I don't think I've ever seen this ... and I've eaten out a LOT of times.

That's happened to me twice in the last few months, both occasions while being entertained by others (who were not aggressive enough to call the resturants' hand, demanding to at least be seated at a table and offered beverages/appetizers, etc.).

In both cases, I contacted the resturants involved later, to be foisted off by a lamest sort of excuse, that the drop in business due to the recession had forced staffing cut backs, and they didn't want to seat parties which could not be waited on quickly.

That's a good way to need even fewer wait staff, as the number of patrons declines, those wanting to be served heading elsewhere.

What's with the devotion to Cheesecake Factory on here? I can't imagine choosing it voluntarily (I get roped into it about once a year, when my kid or some group I'm in wants to go) or waiting to get in. It's gigantic, overpriced shovelfuls of mediocre food, like Applebee's on steroids. I think it's a genuinely unpleasant dining experience.

I wouldn't wait more than five or ten minutes to eat at any chain restaurant. I'll either eat at the bar or leave. And if I've made reservations and a place makes me wait more than 10 or 15 minutes past the agreed time, I get very unhappy and want to leave. (Sometimes prevented by companions.)

Sometimes not eating at all is preferable to being made to wait in an unpleasant situation.

+1 ^

I waited for an hour and a half at Tao in Las Vegas, and that was for a reservation made by a casino hostess. I told everyone that I would never be back...
The second time (:rolleyes:) I waited just as long. I swear I am never going back.

The longest I would wait would be 20 minutes, and I'd be plenty steamed about it. I am willing to give a restaurant 10 minutes of leeway on a reservation, especially since I hope they would give me the same, but if you can't find me my reserved table in under 20 minutes, you'd better be offering me a cocktail or two at the bar.

Well I have seen it and it was common in many NYC and San Fran higher priced "must go to the newest" restaurants for years.

MisterNice

My husband does not enjoy waiting for a table, so I was quite surprised when I talked to him a couple of minutes ago and found out he and some other guys are in Green Bay at a place called Redwood and have been waiting for one and a half hours and just got called.
Obviously they have no place to be, and I'm guessing he was willing to wait because of that, plus one of the guys said they had the best broasted chicken around.
For myself, if the restaurant has a bar, I might wait up to an hour. :cool:

The longest time I've ever been quoted is 3 hours at Red Lobster. We declined and went elsewhere. I have however waited for 2 hours, I think it was at Cheesecake factory. In that case I just went and walked around the mall.

The thing that I've found about the whole issue of "you need to wait but we actually have tables open" is that there's a lack of staffing. For example, last Saturday, I went out to eat and there were 1-2 servers/waiters max covering a fourth of the restaurant.

Some months ago my family and I were escaping a rained-out ballgame... wet, hungry and desperate we spotted an Outback Steakhouse ("desperate" being a precondition for going in)... we entered and saw the place was only about 25% full, but the greeter said there'd be a 20-minute wait and tried to seat us in the bar. Either it was a ploy to make us run up an unwanted drink tab or they didn't have enough staff to open more than a fraction of their tables. Either way, smelled bad. We fled.

Welcome to FT, PFKMan23! Good to have you signed up and aboard.

years ago when people were allowed to smoke in restaurants , we would always say first available, it was a local restaurant called the Mason Jar located in Mahwah New jersey, times me and my fried waited were 50 minutes.

out of town with my parents i rember hearing hour and a half, I think those were local restaurants in that vacation spot can't rember the name.

back in March at Joes in the city of Chicago with a very busy convention going on at the Marriott across the street on a sunday night we waited about 50 minutes.

with so many different restaurants in malls why would annybody wait a half hour for the cheese cake factory or 4 hours for red lobster. there are so many different choices Joe americans Ruby tuesdays theres no reason to wait unless your at the Mall of america and it's a Friday or saturday night.

was your 45 minute wait during the week or on Friday or saturday night?

the devotion is it's 1 of the better chains. Maybe not the one at the Pallisades mall. But other cheese cake factorys are a better chain.

Longest I will wait for a table is five minutes with no reservation, zero minutes with reservation. Perhaps I am spoiled by priority access and elite queues from hotel and airline statuses over the years, and I refuse to wait in line for anything that is not critical (exceptions: passport office, medical appointments, etc).

Same here, especially if I suspect it's an artificial wait. I've been stopped from leaving more than once by "Oh, we just have an opening." Even better is "there are seats in the bar and we serve the full menu there." ;)

Yes, I've seen that as well. Maybe there's an excuse if they're short of wait staff and have a section closed but the bustle at the hostess stand at some chains reminds me of that old trick of seating diners at the front window so as to look busy.

Oh, and to respond to the OP, probably 30 minutes if we know in advance it's a great place - or if there are no other choices.