Ancien Maestro

Me pet peeve.. having to wait in line at good restaurants.. and knowing its going to be worth it.

wdogg

the wait staff can't read my mind so i have to post online about it...

Jazzop

I disagree for two reasons. First, it is your responsibility to choose a restaurant that suits the tastes of your party. This is very easy today, given the availability of menus on the web. Second, the sadist in me rather likes the idea of "punishing" those who have such developmentally retarded palates that they refuse to eat anything other than well-done steak and macaroni & cheese. My best friend's ex-wife was one of those types, and she ruined literally every group dinner outing either by making the process of choosing a restaurant too tedious to be worthwhile or by passive-aggressively sulking when she couldn't find anything by Chef Boyardee on the menu. (Lest anyone think I'm being unreasonable, I'm not talking about restaurants where Andrew Zimmern is taping his show-- just classic Continental or New American, seafood, Japanese, Mediterranean, etc.)

The problem is not the grouping of the beers, it's the naming of the lists. It should be "Drinkable beers" and "swill". And the pricing should be reversed to punish those who prefer swill.

What? I wouldn't think of going to brunch until maybe 13:00 or later. In fact, I am often one of the last to be seated at brunch, sometimes around 15-16:00. Perhaps this is a NYC thing.

I absolutely hate this, for a slightly different reason as I drink my coffee black. My neko jita requires that my coffee be close to room temperature to be drinkable. In a diner (the only restaurant where I drink coffee during a meal) that usually means that I don't even begin drinking my coffee until I am nearly finished with the main meal. As soon as I get a third of the way down the cup, the server inevitably attempts to top it off with boiling coffee, making the whole thing undrinkably hot again. And since diner coffee is already too thin to begin with, I can't throw an ice cube in it to cool it down.

If these dishes are traditionally prepared very spicy, then this is your problem. Don't complain when your vindaloo irritates your hemorrhoids. However, I agree that a surprise application of Scotch Bonnet peppers to a tuna salad warrants some advance notice.

+1,000,000


And for a few of my own:

1. Wine glasses filled beyond halfway.

2. Dropping off the check before I ask for it. The most insulting instance was receiving the check with the appetizers.

3. Whisking by and plunking a bottle of ketchup on the table sometime between ordering and receiving the meal. Don't insult my good taste by assuming that I am one of those unwashed heathens who put ketchup on anything that contains meat, eggs, and/or potatoes.

4. Failure to check up on me shortly after I receive my entree, in case I have a problem with it or might require something else such as a condiment (but not ketchup!).

5. Clearing plates that have utinsels on them and failing to bring replacement utinsels. Also, removing my dirty utinsels from the plate, placing them on the bare table, then clearing the plate.

DillMan

My peeve would be a waiter that rushes through a ridiculously long list of specials and featured dishes without pausing or observing punctuation.

If a restaurant has 5 specials that alone is a lot of info for a diner to digest (haha!) verbally. When management tells their waitstaff to add a bunch of unnecessary details it is almost impossible to remember what special #1 was by the time the waiter gets to special #5.

For example: "Tonight we have five specials. First we have our signature 8oz filet cut from the most choice meat from our own cattle herd raised by Norwegian refugees descended from French Huguenots that moved to Norway in the late 17th century to build yard ornaments for high ranking Ottomans. That steak is going to come with a side of asparagus raised at our carbon neutral farm in northern Washington state and shipped in via common over the road trucks in blue plastic containers wrapped in 4mil shrink wrap by our fairly compensated farm workers, who live in onsite geodesic domes during the peak growing season. You also get a choice of either our signature macaroni and cheese baked to perfection in recreation Navajo baking bowls at 350degrees in our patented word burning open oven by war vets from Laos or our stunning steamed spinach served on a plate painted with scenes of famous Canadian technological advancements in military aviation from 1963 - May of 1982. Our second special tonight is............."

BearX220

Agree, but you'd hate Legal Seafoods then... IIRC you get the check right when you order. Hate that.

Fredd

I think I've dined at the same place. Nothing exceeds like excess.

DillMan

Having recently moved out of Manhattan (sadly) for the first time in well over a decade I can say with reasonable certainty that brunch in the city is different than brunch elsewhere. Brunch in NYC is almost a cultural tradition whereas in the rest of the country it is either the marker of a special event (wedding, holiday, etc.) or an occasional indulgence.

I lived in lower Manhattan right across the street from the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park and since that hotel opened, my SO and I alternated our Sunday brunch (late in the afternoon) between that hotel's brunch and the Trustee's dining room at the Met.

I profoundly miss those long relaxing Sunday meals and haven't been able to find a decent late brunch since leaving the city with the exception of the occasional decent hotel brunch. On the bright side, I have lost weight and am now consistently sober on Sunday evenings.

Fredd

It depends on the venue. I expect it at Denny's. At the other extreme, in Europe I sometimes have to resort to catching the waiter's eye by making scribbling motions on my hand to get it, since the concept in general seems pleasantly to be that I've "rented" the table for as long as I want. In Germany I know I'm expected to pay the waiter with his change purse right on the spot, which seems abrupt until you're used to its efficiency.

Recently we took grandkids and their parents to a Red Robin (or Red Robinhood, as one 3-year-old calls it) and the server slapped down the check before asking about dessert. Well, our kiddies desired a $2.99 or whatever sundae and it didn't bother me at all that they had to void the bill and run it through again. That seemed really silly in a place that really flogs its desserts.

So, Denny's notwithstanding, for me this practice doesn't have to be in a fine dining establishment to be annoying.

crabbing

brunch? sounds like linner to me.

normalone

I was going to say "lupper" myself It must be my midwestness showing through but I can't imagine anyone here calling a meal eaten at 4 in the afternoon brunch.

Ancien Maestro

Was just at Five Guys.. a Saturday night.. long line ups

Half an hour in line.. the burger was ok.. cajun fries was good.. worth it to wait, not really. My wife thought her burger was gross.. go figure.

jakuda

For the upper scale, non-chain restaurant:

-insulting wine list. I know the big names have to be represented, but at least try to provide interesting choices. Value choices appreciated.

-I know it has become American English vernacular, but "entrée" is an appetizer, not a main dish.

-putting absolutely on effort into their vegetarian options. My wife is a vegetarian foodie, and has a hard time finding worthwhile places these days.

-any type of bill-inflating trick: Charging for "special" olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Offering a "supplement" without mentioning a price

+1000000000 to the annoying flash-based websites.

emma69

Yup, the clue to when brunch should occur really is in the name isn't it!

edj3

No, at least not at the Pru or at Copley. I can't speak to any others in the area. But what I do love about Legal is that they take my shellfish allergy very seriously--that means I can actually order a fish entrée or the yummy tuna burger without fearing for my life.

mjcewl1284

Holy crap that is hilarious!