Latest Pet Peeve: 2 Hr+ Waits at Restaurants!! (1 Viewer)

[Tim Fennell]

The Cheesecake Factory in Chestnut Hill (Ma) is always insane. I've seen long lines at 11:30am and imagine anything after 5pm is a very long wait.

Unless they give you a beeper so you can shop (it's in a mall) I'd just as soon go somewhere else.

We've eaten there twice but it takes luck to not have to wait at lunchtime even during midweek.

 

[MikeAlletto]

Thats ridiculious. You show up at a place, they tell you 30 minutes, so then you say no thanks. The time it takes to walk back to your car, get in, get out of the parking lot, decide on another place, drive there, park, get out, walk to hostess, put name down and wait there you could have been seated and having drinks at the first place. The problem isn't the time it takes, the problem is that people have no patience anymore. Everyone wants instant satisfaction, if they don't get it they complain about it.

I always laugh when people walk up and they are told 30, 45, or even an hour on a friday or saturday night at a popular restaurant and they say no thanks. I mean what did you expect? Every place is going to be busy.

Going to a restaurant is not just about getting seated and eating. Its about being with friends, enjoying the atmosphere, having a few drinks, and having a good time. If all you want is food then stay home or go to McDonalds.

 

[Bill Williams]

On the Border and the Red Lobster here are really bad about that as well. Extremely long waits = no service from me.

 

[Dave Gorman]

That's why I don't go to popular restaurants on a Friday or Saturday night.

As far as I'm concerned, there is no place that is worth standing/sitting in a crowded, noisy, unpleasant lobby for 30 minutes or more just to eat there. If I want to eat there, I'll plan ahead and get there at an off-peak time. If I know it's going to be a busy time, I'm not going to show up and then say "no thanks" -- I just won't show up at all.

 

[Julian Reville]

"Jerry, I'm starving! "
"How much longer?"
"Oh, five, ten minute."

 

[Bryan X]

My thoughts too.

 

[Ron-P]

Agreed. I've eaten at the one in Fashion Island, Newport Beach 4 times now and each time the food and cheesecake has been average tasting and overpriced.

I'll wait for 15 minutes, anything longer and I'm either ordering to go or off to another eatery.


Peace Out~

 

[Philip Hamm]

Actually if the place has a nice bar you can belly up to and get some drinks and appetizers before dinner it can be quite pleasant to wat. There's a local restauranteur (sp?) in this area that has about 20 restaurants under different names, one being "Sweetwater Tavern", a brew pub with fairly good beer and food. I don't mind waiting there one bit.

 

[Leila Dougan]

For a person who doesn't drink or "do" appetizers (like myself), sitting at the bar does nothing. If you're there with a group, there's not enough room at the bar. And if I was there with small children sitting around the bar wouldn't be my cup of tea either.

I don't wait more than 30 min or so especially since in my town it's not that hard to find a restaurant with no wait. I go to a restaurant to enjoy a relaxing meal because I'm *hungry*. I don't go there to feel corralled like cattle into tiny tables with elbows touching and the back of your chair being bumped into by people walking by. I do not enjoy when there are 50 people huddled in the lobby with hungry, crying children and when the decibel level in the establishment is insane.

For me, it's not necessarily the wait time that puts me off it's what the wait time is indicative of (see above). I prefer to stroll into a restaurant and be seated immediately when the place is half empty so that I can actually hear my dinner mates and enjoy a peaceful meal with quiet conversation.

I do very much appreciate fine restaurants and great food, I just find the experience much more enjoyable when I dine out during off-hours.

 

[Tom Meyer]

All those restaurants -- Cheesecake Factory, Oliver Garden, Macaroni Grill, Outback, etc.. aren't what I'd call "fancier" so I hope you're being facetious ! Anything that uses pictures as a guide to put together the dishes because the kitchen staff turns over so much or can't read doesn't qualify.

The CF in Chicago is basically filled w/ tourists and there's no way I'd go there unless forced. guess I'm a jaded City Mouse but there's no way I'd ever wait even 30 minutes to eat at an Olive Garden !

Now, for a *real* restaurant, I'd be pissed if I had to wait more than 30 mins with a reservation. Without, I'd expect it on a busy night.

Ah, Chicago and its thousands of restaurants

 

[Chuck C]

I am pleased by the large response to this thread...

I usually try to go at off-peak times, but what happens when you go with a big group that isn't ready until the start of peak times? That was the case last night.

The bottom line is that 2 hours or more is just plain crazy. I'll wait for one hour. In fact, when they say one hour, it's usually more like 45 minutes. Shoot, I went to a famous steakhouse with my buddy in Indianapolis where the wait was 2 hours. I was like hell-no, but my friend insisted we stay...so we put down a name and made a bee-line to the bar. We had drinks and appetizers within 20 minutes of our arrival, and our multi-light/coaster pager went off in another 30 minutes.

However, as was mentioned above, if you don't like the bar scene, incredible waits are pointless.

 

[Patrick Sun]

True enough, your attitude towards waiting to be seated could be related to how much of a social animal you happen to be.

For the most part, fine cuisine is lost upon me. I hate being waited upon, and don't even get me started on tipping. I'm just more of a "let me order and get out of my way" type of eater (if I go out to get something to eat).

 

[Chad A Wright]

We do the same thing of just showing up for a meal early if we know it is a crowded restaurant. I won't go anywhere that has more than a 30 minute wait, and even waiting that long would be a rare occassion for me.

 

[Francois Caron]

I also have an intolerance of waiting in line at restaurants. 30 minutes is as much as I can handle. With a reservation, I will easily tolerate a fifteen minute wait especially if the place is unusually crowded that night.

When Planet Hollywood opened in Montreal, there were two hour line-ups at the place on most nights for the first few months. Afterwards, it became reasonably easy to get a table even without a reservation. Too bad the food was crap. Badly, prepared, badly cooked, distracting atmosphere... The place closed down less than a year after it opened. Céline Dion's "Nickles" restaurant down the street had better food and a better atmosphere, but not by much.

In Montreal, there's plenty of interesting restaurants to choose from, especially in Old Montreal or around Crescent Street. If you don't like the wait time where you are, you can easily go somewhere else, often just across the street.

One person did mention take-out as an alternative. With all the condos being built in Old Montreal these days, I wonder how many high class restaurants in the area actually offer take-out?

 

[wally]

On my first, and last, visit to a Planet Hollywood I was given a “Merchandise Menu” prior to a food menu. We left and ate at local diner across the street. Walked in, sat down and ordered a great meal.

 

[Alan Erceg]

I dont usually eat out very often at "high class" restaurants, yes I think the Olive Garden is high class...lol

My g/f and I once waited, I think it was on Valentines Day for like 2 hours and 40 minutes for a table at the olive garden. I will never ever wait that long again...the food is very good there though...

 

[Eric_L]

Recently a Carrabbas opened in my town. It is primarly a retirement area so lots of blue-haired people with nothing to do made the typical wait time 2-3 hours. Needless to say I never went.

While returning from a trip my wife and I stopped at a Carrabbas in another town, about an hour north of us and were seated for dinner immediately.

We laughed out loud at the fact that people in my town could drive an hour north, eat and return home in the same time it would take just to get a table at the same local restaurant.

My only theory is that some folks just have nothing better to do.

 

[LarryDavenport]

I only waited 2 hours for a table once. My friend and I waited becasue the restaurant only had tables of four available and would not just sit two of us. It was a restaurant we really wanted to try, and by the time they sat us, half the menu was unavailable. We never went back.

One lesson learned, never go to a restaurant that just got a glowing review in the paper. Wait a couple weeks (or more).

 

[Jacinto]

My wife and I once put our name on the list at Maggiano's. We were told the wait would be 2.5 hours to be seated. Fortunately for us, we had heard about the long waits and planned ahead. We went upstairs to the movie theater, enjoyed a flick, and walked back into the restaurant just as they were calling our name!

We met on a blind date at the Cheesecake Factory in downtown Denver, and we go back to celebrate the event every year. It used to be a decent wait (around half an hour), but since they opened up another one in the suburbs, we've been able to get seated immediately every time we go. Even though we've been pretty lucky for the most part, restaurants that do not take reservations really irk me, and I try to avoid them as much as possible.

 

[Carl Miller]

According to a very good friend of mine in the restaurant business, this is actually true in many cases, most notably Outback Steakhouse.

Also true is that some restaurants such as TGI Fridays, intentionally leave tables vacant even at peak hours. I know this from firsthand experience at 2 different TGI Fridays because I bartended there at night several years ago for extra cash. I was told it is "unwritten" policy, and have never seen a TGI's that doesn't do this.

For those who may be skeptical about this, take a walk around the outside of these restaurants while you're waiting and look inside. You may be surprised by what you see, and wonder why you're actually waiting. I'm not saying they all do this, but many do.