How Long will you Wait for a Meal before Complaining ?
 

How long will you wait for a meal/course before complaining ?

Generally what do you think is a reasonable maximum wait time ?

I would only wait 10 minutes tops before a waiter/waitress visited my table! Once I've placed an order? It depends on the establishment. A fine restaurant, I would I begin questioning the waitress after about forty minutes. I would probably become upset after a wait of an hour and forty five minutes. That's just me though!

Generally, I'd say 45 minutes unless it is absolutely jam-packed and the waitstaff is visibly harried.

Anything more than an hour, no matter where you are, is IMHO unacceptable.

I have far less patience than most I guess. Unless they're busy, I'll usually only wait about 25-30 minutes.

Let me clarify: I would wait 45 minutes for a main dish from the time of order, and this includes the wait for (and consumption of) all starters and bread, etc.

To add to this thread, how long will you wait to be acknowledged whether seated by host/hostess or self seated?

For me, I start getting antsy after about 10 minutes. My feeling being that it takes only a second to acknowledge someone's presence and /or deliver a glass of water(water dependent on local customs). Much more than 10 minutes for acknowledgment means that the experience will generally go down hill from there.

Ten minutes is my max there. If it's been more than 10 minutes, I'll get up and ask the hostess if we can be reseated, where a server will actually notice us. That usually generates a visit from the manager with an apology, and very good service from that point.

10 minutes is far too long to wait for the server to acknowledge you and at the very minimum take your drink order. I'd say 5 minutes before I start getting antsy.

It all depends on the situation. if it's a dinner with the kid, I'm not happy if we're not seated, served, and finished within an hour TOTAL. If it's a quiet dinner with just my wife and me, then I don't really care as long as we're seated and offered a drink quickly. :)

Yup - dinner with my wife and kids - I'd better be in & out within an hour or so. Granted, I will choose the restaurant with the expectation that they can meet that objective. Obviously we only going to target family-friendly establishments for those meals. If it's just me and my wife, then I'll take a little more laid back approach. As long as I'm seated, drink orders are taken and menus are in our hands within the first few minutes, I'm usually happy. Sometimes I get a "gut feeling" that things are "off" and we'll politely excuse ourselves. Usually that feeling comes when seating, drink orders, appetizer orders, etc. aren't taken in a "reasonable" amount of time, or if I look around the restaurant and a lot of folks don't have any food in front of them and seem to be looking for the waitstaff.

For lunch(especially if it's during work), I'd say 20 minutes.
For dinner, 45 minutes. If I had ordered appetizers or a salad, I could give a little slack, but if not, 45 minutes is a long time to sit at a table with no food.

Most chain restaurants have time standards for serving food and they are usually much less than any of the times mentioned in this thread. If it gets to 45 minutes, then either someone screwed up or the kitchen is being poorly run.

If they're busy, I'll give them 10 minutes. Five minutes is a little too soon to get antsy--the server can be running a few tables' worth of food or drinks, etc.

I'll usually wait up to 10 min to be acknowledged by a server, as long as I'm with others and can kill some time. If I'm dining by myself, I only give it 5 minutes before I start putting up a stink.

As for waiting for meals, the most I'll usually wait is 20-25 min after they've cleared away the previous course. Optimally, I usually like at least 5 min between courses in order to digest/savor. I hate being rushed from course to course because the server completely ignores our dining pace. :mad:

(On a side note: I also send back food because it was clear that it'd been sitting in the window too long because the server put in the order too early. I try not to sweat the small stuff, but I won't tolerate soggy/non-crispy fried foods, fallen souffles, gummy/soft creme brulee crusts, meat overcooking under a heat lamp, etc.)

I'll wait about 30 minutes, maybe 40 depending upon whether the restaurant is busy.

I'm also not shy about getting my own beverage refills if I feel like I'm being ignored. I suppose it comes from growing up in a restaurant.

There have been times I've considered getting up and getting my own drink refills. In your experiences, how do the servers react to that?

You send food back? I'd NEVER consider doing that--only because I've heard too many horror stories of what p!55ed off servers and cooks do to food that's been sent back.

I would hope that at a nicer restaurant you wouldn't have to worry about this kind of thing--but then again, any restaurant good enough to hire staff that aren't juvenile enough to do this probably wouldn't give you soggy fried foods and fallen souffles in the first place.

The most I'd do is complain to the manager after the fact (likely having only eaten a portion or none of the offending dish) and perhaps expect some sort of compensation.

Ten minutes is about the max also for me.If the waiter does not come by with in that time to greet us it is not going to be a good dining experience-i have been known to walk out if not acknowladged within 10-15 minutes.

As to food getting to the table.a starter=10-20 minutes.Main course better appear within 15 minutes or less after finishing the starter,which would be about 30-45 mins after ordering..If food takes longer than that it means the restaurant kitchen is understaffed(cheap owner=also a stupid oe since turnover is the life blood for survival in the restaurant business)or the food is sitting under a heat lamp waiting to be picked up by the waiter.

Of course this is for a general restaurant.I make exceptions for both the low end(mom and pop)and the high end-where the food should get a little more attention than in the everyday places.

Depends on where I eat. In the USA, 15 to 20 minutes.
In Paris, 45 to 60 minutes.
At any US McD, 2 minutes.

Please forgive this being my first post but I wanted to answer this as someone who has been a server for a number of years.

I work in a family owned and operated seafood restaurant in Florida, it's fairly priced at about $30 a head.

I would say you should never wait more than 10 minutes to see your server, especially if the restaurant doesn't have a wait to be seated. If you do, take it up with the hostess. It's their job to know when the server is able to take on another table and their fault if you don't get the expected service.

You should expect to wait no more than 10 minutes to see your salad and bread. Most salads in big turn around restaurants are made slightly ahead of time and takes the server no time to reach into the cooler and grab.

A note on main courses. The only problem I have with people complaining here is when they don't consider how the dish is being prepared. It's perfectly acceptable to inquire how your meal is cooked. For instance, a broiled fish dish is going to take a hell of a lot longer than some fried fish.
Fried food shouldn't take longer than 15 minutes. For baked and broiled food I'd start wondering after 45 minutes. Also, if you're ordering a steak, keep in mind the cut. Filet is going to take a while longer than a ribeye.

Oh yeah, don't worry about sending food back. It won't be treated badly. The kitchen usually rushes the order and the server should be very apologetic. The worst you can expect is it taking a bit longer than you'd like (especially if you're rude about it). ;)


Personally, I won't wait longer than an hour for my food at an average restaurant, but I do keep an eye on the staff.

I once quietly waited over 25mins for my meal while my girlfriend-now-wife finished her dish. When they dropped off our check unrequested (with me still not receiving my meal and with my order on the bill mind you!) I flipped out on the waitress.

Granted, I was just being @ss because I really should have spoke up earlier but I wanted prove a point to my girlfriend who recommended this restaurant which I didn't want to go to. [Yes, she still eventually agreed to marry me. :p]

For me, it depends on the restaurant. However, if others that were seated after me are served before me with no valid explanation, that is certain grounds for complaining regardless of the time that has passed (my restaurant peeve).

To me, that's a valid reason to complain.

just a personality trait of mine (perhaps to a fault) is that i do not complain at restaurants. have never sent food back or complaint. if service is poor, food is poor, etc, then i tip commensurately

I think anything beyond 10-15 minutes is an unreasonable time to wait without being acknowledged (after being seated) or served (after ordering).

I have gotten up and left. I also once reseated my family in another part of a dining room after waiting too long for someone to take an order (I really wanted to eat there). When the new server greeted us, I asked to see the manager so I could explain. We were comped appetizers for our inconvenience. I never did find out why we were ignored, but assumed it was confusion among servers over whose table it was.

Just a heads up in case you're lucky enough to find yourself on the South Island of New Zealand at mealtime.

RadioGuy and I stayed in a few small/medium towns and ate at the sort of informal places the locals visited. Our first several dinners, the service seemed *really* slow (long wait to be seated, long wait for menus, long wait for meals, long wait for offer of dessert/coffee). We were getting a bit irritated until the next evening when I remembered the classic travel advice and looked at what the locals were doing. They arrived (a group of friends, a family with school-age children, etc) and hung around the bar area for a while, talking to each other. Then they were seated (when the hostess got to it) and talked to each other. Eventually menu were brought and they spent some time deciding. And talking to each other. Eventually (to me it was excruciatingly slow) the waitress took an order. But they passed the time chatting. And after a short eternity, food arrived and they enjoyed that too.

Bottom line (my theory - anyone from NZ welcome to contradict me) was that people viewed going to dinner with their family or friends as the evening's entertainment. They weren't rushing home to watch the (virtually non-existent) NZ television programming, they were having An Evening Out and enjoying their time together. Once we knew what to expect and did the same, it was quite enjoyable. (We only had a few more evenings there, so my data is limited.)

I don't recommend this as a universal pattern (in the US or Australia I would complain if I thought the service was slow) but as a reminder of different local customs.

I absolutely concur. I've also worked as a server for many years and there is absolutely NO EXCUSE to have a customer wait for ten minutes before being acknowledged. I could run 6 tables at a time and still at least just let the customer know that I see them, and I'll be right with them. I really hate sitting down in a really busy restaurant and have the server deliberately ignore me because he/she is busy at the moment.

That said, the last restaurant I worked at had a couple of items that took longer to prepare than other dishes on the menu. I would make a point of mentioning this to the customer before I place the order at the kitchen. This avoids the whole "we were seated at the same time as that table over there and they already got their food" accusation.
Don't worry about sending food back. The story about staff spitting and what not in food is just urban legend.

plz suggest me with some sentences for requesting customers to Waite 5 minutes
 

hi I'm running a local restaurant, we often face a lot of rush and most customers run out of patience quickly while waiting for their order to be served. i wish to place a notice, plz suggest me with some sentences for asking customers to Waite 5 minutes from the point of order at restaurant. How shall i write it?your quick response is highly appreciated.Thank you Sir.

It depends on what I've ordered, the restaurant I'm at, and how busy they are. I complained twice last year, both times when I ordered simple dishes. Usually if its simple and the place isn't mobbed, I'll complain after a half hour.

Once was at a Dave and Busters I complained after waiting 40 minutes for two pasta dishes. The second time was at a sports bar where I complained after waiting 45 minutes for a dozen wings and a meatball sub. The second place actually tried to tell me our order was "complicated", hence the wait. :rolleyes:

One time, after ordering, I've waited for a my wife to finish her meal and the waitress to drop the check at our table without bringing my order. Granted, I was being an a$$ for not simply just asking for the waitress to check on my order (even though I'd have had to flag her down since she didn't stop by to ask how things were going after initially delivering my wife's dish) but I kind of wanted to see how it was going to play out.

Anyways, that place is no longer in business obviously.

same occurrence perhaps? ;)

Not servicing drinks is generally what will rile me into poor tipping. And I really hate tipping poorly.

I can think of twice that I've sent back food. Once at a finer dining place because my clam chowder had chunks of flour in it, and once at a chain type place because my chicken sandwich had been WAY overseasoned and the fries were burnt.

I would expect at a nicer restaurant, if I'd left my food mostly untouched, that they would ASK if anything was wrong.

I've done after the fact complaining before, but I've found that if I don't take care of it right then, I'll more than likely just not return.

Here is my take on this sutuation:

1. I would wait 5-10 minutes to be greeted after I am seated. If the place is busy, the server can quickly say "Hi, I will be back in a minute to take your drink order." After people are initially acknowledged they generally become more patient as they know they have been noticed and someone is coming back.

2. Waiting on the main dish is directly related to how hungry I am :D If starving, 30 minutes seems like eternity. If not and engaged in conversation, I barely notice the time. At any rate, I don't see anything wrong in politely asking the server to "check on my order" if it feels like it's been a while. Time flies much quicker for busy servers and sometimes they don't realize how much time has passed. A question like this usually prompts them to check with the kitchen and try to expedite the order.

3. If there is anything wrong with the food - not cooked properly, wrong item, etc, I would most certainly point it out to the server immediately. This gives the restaurant a chance to correct the situation. Things can go wrong and a lot of times guests' impressions will be formed on how the place recovers, not on the initial issue. If you wait until the end, then is too late for them to do anything and IMO is a loose-loose situation, as the diner is leaving unhappy and the restaurant has to comp meals.

I agree and I think this question should be asked at any type of place if you haven't eaten most of your food. Sometimes the answer is simply "I was too full" but other times something is wrong. Not only that but the server should check shortly after the meal is served to make sure everything is to your linking/cooked properly, etc not at the end of the meal when it's too late.

Depends on the kind of restaurant. Quick service, family-oriented? The meal better hit the table within 15-20 minutes of ordering. Fancy French? I expect it to take a while, given that the table is mine for the night.

lol. Too funny. I thought I posted that story already. I actually skimmed thru the previous posts but apparently missed my original story. Darn old posts reincarnated! :D

Depends on the situation, but for me these are my limits during which a restaurant is:

Quiet: 30 min
Fairly Busy: 45 min
Overly Busy: 1 hr

A few months ago my husband and I waited an hour at a chain steakhouse for our main order. We had received salad and bread already. At one point I saw the waitress go past and I asked her if our order was on its way. She smiled and said that she would check, and then she deposited extra bread that she had been carrying, and she went on her way, in a direction away from the kitchen, and, I thought, to an area that seemed to lead only outside.

A table a few feet from ours seemed also to be having problems. Several waiters converged on it, and it appeared the family was regiving its order.

We waited. I was in favor of telling a manager, but my husband insisted that we wait.

Finally I was so starving that I was either going to complain to the manager or else I was considering doing something unsociable with the cutlery, or at least with the knife. :D

I went to the cashier's stand and explained the problem. Manager appeared and explained that it was the first day the waitress had worked there and that she had simply walked off the job. He said they would comp our meal (not that we cared, I simply wanted food :p ), and that they would get it to us as fast as possible, and a team of waiters retook our order and made sure we got our meal.

They were nice people. I assured them that we would return for other meals.

That night, beginning about 6 or 7 p.m., I was ill with the worst case of abdominal pain I have ever had, accompanied by chills. I thought the restaurant must have served us something it had sitting too long, in order to get us food promptly. Husband said he felt somewhat ill, but I was up throwing up (please forgive me for mentioning that) and he didn't have that problem, nor did he have the severe pain.

By about 3 or 4 a.m., the pain vanished.

I thought I probably had a duty to report the incident of food poisoning to the health department but didn't have the heart to, since the manager had been so apologetic and so nice. Flame if you wish, since I neglected my duty as a watchful citizen. :)

In December, a month ago, I had several sporadic and similar episodes of pain, enough so that I began to realize that it was not food poisoning. Am scheduled for surgery now, for a medical problem common among the, ah, middle-aged, not serious, but known for being very painful.

But to return to the topic of the thread: Yes, we waited for an hour, would probably still be waiting if husband had prevailed, but because I had access to a steakknife ("I know how to use this, DH, so you'd better let me notify the manager our meal is late!" :)), we finally got our meal.

Am so glad I didn't report the restaurant and the nice manager. :):o

Seems to me management should have been proactive
and retaken the orders before being asked.

btw, the immediately preceding meal is likely not to
have been the cause of a case of food poisoning.

You might or might not be right about management, but I really didn't think to blame them, and I still wouldn't. Life involves a bit of inconvenience along the way. :)

My purpose in posting was a little bit of light humor about an incident which was not funny at the time, as well as a statement that it is wise not to jump to conclusions about accusations of food poisoning. Anyhow, thanks--.

Incidentally, not to correct you, but in the event that others might find themselves ill after a meal sometimes and wonder what caused it, the following might be of help.

Per first link, the onset of food poisoning could be as little as six hours.

http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/foodsa...oisoning.shtml

(That would be approximately consistent with the time that my symptoms began, since we had arrived at the restaurant about 11 or 11:30 a.m. and probably had left by 1 p.m. or 1:30 p.m. at the latest, and since I didn't actually glance at a clock the moment my symptoms began.)

The following site lists 1-6 hours, with a mean of 2-4 hours, for a foodborne staph illness that shows up in a Google search using terms of vomiting, abdominal pain, and prostration--all of which conditions, including the last, I can attest to. :(

http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/F.../ucm071342.htm

Not that I thought at the time to Google as to how long it would take between food ingestion and symptoms. Or that I should have been Googling for other causes of pain.

The time lag "could be" as little approximately zero. But
there are many meals that could be in the range of suspicion.