zoramargolis Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Feeling like frustrated with restaurant service? Here's what you deserve. By Leslie Brenner, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 24, 2007 You arrive at a restaurant in time for your 8 o'clock reservation; your friends haven't arrived yet. You've spent 45 minutes stuck in traffic and you're wiped out. You'd like to be shown to the table. "I'm sorry," says the hostess, barely looking up from her computer screen, "we do not seat parties until they are complete. You're welcome to wait at the bar." You wait at the bar. Your friends arrive, and you ask to have the bar tab transferred to your dinner tab. "I'm sorry," says the bartender, "but I'll need you to settle up here." read the rest: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo...2&cset=true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 20. Silverware. You have the right to receive new silverware with each course; busboys should not ask us to keep our icky forks. You have the right to a cocktail fork when ordering oysters and a steak knife when ordering steak or when your lamb shank's undercooked. A pet peeve of mine. Why some otherwise nice restuarants will have a server handle your knife and fork and place it back on the table and expect you to be happy about eating with them is beyond me. And no, it is not much better if I am asked to remove my silverware from the plate and put it back on the table myself. Is it that much time, effort, and/or expense to make sure a diner has new silverware with each course? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synaesthesia Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 I was wondering for anyone who is a server or business owner... what would go on your bill of rights? Or at least... whatever you can disclose without getting in trouble Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 You wait at the bar. Your friends arrive, and you ask to have the bar tab transferred to your dinner tab. "I'm sorry," says the bartender, "but I'll need you to settle up here."I'd be willing to bet that most people would transfer the tab and then forget to tip the person serving them at the bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmnkly Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 I'd be willing to bet that most people would transfer the tab and then forget to tip the person serving them at the bar. This is addressed directly in the article, The suggestion is that the restaurant ought to be able to ensure the bartender gets an appropriate cut of the gratuity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deangold Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Feeling like frustrated with restaurant service? Here's what you deserve.By Leslie Brenner, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 24, 2007 You arrive at a restaurant in time for your 8 o'clock reservation; your friends haven't arrived yet. You've spent 45 minutes stuck in traffic and you're wiped out. You'd like to be shown to the table. "I'm sorry," says the hostess, barely looking up from her computer screen, "we do not seat parties until they are complete. You're welcome to wait at the bar." http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo...2&cset=true I am sorry but I cannot find sympathy for this one. I am of the show up on time and all together when a restaurant is busy or you have to wait to be seated school of thought. On a slow Monday night? Take you time! For the sake of argument, instead of a reservation at a restaurant, lets talk about an appointment with a marriage counselor. It's an appointment at 4pm for the two of you. But one doesn't show up, being stuck in traffic. Then the one who does show up starts in with the counselor talking and getting advice. Now spouse shows up 30 minutes later. Does this couple then get their full hour (or 50 minutes as a counselor's hour tends to be?)" And just pays for the hour? No Way!! The counselor has more patients coming later and if this couple gets to disrupt her schedule, it throws off the rest of the day making later patients wait. In a restaurant, what we really sell is space. It is the limiting factor in our business. I can only sell my seats if people honor their reservations. If you want to be seated within 15 minutes of your reservation, show up on time, complete please. I may have your table scheduled to be resat later that night. I may also have other folk whose service will be affected by your siting at the table as each of your party shows up and needs to be greeted and a cocktail/wine order taken. The fact that you have a cocktail or a glass of wine cannot offset the disruption to other folks service on a busy night. The kitchen at a restaurant can only handle so many tickets in a given time frame. If your table is seated partially and it completes at the time that three other tables come in on time, those 4 tickets vs 3 that come into the kitchen at once may be the difference between everything being good and the meals being ragged or one of the tables having an unacceptable wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillvalley Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Last week I went to dinner at a restaurant that is well loved on this board. They have the "won't seat you until the whole party arrives" rule but don't take reservations. My friend was stuck in traffic and running late. When I arrived at the restaurant it was pretty empty but as I waited for my friend it began to fill up. Anxious that we would end up waiting a long time for a table I asked the hostess if I could have a table if I ordered something to eat while I waited. She said that wasn't a problem and I killed the next 10 minutes enjoying the cheapest appetizer available. Made me happy and I only bent the rule slightly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PollyG Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 20. Silverware. You have the right to receive new silverware with each course; busboys should not ask us to keep our icky forks. You have the right to a cocktail fork when ordering oysters and a steak knife when ordering steak or when your lamb shank's undercooked.A pet peeve of mine. Why some otherwise nice restuarants will have a server handle your knife and fork and place it back on the table and expect you to be happy about eating with them is beyond me. And no, it is not much better if I am asked to remove my silverware from the plate and put it back on the table myself. Is it that much time, effort, and/or expense to make sure a diner has new silverware with each course? It also ensures that we have the correct silverware for each course. About 15 years ago, I went to Switzerland on business with a group of wonderful, food-ignorant people from a small town in Colorado. We stayed at a meals-included high end hotel. Hilarity ensued. The guys started judging meals based on the number of forks that were on the table at the beginning of the meal. Throughout, the gracious waitstaff would carefully remove the used fork at the end of a course and, if the wrong one had been used, remove the right fork and provide a clean version of the misused fork for later in the meal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dinwiddie Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 (edited) 20. Silverware. You have the right to receive new silverware with each course; busboys should not ask us to keep our icky forks. You have the right to a cocktail fork when ordering oysters and a steak knife when ordering steak or when your lamb shank's undercooked.A pet peeve of mine. Why some otherwise nice restuarants will have a server handle your knife and fork and place it back on the table and expect you to be happy about eating with them is beyond me. And no, it is not much better if I am asked to remove my silverware from the plate and put it back on the table myself. Is it that much time, effort, and/or expense to make sure a diner has new silverware with each course? Some people are just too phobic. The server is more likely to have washed his/her hands more recently than you have. Besides, anyone who has ever had a child knows that it is amazing the things that can go into our mouth without hurting you. I'm editing this to add that I understood incorrectly what was being complained about. I agree that it is not too much to ask that there be new silverware with each course in a nice/fine dining/fancysmancy restaurant. I'm not so sure that that is necessarily the case in the average mom and pop place down the street; after all, do you use three forks at dinner at home? Personally, I have no problem using the same fork for my appetizer and my main course in the kind of restaurant where the silverware comes wrapped up in the napkin on the table before I get there. On the other hand, if I'm having a steak, I certainly expect to be given a steak knife to cut it with. I did manage to look at the whole list (there are 25 items) and most do not look that unreasonable. On the other hand, I guess the dining scene in LA is a lot different than here, since most of what she is complaining about has never happened to me in a restaurant in DC. Sure, there are places where "celebs" get special treatment, but that is the nature of the game. In LA it is a star or a powerful TV or movie executive, here it is a politician, but it certainly doesn't hurt a resturant's business to make sure that the "star power" person is given a great table where they can be seen. I agree however, that regardless of my station in life, I have a right to a nice table if one is available and has not been reserved. On the other hand, I like that I can request a certain table at some restaurants where I am a regular and get it if at all possible. There are a couple of restaurants where my wife and I go where they know which is "our table" for various reasons. (I hate booths, I don't like to sit under the airconditioning vent, etc.) We don't complain if we can't have it because someone else does, but when I make a reservation, more often than not, they will reserve that table for us. It is just one of the perks of being "a regular." While I don't particularly like it when restaurants don't seat you unless your whole party is there, I understand why it is the policy in some restaurants. On the other hand, if you are part of a party that is going to be late, call and let the rest of your party know, so they can tell the restaurant. This recently happened to me at Firefly, and the restaurant had no problem seating my wife and I at the table set for six because the others in our party had called and said that they were delayed by traffic and expected to be there in 15 minutes. On the other hand, I've been left waiting for folks who didn't show and did not have the good manners to call. Should the restaurant have tied up a six top for a party that ended up being two? "Pull out your wallet only once. If you have a drink at the bar, the tab shall be transferred to your table; you shall not be asked to settle up at the bar. It's the restaurant's responsibility to make sure the bartender or bar server receives his or her share of the gratuity; that is not your problem." Gee wiz lady, get real. It would be nice if they did that, and in some places they can. But sometimes the bar and the restaurant are on different systems, and it is not possible to transfer the bar bill to the restaurant check; and it is your responsibility to tip the bartender, not the restaurants. How much trouble is it to pay up? "A wine list. Every adult diner should be offered one, just as we are offered a menu." Get real, every table should be offered one, and if it is a large party, a couple or more, but every diner? If it is just the two of you, one list is sufficient, what's the matter, you don't like to share? Waiter's anonymity. You have the right not to be told your server's name. "Folks don't come in to make new friends with the service staff," says Martha Keller, adjunct professor of hospitality at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa. I certainly have no problem with the server having a name, and being told what it is. I dont' want an intimate relationship, but it make things much easier if I want to complement him/her to management, or for some reason have to ask for him/her, rather than having to say "you know, that blond with the big tits." Final point, while I surely expect to be treated with care and professionalism in a fine dining establishment, being a server is difficult. Some diners tend to treat servers in a manner that they would never tolerate being treated themselves by a client or customer. While you have a right to expect friendly and efficient service, you have a responsiblity to be human about it. I can put up with a lot if I know that the server is trying, and it takes a lot for me to get upset about service. Rudeness, lack of attention, I have a problem, but I don't like high maintenance people, whether they are the ones I'm serving (thank goodness I am not a waiter anymore) or the one's I'm dining with. Actually Leslie Brenner may be a very nice and engaging person, but from her article, I'd just as soon not have her as a dinner companion, I'd rather enjoy my meal than hear my dinner companion complain. Edited October 31, 2007 by dinwiddie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Landrum Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 Is it too late for me to go back to turning "rough trade" tricks in the bathroom stalls at leather bars for a living, or am I stuck being a restaurateur for the rest of my life? What do you guys think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Dente Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 Is it too late for me to go back to turning "rough trade" tricks in the bathroom stalls at leather bars for a living, or am I stuck being a restaurateur for the rest of my life? What do you guys think? Either way, you're fucked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Slater Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 Is it too late for me to go back to turning "rough trade" tricks in the bathroom stalls at leather bars for a living, or am I stuck being a restaurateur for the rest of my life? What do you guys think? Golly gee whiz. What did I miss? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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