Originally Posted by
megalab
The reason restaurants do it when otherwise not full (or in Olive Gardens' case, mostly empty) is to get guests to spend additional money at the bar or gift shop or casino while waiting.
I have no patience to begin with. I usually spend my additional money at the place across the street. If i even suspected a restaurant of pulling that crap, i'd be out of there and a long time gone. Unless i'm down by the beach during high summer, there's too many empty restaurant seats in this town to have to wait for a table. When I see empty tables and a line at the door, I tend to blame it on being short staffed.