Pet Peeves At Restaurants
18Today, at a restaurant for lunch, I was drinking water. When my glass was empty, instead of refilling it, they brought me an entirely new glass, and a new straw. I took my already open straw and stuck it in the new glass. Why do I need a new straw? It’s bad enough that they have to wash a second glass.
It also bothers me when they fill the glass to the brim with ice before they put water in it, so you get maybe 1/4 glass of water.
Do you have any restaurant pet peeves?
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Side note, the header photo was perfectly picked. Thanks meh.
Pro tip: Order beer instead. They seldom bring straws for that.
@medz or free refills
@medz I agree. Just order beer.
To save natural resources, I guess you ask them to use a dirty glass…
@daveinwarsh After enough of them you don’t even notice the glass is dirty anyways!
My pet peeve (when dining with my toddler) is when they don’t give you any napkins. If we make a mess, it’s gonna be a lot more contained if you splurge and give us a couple spare napkins. Or you can just have more to clean on the table, floor, and seat when we leave.
@medz yes. An extra napkin would be nice sometimes. I hate when I’m by myself and they bring me a huge stack, however. How messy do you think my meal is? Unless I’m eating ribs or chicken wings, I don’t need twenty napkins.
Wait for the check…or having to use those stupid machines!
@mikibell I don’t mind the machine since I don’t have to worry about someone making off with my card… But when they forget to check back in in you towards the end because it’s there, that’s annoying.
@mikibell Machines rule! I love being able to order another drink without having to flag some busy waiter down. I can pay and dip out without waiting too.
@medz I’d prefer a waiter that notices my glass is getting empty so I don’t have to ask.
@mikibell Guess I’m lucky. I love the machines and have never had an issue with them not checking back at the places I go that have them.
I actually wouldn’t mind if you had to order via them and a robot brought the food, as long as it was fresh and well prepared and at the correct temperature.
@RiotDemon yeah and then they keep interrupting your conversation… No I don’t want a refill, I want to finish my effing story!
expensive mediocre food. damn that pisses me off. and If the place has an attitude that pisses me off even more.
@cranky1950
Makes you Cranky?
@f00l nah pissed off and cranky are different.
Being rushed. If I just wanted good food I’d cook. I’m there for a nice time out.
People
@mfladd
Then here’s a song just for you.
@f00l
@mfladd
Go hang out with your personal attendant now.
@f00l OK
Another pet peeve I noticed this evening at dinner with my brother. We are at a steak restaurant. We get our food. Neither of us has bitten into our steak yet and the waiter comes back to ask how it is. My brother looks at him, gestures to his plate, and says, “I’ll let you know when I try it.”
Or when they ask right after you’ve taken a bite and your mouth is completely full. Sometimes I think they do that on purpose so they don’t have to listen to long winded answers.
@RiotDemon
Amen.
I find the whole process of having waiters and assistant managers constantly trolling for feedback to be crazy annoying. Let me eat and talk in peace. Good service is unobtrusive. Bad service is insecure and constantly asks how your food is tasting tonight.
@RiotDemon Servers are taught to wait until you have that first big ol’ bite stuffed into your mouth before they come to ask how your meal is.
Also, if your server squats down to table or eye level, they’re working a bit of psychology on you. You’re supposed to feel your server is a bit more personable & friendly if they “get down on your level,” and so you’ll be inclined to give a larger tip.
Good service with a smile is all I need to tip very well. If the food is bad, but the server has tried to fix it, I’m not going to dock the tip because the server tried to fix what the kitchen screwed up. However, if the screw up was pretty significant, I might chat with the manager after I pay my bill to let him know.
Being a server is hard work, especially when you get those entitled “you’re just a server and my slave for the night” people. You know, the ones with the “I’d like to speak to your manager” haircuts:
I just got home from a restaurant that was like all the pet peeves rolled into one tidy ball. Bad service: completely empty drinks for most of the meal, had to ask the busboy for refills; watched the entire wait staff congregated around the register talking while unable to get drinks or condiments, or later, our check. Mediocre food (although they make any excellent burger, I was tempted away by something that looked better on the menu but wasn’t). Atmosphere: dominated by a chatty family member whose only purpose seems to be to visit with the customers. We had an acceptable and friendly “how’s the food, thank y’all for coming out” conversation, but other tables had loud, long conversations of local gossip. They’re nice folks and a nice enough place, but I don’t think it would fly if it were in town with other choices nearby. Maybe its primary function is as a gathering place for the locals, and we’re just not in that in crowd.
I’m a hot coffee in the morning and unsweetened ice tea the rest of the day. Not getting refills is my biggest peeve. I know already if the coffee is gonna be crappy (99.99% of the time) but I ordered it because I don’t care and I want hot caffeine.
If I’m in the south and I ask for unsweetened but when they refill it they use sweet tea, well, I can tell you -she’s not getting ANY tip.
New glass comes with fresh ice… you are complaining about fresh ice.
@thismyusername at home I don’t use ice. I don’t understand “fresh ice.” Does it go bad in the twenty minutes it took me to drink my water?
@RiotDemon it does become bad ice, aka turns to water
To be honest I really was thinking of the fresh iced tea thing, I like the fresh lemon slice, the fresh ice cubes etc… when they top it from the jug it just warms it and rapidly melts the ice.
@thismyusername (@RiotDemon) actually the amount of bacteria in ice is pretty high
@Kidsandliz and lets not talk about those lemon slices, as I enjoy them.
@thismyusername OK we won’t. When I was doing chemo they (and ice) were on the forbidden list…but you aren’t doing chemo so you’re safe. : )
For me it’s probably when they point out the little cards things (usually displaying wine and/or desserts) that’s on the table. I know it’s probably part of their duties to do it but I’m like “It’s right there. I can see it just fine. I’ll not look at it but you don’t need to tell me it’s right there”.
When the wait person comes to ask if everything’s alright, but does so when you or one of your dining companions is in the middle of saying something. If you’re going to interrupt the meal, at least have the courtesy to let your customer finish their sentence.
The ice thing I get
But the new glass thing in some places is a health code thing
Y’all have lightweight peeves.
We vacate the establishment - after not quietly explaining why - when I see seats being wiped down… with the same towel about to wipe the table.
Studies have shown the seating surfaces in restaurants often to be the most bacteria-violated spots in the entire place. (Menus are next - wash your hands after ordering.) Seat surfaces often beat bathroom door handles and toilet seats for nasty bugs… since those get cleaned with proper disinfectant more frequently.
@RedOak It might make you feel better to know that the bucket they are dipping the cloth into contains a sanitizer solution to kill bacteria as required by health code.
@Steve7654 never seen a bucket or spray bottle anywhere nearby. Just that stinky multipurpose rag.
@Steve7654
Depending on what sanitizers places use, often the sanitizer does not kill all the bacteria. Just some of it or most of it.
Bacteria are in general huge practitioners of “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”
@RedOak so does your cell phone. when they culture them it si really nasty? so how many of you clean your cells?
@Cerridwyn but at least my cell phone germs are my own.
@Steve7654 Is there one “health code” that covers covers all dining establishments? Or are they usually a function of each individual state?
@RedOak Often times when I order a blended ice (frappe) drink they put whip on it, when I specifically ask for none. Their solution when I correct them is to take the whip off with a spatula, then wipe the rim of the cup down with the closest dirty rag they have available. It happens 3/4 times I order. Every single time, I make them remake it from scratch. One time the barista rolled her eyes at me through the drive thru window. I went, parked, and gave her an earful. Do your job right and you won’t have to fix it.
@lichme what ever happened to conscientious customer service?
I get it might not be the most glamourous job in the world, but for most folks with a work ethic it is a temporary situation on the way to something more to their liking.
#clueless.
@RedOak
Perhaps you are being served by the immature, who think they can afford to mess around now and then fix their lives later; or who are incredibly emotional and can’t separate that from their public personality; or who lack any notion of what it means to be professional; or who feel entitled and/or resentful…
Or perhaps you are being served by those who feel permanently beaten down, who have worked hard and tried hard for decades, and have become convinced that their lives will also be horrible…
@f00l so bitter.
… Oh, and one more… I get fairly peeved at our pet dog Charlie when he grabs food off the counter when nobody is looking.
@RedOak My dad’s Golden did this with a pork tenderloin I had been marinating. Finally grabbed it back after an extended game of keep away, and then she tried to nab it again once I slung it back on the counter.
Once had a cat that would steal grilled cheese sandwich halves as soon as our backs were turned. (Not that I blame him. I can make a fantastic grilled cheese sandwich if I put my mind to it!)
@RedOak Don’t people get upset when you take your dog into restaurants?
@Steve7654 we don’t make a habit of eating at restaurants that have counters.
Were they cool glasses, at least?
@KDemo nope.
Don’t you ever watch the people, that set up new tables for the next round of customers, when they put the glasses on the table their finger or thumb is usually in the glass or on the rim. Or when they hand you your glass from the tray - for some unknown reason- they have to grab it from the top where your about to put your mouth to enjoy your drink from. Always use a straw!
@WTFsunshine Uh oh… In a thread specifically about pet peeves, using “your” incorrectly instead of “you’re?”
@Andrew_B Damn! I double your’ed.
@WTFsunshine blame it on auto-correct.
I’m often amazed at how aggressively wrong my Samsung tablet is with auto-correct.
@WTFsunshine an indian buffet in seattle used to be so guilty of this. whenever the waiter filled your water glass, which was every 6 seconds, he wrapped his entire hand around the top of your glass…and everyone else’s in the restaurant. i’m not a germiphobe at all, but seeing it is grosser? it got to the point where we simply asked for a pitcher to be left at the table when our avid physical blocking of his hand didn’t work. they were extremely insistant.
I have a bunch but the one currently on my mind is nickeling and diming you to death, especially without telling you. My friend and I went to lunch at an upscale eatery yesterday. I ordered a turkey, brie and cranberry chutney sandwich and asked for extra cranberry sauce as I have difficulty swallowing dry food. When I got the bill they charged me .75 for the extra sauce. I’m paying $10 for a turkey sandwich and they can’t throw on a little extra sauce? To make up for splurging at lunch I picked up dinner at a drive through and asked for a cup of water as they didn’t have a caffeine free sugar free beverage, and they wanted to charge me .50 for the water. Oh yeah, that’s why I don’t frequent your place.
Actually that’s another minor peeve, restaurants but more importantly theaters having no caffeine free sugar free beverage choice. When I go to a movie or restaurant in the evening, I can’t be drinking caffeine or I’ll never go to sleep.
I also hate tipping. I hate that I am expected to give a performance review of the waitstaff every time I dine out. Pay your staff a decent wage and price the food accordingly.
@moondrake tipping sucks… But I don’t see that changing any time soon.
What annoys me more is tips being expected at places where they actually get paid normal wages versus restaurant servers.
Definitely agree on the nickel and diming on small items.
@RiotDemon @moondrake some states they always get ‘normal’ wages
and there is a no tipping movement out there, it’s gaining steam slow but sure
@moondrake I agree with your overall statement except for the place that charged you for water. In many fast-food places the policy is to charge you for the cup as the inventory numbers for cups can be balanced against the number of beverages sold to ascertain whether a lot of folks (trans: friends of employees) are actually getting free non-water beverages.
@magic_cave and for water and pop the cup costs more than what is in it…
Sounds like some of ya’ll should stay in and cook a meal. It’s not an easy job. But I get it, sometimes they just don’t give a shit.
And adding in the tip just because I am with a large group. My bil is a chef, and my in-laws owned a restaurant, so we know how hard restaurant work is and my sil will always make certain there is a generous tip. But add in the gratuity automatically, not a dime more – no matter how messy we are or how wonderful the server is…
@mikibell I agree, but I can see both sides of this. I have worked in restaurants where large parties with $500 bills left $25 for two servers and a busboy to split after working hard to take care of them for two hours, so I understand why some places do this.
On the other hand, after working in food service for many years I know how hard those servers work for the $2/ hr the restaurant pays them, so I usually tip around 25% if the service is not bad. I still find it annoying when they automatically add a 15% gratuity to my bill so in those cases I never leave anything above that amount no matter how good the service was.
@mikibell My mom taught me not to correlate the price of a very inexpensive meal with the amount of a tip. When we stop someplace for a piece of cake and a beverage, if the server is courteous and checks at least once for refills, we seldom leave less than $3 or $4. I figure the server has done well for us and shouldn’t get tipped less than if the meal had been larger or more expensive. And sometimes we tip the person who hands us our food through the drive-through window if she was pleasant, although that’s just for fun for us rather than a compensatory thing. (They all look a little puzzled for a moment, then catch on, and then smile and thank us.)
My pet peeve? Wait I’m supposed to eat out to have one? MY pet peeve is that I have to cook and I don’t get to eat out!
It seems like a lot of restaurants are now using really tall glasses. But then they stick in a normal sized straw that’s only about an inch higher than the glass. And if I’m not paying attention (especially if they’re clear, not white), I stick the damn thing up my nose.
@pooflady could be worse.
I find it annoying when a server picks up the bill and your payment and asks “do you want change?”, especially if it is like a $50 bill to pay a $30 tab. Seems kind of presumptuous to me.
@Steve7654 When I waited tables I always picked up the payment and said, “I’ll be right back with your change.” Most of the time they said they didn’t need change. Kind of bothered me when I went through the trouble of bringing them back their change and they left that exact amount as a tip anyway. Really people, did you have to waste my time?
@cinoclav I think a lot of people don’t bother with the math. I’ve seen a lot of people pay, get the change back, look at it and decide in that momemt it’s what they’ll tip. They weren’t thinking about the tip when they stuck the money in the folder, they were talking about the last movie they saw or their friend’s upcoming wedding. Most people out dining with friends are too busy chatting to think much about the bill paying process.
Waiting for a table a shitty restaurant I damned sure didn’t ask to be at.
@JerseyFrank Uh, why were you there if you didn’t want to be there?
@magic_cave social or familial obligation, usually.
@JerseyFrank poor planning by friends/family at busy restaurants or bars or any busy social engagement in general has got to be one of my largest social pet peeves as well. whether it be “we’ll just pick up the keg the day of” or “we’ll get tickets at the door” or “we’ll just wait for a table” or “we can stand near the bar until something opens up”. WHY.
Ended up at a diner in Philly last week (South St. Diner for those in the area) where the gf and I both ordered food that was supposed to come with fries and a cup of their soup of the day, along with a soda each. Food came out, she had her sandwich and fries, I simply had a sandwich. Server disappeared before I could say anything. Got his attention, he returned and I mentioned these are supposed to come with soup and mine is missing the fries. He looked at us blankly and said, “We’re out of soup. I’ll be right back with your fries.” The fries came (at least they were fresh and hot) and no further mention of the soup or a replacement for it was made. We both looked at each other dumbfounded. He dropped the check when we were done eating. No discount or any additional apology for the missing soup. I went to the register to pay, where he happened to be and said, “I think you should take the drinks off our check. At the least, tell your tables you don’t have any soup and offer them something as a replacement.” He took the check without a word, starting punching it up on the POS and removed the drinks, finally saying he was doing so. I’m still not sure why I even tipped the guy except for the fact that I waited tables and I felt bad he was working a shitty job in a diner.
Giving me refills without asking. If its water, I’m probably not going to drink it all, so its a waste to fill it. If its coffee, they always try to fill it when I’ve got the sugar-cream-ratio just right, and now I gotta do the whole thing over again!
Just thought of another one, endless refills on expensive coffee, but you only get one tea bag. You can have all the hot water you want, but if you want a fresh tea bag (which costs the restaurant perhaps a nickel) you have to pay another $2-2.50 for a second order of tea. I carry a tea bag in my wallet so I can enjoy tea after the meal without having one good cup followed by two cups of pathetically weak tea.
@moondrake
This is a huge cost thing. I don’t know the details, but I have been told that serving endless coffee to patrons is a fraction of the cost of serving tea.
What might be nice would be “tea bars” that would allow the patron to order a pot of excellent tea instead of a cup.
@moondrake For years I always ordered a pot of tea in my favorite Chinese restaurant. It was always good, no tea bags in sight. All of a sudden I get the pot with one tea bag in it. So that’s probably two to three cups of tea on one bag. I complained. Now I get at least two tea bags, but I don’t go there nearly as often.
@pooflady I’ve yet to find a Chinese restaurant that doesn’t eventually go downhill. Still hanging on to one phenomenal place near my job but it’s too far to go to from home.
@cinoclav Agree. I still have one, but it has about three tables and plastic silverware. Really good for take-out.
@f00l That makes no sense. I can buy tea bags better than the ones most restaurants serve for about .03 each (Lipton $3.28 per 100 bags). I’d have to see some kind of real numbers to convince me that a restaurant buying in bulk can’t get at least as good a price as I get on a Lipton or Luzianne tea bag. And while both those brands are far from premium, they’ll still make a couple or three good cups of tea per bag while most restaurant tea bags can barely make a second cup.
@moondrake
I imagine it’s still a bit more than coffee. But what I heard was that it’s something to do with the cost of serving it. The people time involved is quite expensively different to the establishment or something. Never worked in a restaurant (except short order cook for late night grilled cheese at college snack bar), so don’t know.
@f00l BTW, I don’t recall in which thread you were encouraging me to get a diabetes screening but I happened to get one Saturday. Walked out of my pottery class at the art museum on Saturday and there was an Earth Day festival on the plaza and one booth was giving free screenings. Despite having had cookies for breakfast and being most of the way through a caffeinated drink (chai tea with coconut milk and stevia) I scored a happy 91. Midrange on pulse ox and heart rate. It always obviously surprises the tester. Despite being overweight, well over 50 and eating quite a lot of sweets I have so far done great on all health screens. I credit my dislike of HFCS (I prefer cane sugar, real maple syrup, and a host of natural sweeteners) and the fact that the only thing more prevalent in my diet than sugar is acid. I season at least half of my food with generous shots of citric acid and/or vinegar. I suspect all the acid breaks down the sugar.
A quick shot of a few of the things I’ve made in class so far. Rank amatuer here. I’m working on a couple of dog bowls right now.
@moondrake I love the lily plate!
@brhfl Thanks! It’s my favorite so far. I have a bowl that I painted a celestial dragon on in the kiln right now that I have high hopes for.
@moondrake it might also be that you have bulletproof genes!
@RedOak My mom and grandmother were both diabetic, although of the mildest type.
@moondrake so you got your Herculean genes from dad!
@moondrake
If that’s your normal daytime blood sugar, that would seem to rock.
My grandmother and an uncle had diabetes that I know of, and my brother has it. So about once a year I test for a month or so, 3-4x a day. My fasting is normally well under 100, in the daytime, if I’m doing health food it stays low, if not, it might go up to 130-140. Once or twice, when I’ve been very bad, It’s been up around 150.
I forget the values on the lab tests they do, but mine look fine on that.
I don’t know how I got this lucky, as for most of my life I’ve ping-ponged between health food and crap. About 5 years ago or so, after reading a bunch about food chem and the long-terms effects of excessive sugar and starch and metabolic syndrome and similar, I cleaned up my habits a bit. Maybe that helped. Hope so. : )
That pottery is lovely.
Two things will mess up your tip.not including the server just being flat out rude, that’s a gimmee.
My sweet tea glass being empty for more than a couple of minutes. I’ll even forgive a longer wait time for food as long as I have tea.
Paying attention to my husband but ignoring me. This is not a jealousy thing…my husband is too lazy to cheat on me…its a respect thing. In fact pay me all the attention, I was a server. I make my husband tip well, but not if you ignore me. One time at a Waffle House i was with my ex-husband(who wasn’t too lazy) and it was so bad you would have thought he was by himself. He had his drink refilled so many times he could have floated away while mine was never refilled. Seeing as he wasn’t going to say anything, I finally told her she sure wasted her time with him because I was the tipper and I used to be a server. Here’s your tip…and she got a penny. That used to be a big insult but not sure if it is any longer.
@mehbee I had a similar thing happen at an upscale restaurant. I was taking my unemployed college student boyfriend to dinner and the waitress ignored me completely even when I asked for stuff. When I paid the bill I wrote “Big mistake, it’s not always the guy that pays, you ignored the paying customer.” on the receipt and left no tip. I figured writing it on the receipt meant there was a good chance management would see it.
@moondrake Wow. The most I ever do is draw hearts or turds next to my signature…
@medz @moondrake recently went to a mexican place with a great happy hour. $2.75 beers and $1 enchiladas. asked for side of sour cream, got charged $2 for it. circled it on the receipt and wrote “???”. probably should have said something, but instead chalked it up to a lesson learned. left normal tip, just wanted to let them know that i noticed their ridiculousness.
being offered extras and not told they cost extra, places who give you attitude if you have a coupon, beer in warm glasses, pitchers with 2 inches of foam
@meh you want that baked potato loaded?