Consolidated "Restaurant Pet Peeves" thread
 

I just absolutely hate it when servers come up to my table and say how are you "guys" doing. It seems to go on at every restaurant and it needs to stop. Also when they put their dirty fingers inside glasses, eww disgusting. Let me know what you hate about restaurants.

I hate it when restaurants aren't busy, but they still "clump" diners together in one small section. We eat out to have a relaxing and pleasant experience, not because we're lonely and feel a need to be part of a herd.

they do this so they don't have to open up another section, thus wasting money. But this is really annoying and kinda gross. I don't wanna watch people eat.

We hate this too :( We've had it happen over and over again.

"What kind of bottled water would you like?"


...tap.

I'll take that one step further. I hate it when restaurants aren't busy, period. It's totally creepy to be the only diners (or one of just a few tables) in a restaurant. I've been known to walk in and walk right out if there aren't a decent number of tables filled. It has nothing to do with perceived quality of the food or service or anything like that, it's simply about heads in the establishment.

I hate it when 2 of us dine in a half empty restaurant and they put us on the smallest 2 Table and leave the roomier 4 Tables empty all night, especially mid-week.

Agreed. For some reason, "folks" wouldn't bother me but "guys" is annoying.

On a similar note, whenever I'm cheerfully asked, "How are we today?" I reply "We're fine, and how are we?"

The first time somebody asks "How are we guys today?" I swear I'll walk out. ;)

The 'guys' thing gets under my skin.

The other is when they interrupt our conversation to say 'how is everything'. Everything was fine until you came and interrupted our conversation with your inane questions. Now bugger off. If I need you, I'll rattle your cage. :rolleyes:

I hate restaurants with white napkins only. I know a number of restaurants will offer a black napkin if you ask. Stand up after a meal using a white napkin and the lint is horrible.

creepy :confused:

if you dont mind me asking, im just curious >
what % is "decent"?
how big of a restaurant?
what price level?
do you always eat out at "busy" times?

How do you feel about having waiters come up to check at hotel buffets?

It's one thing to come up and check the first time, but to come back again and again... I understand the waiter is working for tips but for buffets, I will help myself.

Move on, nothing to see here!

I dislike it (intensely) when they are in a rush to clear plates. "Are you still working on that?" is the most common and totally inappropriate question asked. I suspect they mean well, but it sounds like eating their food is such a chore. It just sounds rude.

I especially dislike it if my companions are still enjoying their meal and the server wants to take mine away. It sort of rushes them also if I sit there with nothing in front of me, and what if, heavens, I was saving half my entree to share with my husband?

Well, like almost everyone I'm also not too fond of "My name is Bubba and I'll be your server tonight."

I hate hate hate watching someone wander around, picking up peoples' dirty glasses, filling them with water, and moving on to the next one, spreading god knows what from glass to glass. It's that hard to pour from a few inches above?

that's a BIG problem for my wife...and thus me...it's rude to everyone.

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?

Yes, creepy. It is creepy for me to eat in a place where I am the only one (or one a few tables) dining.

Decently filled, to me, would be at least 10%.

Size does not matter, although I suppose at a smaller establishment this would be less of an issue, such as in a 10 table restaurant.

This applies at all price levels, in fact, the nicer the place and more expensive, I much prefer there to be other tables occupied. For example, I had lunch at a fairly upscale steakhouse in NYC a couple weeks ago at around 1pm. This is a pretty popular place and there have been times that I cannot get a reservation there for dinner. There were 3 other tables dining and probably 30+ empty. I just don't like the feeling of an empty restaurant.

Time could play into this, if one goes to dinner at 3pm, they should expect an empty restaurant. If one goes to dinner at 7pm or 8pm, this should not be the case.

1. I'm 80% water, and I drink like it. My water glass should never be empty.
2. Meal and drink specials without prices. We all know you're charging for it, so just tell me so no one gets a nasty surprise. (And don't make me ask in front of my wife; she'll think I'm cheap.)
3. Bringing a different vintage bottle than is stated on the wine list, and then not telling me. The '97 was a good deal for $100, but the '99 is NOT.
4. Really shoddy wine-by-the-glass selections. Are you really serving Yellowtail with my $40 steak?

If I feel that we are heading to a table I don't like, I just point to another place that I prefer because of the view out from the window or the absence of large loud groups or whatever, and say with a smile "Could we sit over there, please?". The answer is always "Sure, no problem".

troyb,

ah, 10%, gotcha. thanks for the response.

My pet peeve
 

Places that charge $2.50 for a soft drink where they come around and ask you if you want another soda and you find out later that they charge another $2.50 for each refill.

I had 2 servers last week who committed 3 faux pas that I don't easily forgive.

1. Don't ever interrupt a conversation at the table except to tell me there's a fire in the kitchen and the exit is to my left.

2. Always know what beers are available on tap, what beers are available in bottles and what today's specials are. Be clear and specific if asked to describe a dish.

3. Don't ever take the check after I've placed currency on top of it and ask if I'll be wanting any change. I'll probably change my mind if you do.

I have to echo the one where they don't open new "sections" until they get a critical mass of people. It's not like we're dining in a warehouse....the few extra steps isn't going to kill the waitstaff.

And I have to add another one that is completely unfair on my part. After all, new waiters have to get trained somehow. BUT, it has happened so frequently to me lately -- 2 waiters show up, 1 a trainee, and the real waiter spends more time explaining to the other how things are done, than taking care of us -- that I feel like it's a standard-issue restaurant thing now.

Maybe the training should be mostly reserved for those times when few tables are filled.

Waitstaff that basically ignore a female dining alone. I travel a lot and it happens a lot.

Here's Mine
 

1. Being subjected to having to listen to fairly loud cellphone conversations at the next table. A glare is appropriate. Know this is not the fault of the restaurant, but topic here IS "restaurant pet peeves".

2. One more vote for the "How are YOU GUYS?", especially when it comes from the mouth of a toddler young enough to be my grandchild. As irritating as pulling a popsicle stick across my teeth!

3. Not showing tea/softdrink prices on the menu, and finding them to be almost on par with a mixed drink on your bill. Since when is iced tea worth $2.25, especially when the wife ends up drinking half a glass? :rolleyes:

4. Agree with being adverse to the wait staff rushing to to remove dishes from under my nose. Hey...leaving such on the table doesn't bother me, unless of course I am ordering dessert.

5. Being seated a table that is in very close proximity to the service station area, or the entry to the kitchen...should even have tables placed there. What atmosphere!

6. And my all time favorite...finding multiple mistakes on my bill.

2. Is only acceptable for items at 'market price' and is often worthwhile if the seafood is something interesting;
3. I would not accept a substituted vintage unless it is clearly a superior one to what was on the list;
4. Would indicate the restaurant is not targeting a sophisticated diner.

Has anyone mentioned excessive corkage charges and what has happened at some restaurants in Sydney - the establishment of similar service charges to gouge large parties - excessive 'cakeage' charges per person. :mad: