I really notice that when seated in F or C and the FAs are picking up glasses, napkins, and other debris while also serving meals, dropping lemon slices into drinks, etc.

I'll still take my chances on sitting up front but it's a concern.

:confused: Wasting money by serving at one table versus another? This doesn't follow. What difference does it make what section a table is located in?

Man, if this bothered me I'd be in the McDonald's drive thru a lot. :D It's usually kind of nice, actually, and it comes with the territory when eating late dinners.

Do agree, though, about clustering everyone in the same place.

After reading the above post, I am confused. Is this thread about restaurants in general or about meal service on planes?

removed

It's about restaurants in general, but since the thread and the forum are part of FT it didn't seem inappropriate to offer this opinion, particularly since FAs spend a lot of time picking up used items and having to grip them rather aggressively while leaning across to the window seat, etc.

I don't think some of the other posts necessarily align to in-flight meal service but this one does IMHO.

Cheers,
Fredd

An excerpt from a Trip Advisor review Mrs. Fredd wrote last year about a Waikiki restaurant called Cheeseburger in Paradise reveals that this restaurant managed to simultaneously annoy us in a number of ways:

Yes, the location is great but we knew we'd made a mistake almost as soon as we entered. I detest places that promise more on their menu than they deliver, and I further detest places that don't include prices on their drink list, and I even further detest places that keep trying to "up-sell" with add-ons.

We both just wanted water so the friendly enough young waitress, who persisted in the annoying habit of coyly addressing us as "you two," had to take away the little plastic pineapple they sell as a souvenir for people who buy "real" drinks.

I ordered a Chicken "Oriental Salad" for $12.95. "Do you want avocado with that?" No thank you.

My husband ordered a Cajun chicken burger for $8.95. "Would you like cheese on that?" No thank you. "Would you like bacon on that?" No thank you. She left a little disconsolately but then returned. "Oh, I forgot to ask if you'd like fries or onion rings with that?" No thank you.

I was waiting to see if she'd ask if we'd like "cloth napkins" or perhaps a "deluxe condiment assortment." Anyway, you get the picture...

Having my water glass filled after every sip of water. I know it "looks" like great service, but it drives me nuts! Also, don't sing to me on my fricken birthday!

Waitstaff who swoop in to try to take my plate when I am NOT done. I will line my silverware on the side of the plate when I am done, thank you. If I have a piece of silverware in my hand, chances are I am NOT DONE. So just to keep them on their toes if I see someone hovering I will make sure to take some food on my fork and let it sit there, just about to take a bite, while I continue my conversation. It's sort of funny to watch the waitstaff jump back.

Upselling is annoying too.

As is the friendly, patronizing greetings from some. I'm not looking to make new friends at the restaurant, I'm trying to reconnect with the friends I'm with!

My votes go for:

(1) "you guys" -- I'm not one of the guys and neither is my wife.
(2) "Everything taste OK?" That should be a given, and even if the food tastes good, there may be some other thing you can do for me.
(3) "Still working on that?" -- I didn't realize it was a job! I thought I was having dinner out!

If you weren't in a hammock in Jimmy Buffet's backyard you should have suspected Cheeseburger in Paradise was not going to be a great experience. :)

And what is it with the cheese on a burger? If I wanted a cheeseburger I would have ordered a cheeseburger. (I'm dieting, thank you, and the cheese is out :p) Even our local independent burger place that only charges 30 cents for cheese ALWAYS asks if I want cheese on the burger. No-oo-ooo. What I would like is no lechuga, I don't care if your brother owns the shredded lettuce factory but I can't seem to get that idea through.

What I really don't want is the ubiquitous styrofoam tip jar, sometimes hanging out the drive-through window on a piece of rope.

This may be a cultural thing, but:

• Interrupting things to ask 'how things are'. Come over and ask, if you must, but not while I've got a mouthful of food or are mid-conversation.
• Constant refills. If the glass is empty, OK, but not after every mouthful.
• Unrequested new bottles (of whatever drinks).
• Asking for some sparkling water for yourself, and finding it distributed to everybody around the table, when it's only you who's going to drink it.
• Ridiculously long specials lists recited at your table. I can't remember them, it's nice you learned them, but really, it'd be better written down. Oh, and put some prices down, please, particularly if you're planning on charging a premium for them.
• When you get poor/snooty service for not ordering wine. Yes, I know you think I'm cheap, but actually, neither of us drink alcohol, for very good reasons.
• Service charge plus tip request. One or the other, please.
• Accepting special offer vouchers etc with bad grace. This seems to be a recent thing, but is extremely annoying. If you don't like it, don't offer it.
• Tables too close together. An intimate atmosphere is nice, and I'm sure space is at a premium in this city... But if I'm out with my wife, I want to talk to her without the person a few feet away listening in.
• Sunday Evening Syndrome. "Oh, I'm sorry sir, we're out of that." OK, you can't always predict volumes 100% accurately, but please let me know up front.
• Acoustics. I go out a lot in London, where people do like the sounds of their own voices. So, if you have a small space, perhaps underground, decorating it with plain white walls and wooden floors will have a deafening result. The addition of music doesn't help. I don't want to have to shout to speak to the person next to me (and not be able to hear anybody else on the table).

Geez, what a tough crowd! :( People complaining about water refills and waitstaff who come to the table to ask how things are? I'm sure that if the waitstaff did not do these things, there would be an equal number of people who would complain about that. Just goes to show you can't satisfy everyone no matter how hard you try. Personally I don't mind the water refills or being asked how my meal is. They're just trying to give good service. Why get upset about that?? We should save our ire for when we really get bad service.

That said, I do have restaurant pet peeves. Like restaurants clumping all their customers together even when they're not busy. Or restaurants that frequently run out of things on their menu. (Once in a while is tolerable, but I've encountered restaurants that always seem to be out of what I want. I've stopped going to those restaurants.) Or restaurants that add mandatory service charges to the bill.

My other pet peeves relate to the customers: loud customers who shout and laugh raucously. No, I don't want to hear your entire conversation, thank you very much. And then there are parents who don't control their kids and just let them run around the restaurant constantly screaming. :td:

to a certain degree, many of these things are valid complaints, but the only way to avoid them is by going to restaurants with higher service levels, which are usually fine dining and more expensive.

(although service can also vary between countries/regions as well)

I thought that was due to laws restricting posting prices for alcohol. I know it Missouri at least for a while it was illegal to advertise bar specials. One radio ad for a bar would say "Johnny, Jack, or Jim for one Washington" b/c that was all they could say.

I think waitstaff should check on you about taste after serving the food, but sometimes I haven't even taken a bite of anything yet. Give me a good 5 minutes, not 2 seconds. If it looks like I haven't cut into the entree yet how will I know?