Agreed on both points! I want my Diet Coke, with ice--that's all!

I have to disagree. I wish they'd leave me alone. I usually get the clowns that all want to help me and act overly familiar. Just because I'm alone doesn't mean I need friends.

hmmm. I'm east coast and always make my bloodies with lemons and olives. I haven't added olive liquid though, but I guess the 4 or 5 big olives in each glass is olive juice enough? :p

My Pet Peeves:

Dirty anything: Carpet, floors, walls, wallpaper, lighting, plates, glasses, silverware, waitstaff aprons/vests/pants/shoes/fingernails. No table cloth eateries with sticky tables and sticky tables being wiped with dirty cloths.

Cracked mugs/broken plates. A full on bacteria factory. Throw your broken stuff out. I am like the broken plate/glass/mug police on AA. Everything cracked or broken gets the heave ho.

Flimsy cutlery. The forks or spoons that bend.

Being seated next to the service center. Being seated at a bar at the restaurant and watching them clean the glasses with the brushes and no/little soap. Some things are better left unseen.

Waiters/waitresses who can't think outside the box/are predisposed to saying no/ who can't leave certain things off your menu or add them when you ask. I don't like french fries. Not sure why since I love potatoes, I just don't like fries. Many places insist on giving you fries and don't have an alternate choice or refuse to give you one.

Waiters/Waitresses who forget something and leave to get it and you see them talking to the other servers or move on to another table right after you ask for something. Asking for something again and have them forget again too. Bringing your item AFTER you have finished the meal.

The inability to get my courses at the same time. (yes, some of us like it!) I like to eat a little salad and a little of my entree and repeat.

I will agree with: empty restaurants being creepy, being bunched up with other diners being annoying, being seated next to loud mouths/children/people on cell phones.

Loud children are annoying. Being seated next to children can also be annoying when it is past a certain time of night. There are some places and conversations where kids don't belong.

Cell phones at tables are annoying. Cell phones in the bathrooms are UNACCEPTABLE. Do I want my personal business being broadcast? No. I'm sure I'm not alone.

Running the vacuum next to me while I'm eating. I don't care how late it is.

Bathroom attendants. Still happens in some places. Still weird.

Giving me regular when I ordered decaf and milk when I ordered cream. No cream is a no go for me.

In Europe:

Small restaurants. Small restaurants with smoking sections. Fellow diners who hold their cigarettes away from THEIR table and have the cigarette jammed up YOUR nose. Cigarette smoke is foul while eating.

Animals eating off the plates they are serving me. Your dog is adorable.......on the street or at home.

No ice. Warm beer and warm white wine. I don't like ice in my beverages but I can't stand room temperature beer or white wine. Nothing beats presidente in the Dominican Republic for an ice cold beer. ALL beer should be that cold.

My Biggest Pet Peeve...
 

...in a fine-dining establishment especially, though I actually believe this is Serving 101 and should be taught, and expected, in every restaurant that has table service:

Every table in every restaurant has (or should have, if they know what they are doing) a "fixed point" for taking and delivering the meal orders. Or, you can think of it as each position at each table is "numbered". Thus, regardless of who takes my order, or who delivers it, there will not be a need to ask "and who ordered the Coq au Vin?". The only time that there will be a problem is if the diners change seats after ordering. And really, how often does that happen? If it does, I am thrilled to apologize to the server for moving when he/she serves the food to the "position" that ordered it. And if you think it is too difficult for a server to have to remember this information, a simple chart can be made to "help" them. I did it without a chart when waiting tables in the mid-seventies, in a restaurant that seated 350.

Last year I ate at a highly-rated and expensive restaurant in downtown Seattle (excellent food but I will not return for this reason, especially after complaining to the manager and getting a "well, sorry, it's hard to get good help thse days") and the server, who both took the order and delivered the food, still had to ask who got what. At > $50 a head, food only, this is completely unacceptable.

I hate ordering regular beer and then being given a "lite" beer.:mad:
I hate substituting bread without my consent, Dont put my steak sandwich on regular sliced bread when it says on the menu "comes on a french roll".

Dont put A-1 or any other sauce on my steak sandwich if it doesnt say it comes with it on the menu.

When you bring me a salad I'd like more then a teaspoon of dressing.

I'm curious, which restaurant in Seattle did this? I used to work at Wild Ginger up there (pretty nice place), so please don't say it was there. Even my first serving job at Red Lobster we were supposed to use pivot points (which are the seat positions from your "fixed point" above), this way we never had to auction off food.

Chris

And from the other side....
 

I have this new book on hold at our local library. Excerpts in a recent Readers Digest - apparently they *do* spit in our food sometimes!

WAITER RANT: THANKS FOR THE TIP - CONFESSIONS OF A CYNICAL WAITER by The Waiter

He's had a blog for some time. He's an excellent writer and the blog is a real slice of life. I hope his book sells a lot of copies. I hope that was someone elses food.

I like lemon in my coke, but please stop trying to refill my glass with iced tea!

You had me up until that last line.

i hate it when waiters don't come enough. they get the drinks, give you your food, and then you don't even see them until the end of the meal and when you do ask for something, they give you attitude like it's not their job. like geez....

My biggest pet peeve is at "casual dining" type places when one sees plenty of empty tables... and yet the hostess says that there is a 30 minute wait to get a table. huh??? A place once told me it was because they were "short handed". Oh yeah, well then where is your "help wanted" sign???

I would applaud a restaurant for doing that. Short-handed could be the result of 2-3 servers or cooks calling in sick. I'd rather they tried to serve a few people well rather than maximize revenue and serve a bunch more poorly.

Employees that bathe in the Utility sink