Dining Out Pet Peeves

Charging $2.75 for seltzer. Are you kidding me?

"Hi! My name is, Sue, and I'll be your server tonight"
" What are WE having tonight"

chewingthefat


"Hi! My name is, Sue, and I'll be your server tonight"
" What are WE having tonight"

Does it also get on your nerves when they sit down at your table too then?

That would depend on the waitress.

EatingTheRoad

chewingthefat


"Hi! My name is, Sue, and I'll be your server tonight"
" What are WE having tonight"

Does it also get on your nerves when they sit down at your table too then?

Yeah, like we went to school together or something!

I know several restaurants that get around the reservation problem by having "preferred seating" You call ahead, just like for a reservation. When you get there, your name goes to the top of the waiting list. Wait may be 5 minutes instead of 30-45. 

After asking "What's good?", I hate to hear "Everything's good." This usually precedes mediocrity!

^^even better: "Oh, I don't know, I can't afford to eat here."

--Joey's Seafood, Brookfield, Wisconsin

EatingTheRoad

chewingthefat


"Hi! My name is, Sue, and I'll be your server tonight"
" What are WE having tonight"

Does it also get on your nerves when they sit down at your table too then?

Doesn't get on my nerves at all. I just get up and leave.

Do you need any change?

That "need any change" nonsense bugs me too. It's just a subtle way of coming right out and asking for a tip. Speaking as one who used to work in a tipping profession, I consider it tacky and unprofessional. 

The whole "MY name is....." and them sitting down at the table doesn't bother me at all.  What does drive crazy is waiting a long time for my bill.  I usually ask for the bill while I am still eating, just to prevent that, because it happens way too often.

My pet peeve is being interrupted by someone else's cell phone going off.

buffetbuster

What does drive crazy is waiting a long time for my bill.  I usually ask for the bill while I am still eating, just to prevent that, because it happens way too often.

I do the same thing. As soon as I know I won't be ordering anything else I ask for my check and get it out of the way. I never understand the whole "disapperaing" act that some waitstaff pull after they've served your meal. Same goes for service in general after the meal comes out...no more refills on drinks, bread, etc., no longer clearing plates, extra napkins, what have you....

...also when the check has arrived and you've placed your payment within but it sits there for countless minutes. I can understand when there busy and I'm astute enough to know when that is the issue but when it's not...a lot of times a tip will decrease greatly within the last 15 minutes of my meal. I'll have had a wonderful experience but because the last 15 took 15 when it should have taken 2 it irks me to no end.

carlton peirre
My pet peeve is being interrupted by someone else's cell phone going off.

Agreed! A restaurant is not a place to be on the phone...kindly excuse yourself and take it outside. I also hate when people don't know how to silence their phone after it rings...they just stare at it and it continuously goes off for 30 seconds....I mean, it is amusing but still...come on.

How about people (kids/teens) texting throughout a meal? It also gets on my nerves (this is more personal opinion than anything) when a family is dining together and the kids are playing on their Nintendo DS, PSP or iPhone and not have a dining experience with their parents. I don't blame the kids at all but those parents shouldn't be too proud of themselves. Eating together should be a bonding time.

Davydd


I'm a beer asker but for the opposite reason. I am alway searching for the local microbrew that I may have never had. I hate it when the waitron starts out with Bud, Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors... Then I have to interrupt and explain and then they apologize and say they have to go back and ask the bartender. I've finally learned to be more specific right from the beginning and even that tends to fluster them because they don't know what is local or what the term microbrew means.

Hehehe.  Same here.  Just had a Ruby Tuesday come into town which actually has a decent beer menu for Minot. (Look at a map, we're up in nowhere ND.  There's zero beer distribution up here outside the mega breweries.)  But as I go down the list of every interesting offering they have "Sorry, don't have it.  Sorry, don't have it.  Sorry...  It's a corporate menu, we just can't get that stuff up here."
 
So a new pet peeve is having a menu in which you do not have, nor ever intend to have, half of what's listed.

Restaurants that use flake pepper in pepper shakers with tops designed for ground pepper. You can shake forever and only few flakes. So, I have been known to remove the lid, shake a bit into my palm and put the lid back on.

CNW

CNW


Restaurants that use flake pepper in pepper shakers with tops designed for ground pepper. You can shake forever and only few flakes. So, I have been known to remove the lid, shake a bit into my palm and put the lid back on.

CNW

Totally! I do the same. Also happens sometimes with unclean Parmesan cheese shakers or red pepper...rarely but sometimes with salt (in the south, where it's humid).

I hate going to a steakhouse, ordering a $26 steak, and being told where the salad bar is, only to find either a lightly dressed caesar salad, or a caesar salad, plus bowls of iceberg, broccoli/cauliflower, onions, tomatoes, and the usual dressings.  

Really, $26 steak place? You couldn't either make the salad bar interesting, or bring a "stock" salad to the table?  

txtwister


I hate going to a steakhouse, ordering a $26 steak, and being told where the salad bar is, only to find either a lightly dressed caesar salad, or a caesar salad, plus bowls of iceberg, broccoli/cauliflower, onions, tomatoes, and the usual dressings.  

Really, $26 steak place? You couldn't either make the salad bar interesting, or bring a "stock" salad to the table?  

Wow, I don't know if I've ever encountered this....where specifically are you referring to?

I don't like salad bars, anyway, for many reasons. Germs. Stuff mixed in from other bowls. Dressing dripped all over. Just bring me a small dinner salad, please, with no crutons and blue cheese dressing. 

Recently, at a very highly regarded roadfood type restaurant in Albany, TX.  (Goes by both the Beehive and the Ft Griffin Gen. Merchandise Rest.

mbrookes


I don't like salad bars, anyway, for many reasons. Germs. Stuff mixed in from other bowls. Dressing dripped all over. Just bring me a small dinner salad, please, with no crutons and blue cheese dressing. 

Many places I've been, the small dinner salad they bring you is made fresh from the salad bar when ordered and brought to your table.  Just a thought...

You are so right  and they do this where there are buffets .  A couple of years ago,  we had breakfast at a diner in Lancaster, Pa which featured  a breakfast buffet....................................one look at that mess and the people milling around convinced me that I wanted  no  part of that  food.  I  told the waitress that I wanted to order off the menu  and  ordered  poached eggs,  toast,  and corned beef hash and  home fries.
 
Our family was seated right next to  this  buffet  table  and  I saw our waitress coming  out with a plate  which had a cup with my poached eggs, and toast on and  she proceeded to buffet  and put the  corned beef hash and  potaotes from the buffet  on my plate and  delivered it to me with a big smile.   I informed her that I did not  eat  food from buffet  tables and  that I did not want any of it.  She appeared to be totatlly confused  but was  ok with it  and  I just paid for  my cup of coffee.

Good for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greymo
One of my pet peeves is when the server recites a long ,very detailed, and  descriptive list of all the "specials" and then neglects to tell you the price.  Usually, after he recites the first "special", I will ask for the price and then politely tell him that I would like to know the price of each item that  they recite.  More times than not, they seem rather confused that someone actually wants to know how much something costs.

Ah, yes. In the past, I used that to practice my Harold Lorrayne memorization techniques. I'd wait until the waiter finished reading off the specials, and I would ask detailed questions (albeit only when the answer would affect my order), including prices.

What really gets me is when the menu has a relatively narrow range of prices, and the special has a price tag which is considerably higher (sometimes twice as much) as the price of the typical entree, and the waiter doesn't warn you. For example, where entrees are $9-16, and the special is $29.

Bart

mar52
Well kind of.  I order one of the specials and then they come back from the kitchen and tell me that they are out.

It's happened a few times.

It happens to me so often that it has become a family joke. I have gotten into the habit of having 2nd or 3rd choices ready, just in case they are out of the 1st and/or 2nd choices. I've amazed many waiters by giving him/her my next choice immediately upon their return, and then explain to them that this happens so often that I prepare in advance. Sometimes, when in a bit of a hurry, when they come back, I will give them my second choice and say, "and, if you're out of THAT, I'll have..."

Bart

bartl

Greymo
One of my pet peeves is when the server recites a long ,very detailed, and  descriptive list of all the "specials" and then neglects to tell you the price.  Usually, after he recites the first "special", I will ask for the price and then politely tell him that I would like to know the price of each item that  they recite.  More times than not, they seem rather confused that someone actually wants to know how much something costs.

Ah, yes. In the past, I used that to practice my Harold Lorrayne memorization techniques. I'd wait until the waiter finished reading off the specials, and I would ask detailed questions (albeit only when the answer would affect my order), including prices.

What really gets me is when the menu has a relatively narrow range of prices, and the special has a price tag which is considerably higher (sometimes twice as much) as the price of the typical entree, and the waiter doesn't warn you. For example, where entrees are $9-16, and the special is $29.

Bart

In our neck of the woods the entrees run around 6 to 8 bucks and the specials run about a dollar or two less.

EatingTheRoad

chewingthefat


"Hi! My name is, Sue, and I'll be your server tonight"
" What are WE having tonight"

Does it also get on your nerves when they sit down at your table too then?

I'm w/ NYPizzaNut...depends on the waitress, some I prefer to have sit on my lap...

--Not answering the phone during open hours as listed on website/web, especially if I'm out of town and not familiar with the area, or on foot/public transportation. 
 
--Getting all stuck up and **** b/c Guy Fieri visited your dive, hiring rude staff and not allowing take out anymore (yeah, YOU Jamie's, but not you Vicki).   

rainyday6


--Not answering the phone during open hours as listed on website/web, especially if I'm out of town and not familiar with the area, or on foot/public transportation. 
 
--Getting all stuck up and **** b/c Guy Fieri visited your dive, hiring rude staff and not allowing take out anymore (yeah, YOU Jamie's, but not you Vicki).   

Haha, both good ones!