't disappear after that. I will usually say "Did everything turn out right? Is there anything I can get for you at this moment?" If they say yes, I get it and say (or skip previous step if they say no) "Enjoy. I'll be by in a few minutes to make sure everything is good."

  What if the computers have a huge line? Or the server is taking another order and the table won't let them get away to run it? Or they're having issues with the strip on the card sliding? You have to be realistic.

[purplemuse]

For the kitchen staff: please time the courses appropriately. I don't want to receive my main course 5 minutes after the appetizer came out.

For waitstaff: please don't serve the food, then come back 10 seconds later (while I'm probably still "condimenting" my meal and haven't had a chance to taste anything yet)and ask if everything is okay, then disappear for the rest of the meal. Give me a little time to check things out, taste, etc.

Also, just to avoid the appearance of impropriety, I think that waitstaff should be careful not to spend more time than absolutely necessary with a customer's credit card in their possession.

The kitchen staff shouldn't have anything to do with coursing unless it takes them too long to get an appetizer out. That's usually the servers who do that, although it can happen when you time it right and the kitchen is behind.

Servers have to follow certain restaurant standards. You say don't like it when they come back 10 seconds later, but I've had people upset when I didn't come by that fast because "their fries are getting cold and they need ranch." They definitely shouldn't disappear after that. I will usually say "Did everything turn out right? Is there anything I can get for you at this moment?" If they say yes, I get it and say (or skip previous step if they say no) "Enjoy. I'll be by in a few minutes to make sure everything is good."

  What if the computers have a huge line? Or the server is taking another order and the table won't let them get away to run it? Or they're having issues with the strip on the card sliding? You have to be realistic.

Whenever we've had problems with the courses coming out too quickly, it's been when the restaurant is pretty quiet, so I assumed the kitchen was making the entrees too quickly after the appetizer because they didn't have other meals to work on. If that's incorrect, then the comment goes to whoever is responsible.

It's not the 10 seconds thing that bothers me, it's the 10 seconds + disappearing. 10 seconds isn't long enough for me to find that my chicken is undercooked in the middle or that my pizza has italian sausage instead of the beef topping I ordered. My point is, if you're only going to come by one time, give the patrons a few minutes to figure out if something is wrong. So basically, what you said

[dks64]

For the kitchen staff: please time the courses appropriately. I don't want to receive my main course 5 minutes after the appetizer came out.

For waitstaff: please don't serve the food, then come back 10 seconds later (while I'm probably still "condimenting" my meal and haven't had a chance to taste anything yet)and ask if everything is okay, then disappear for the rest of the meal. Give me a little time to check things out, taste, etc.

Also, just to avoid the appearance of impropriety, I think that waitstaff should be careful not to spend more time than absolutely necessary with a customer's credit card in their possession.

The kitchen staff shouldn't have anything to do with coursing unless it takes them too long to get an appetizer out. That's usually the servers who do that, although it can happen when you time it right and the kitchen is behind.

Servers have to follow certain restaurant standards. You say don't like it when they come back 10 seconds later, but I've had people upset when I didn't come by that fast because "their fries are getting cold and they need ranch." They definitely shouldn't disappear after that. I will usually say "Did everything turn out right? Is there anything I can get for you at this moment?" If they say yes, I get it and say (or skip previous step if they say no) "Enjoy. I'll be by in a few minutes to make sure everything is good."

  What if the computers have a huge line? Or the server is taking another order and the table won't let them get away to run it? Or they're having issues with the strip on the card sliding? You have to be realistic.

Whenever we've had problems with the courses coming out too quickly, it's been when the restaurant is pretty quiet, so I assumed the kitchen was making the entrees too quickly after the appetizer because they didn't have other meals to work on. If that's incorrect, then the comment goes to whoever is responsible.

It's not the 10 seconds thing that bothers me, it's the 10 seconds + disappearing. 10 seconds isn't long enough for me to find that my chicken is undercooked in the middle or that my pizza has italian sausage instead of the beef topping I ordered. My point is, if you're only going to come by one time, give the patrons a few minutes to figure out if something is wrong. So basically, what you said

That can definitely happen too. That's why if we're slow and it's a quick cooking food, I'll wait until the customers are halfway done with their appetizers/mostly done with their salads before ringing in their entrees. What's even more annoying (to servers) is when it's slow and because it's slow, the cooks are too busy talking to do their jobs. Being the server, you're the one who takes the anger and frustration when food comes out wrong/too fast/too slow/cold. It's also hard to gauge how fast/slow people are going to eat. Some people eat their starter salads in under a minute, some take 15. It's a guessing game, really (educated guesses). We have an idea on how long each entree takes to cook, but we don't know how fast it's going to come out. And we don't know how long it will take the customer to eat the starters.

Just a little insight

[Style_and_Grace]

For the kitchen staff: please time the courses appropriately. I don't want to receive my main course 5 minutes after the appetizer came out.

For waitstaff: please don't serve the food, then come back 10 seconds later (while I'm probably still "condimenting" my meal and haven't had a chance to taste anything yet)and ask if everything is okay, then disappear for the rest of the meal. Give me a little time to check things out, taste, etc.

Also, just to avoid the appearance of impropriety, I think that waitstaff should be careful not to spend more time than absolutely necessary with a customer's credit card in their possession.

Timing of the meals is usually on the server.  They should be aware of what is going on in the kitchen and time their placing of orders correctly. 

[mstigerlily]

Okay, wondering if you can help me. At of my favorite casual dining restaurants (Max and Erma's, if it makes any difference) you can order their food to go. That's all good, but when I go in to pay for my food, the check comes with a line for tips, and last time I was there, they had a tip jar sitting out on the to-go counter.

My dilemma is- should/need I tip the to-go person? My original instinct is no, because they aren't really waiting on me, but...

[snowdragon]

I do not tip for take out.  I tip for delivery or for waitresses.  People  who work take out - make a normal wage and do not use their cars to bring me my food...deliveries do, waitresses do not make a normal wage. I feel tip for take out is no different than going to a  Mc Donald's or Subway, I don't tip for those either.

[hobish]

Okay, wondering if you can help me. At of my favorite casual dining restaurants (Max and Erma's, if it makes any difference) you can order their food to go. That's all good, but when I go in to pay for my food, the check comes with a line for tips, and last time I was there, they had a tip jar sitting out on the to-go counter.

My dilemma is- should/need I tip the to-go person? My original instinct is no, because they aren't really waiting on me, but...

It is up to you. I used to work for Denny's and while we had take out we weren't really set up for take out, if you know what i mean? Take out orders were such a huge pain in the rear. The server still had to make sure everything was plated properly, plus make sure things didn't all run together in transit ( it's a lot easier to keep your eggs and pancakes from becoming mash from window to table than from to-go container to wherever the customer was taking it), and find plasticware (which didn't get used much so god knows where they might be), bag all the mess up and still get paid $3 an hour and getting taxed on your food order to do it. I have not worked there in more than 15 years and i still remember the face of the guy who used to order take out at 3 am when i was the only one there and get snippy if it wasn't perfect and never ever ever left a tip. He better not ever find me in a dark alley.

I am sure there are places that have their stuff together a heckuva lot better than that place ever did.

-hobish, champion grudge holder 

[dks64]

While 15-20% isn't expected, a few dollars would be nice. At every restaurant I've worked at, a to go order is almost as much work as waiting on someone. It requires taking an order, ringing it into the computer, packing it up, putting in condiments, getting all of the sauces in ramekins, sometimes labeling, and bagging. It's not nearly as easy as say doing a to go order at Burger King (and trust me, I've worked fast food). Restaurants often aren't set up for simple To Go orders like a fast food place. Where I work, hostesses (who do To Go orders) make $1 more an hour than servers and don't get tips usually. They make less than 1/3 what the servers make.

I remember being a hostess, making $7 an hour, and putting together this huge to go order ($200 worth). I labeled every box, went above and beyond, and didn't even get $1.  I didn't expect $30, but they really couldn't even leave me $5. I felt jipped.