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

[Scott Leopold]

I try to avoid the chain restaurants for several reasons. While some of the food is good, most of it is pretty bland. It's nearly impossible to try something new, or even something that doesn't taste just like everything else on the menu. I'd much rather go to one of the smaller, locally owned restaurants. There are actually some great little restaurants around here as long as you're willing to look.

The only time I've ever had to wait 2 hours for a table was when we went to J. Alexander's 8-9 years ago. They're supposedly an upscale chain restaurant, but the only time I'd been there previously, the entire experience was disappointing. They hadn't been open in the area very long, but everyone had told me how great they were--from the food to the service, they were supposed to be the best place in town. Despite the mediocre food and poor service the first time we went, we decided to give them a second tray, mainly because we had gift certificates.

They had call-ahead seating at the time, so we called and were told that our table would be ready right at 6:00 pm. We got there a couple minutes early and were told we'd have to wait. We were finally seated at 8:00 pm after I told them we were leaving and asked for a refund of the gift certificates. We were taken to our seats, and after 20 minutes or so, our waiter came out. He told us the specials, and we told him we were ready to order. He said "great!" and walked away. He came back about 15 minutes later, took only our drink orders, and left again. This was an adventure in itself. My wife ordered iced tea, which didn't cause him much of a problem. I asked if they had any dark beer. He ran through a list of half a dozen or so beers, none of which were dark. He then said he knew of one that was definitely dark. He said, "Floogles? Feagles? Fogles?" I said, "Fosters?", and he said "That's it! That's a dark beer!" I told him it wasn't, but I'd take it anyways.

He came back about 15 minutes after that and finally took our food order. My wife ordered filet mignon, and I ordered the 12 oz. New York strip. I wasn't very confident in the guy's abilities as a waiter, so I reminded him that salads come before dinner. I also asked for another iced tea, since my wife's glass had been empty for ten minutes or so. He said it'd be right out. About 30 minutes later, while still no iced tea, our salads were delivered by another waiter. Before we could even pick up our forks, our waiter was there with the steaks. I guess you could technically say that the salads were brought first, or that it was my fault since I didn't specifically tell him that the salads should be brought before the steak with enough time for us to actually eat them. He dropped our plates, told us to enjoy our meals, and quickly left before we could get another word out.

My wife's steak was burnt on the top and bottom, and raw in the middle. My 12 oz. steak contained at least 6 oz. of fat. There was a 1/2-3/4" strip of fat running alont the entire outside, as well as a 3/4-1" strip of fat running through the middle. After cutting off all the fat and leaving it in a disgusting heap on the side of the plate, I had a total of four small bites of steak. Of course, that's more edible steak than my wife got, so I should have been happy.

We sat there picking at our salads for nearly an hour, wondering where our waiter was. He finally came out and asked how everything was. I said that aside from the inedible steak and poor service, everything else was mediocre at best. He said "GREAT!", then gave us our bill and said he'd be right back to get it. I put out the gift certificates and my credit card to cover the $3 the GC's didn't, and our waiter was right there to pick them up. It was the only time all night that we didn't have to wait at least 15 minutes between his trips to our table. He was back with the receipt & CC slip in about 2 minutes. I told him that the overall experience, especially his service, really sucked, and that if not for the fact that I'd actually come back here to use them, I'd talk to the manager about a full refund of the GC's. This confused him, and I told him to just go away. I filled out the CC slip, making a very large, dark zero with lines on each side of it, just to make sure he knew that we knew we were leaving him absolutely nothing, and then left. We were given J. Alexander GC's the following year for Christmas and refused them--that experience was just too terrible to repeat.

 

[Chuck C]

ah yes, Scott...you've touched on a topic that naturally follows 'long waits to be seated'...that being 'bad experiences on busy nights'. Chain restaurant patrons need to know two facts: 1) the servers are college kids in it for a quick buck and 2) the quality of the food comes last.

I'd like to talk about this some more including a bad experience of my own and my friend's line-cook experience at one chain (teaser: instead of cutting the bad of fries and dumping it into the oil, they melted off the top of the bag and the fries followed). But I must be leaving!

 

[Scott Leopold]

At the time, I was both a waiter and a college student, and I've always been sympathetic when it's come to wait staff during busy periods. There's a huge difference between an overworked waiter and a bad one, though. J. Alexander's reputation was that it had the best food and service in town. Our first time there was barely mediocre, while this time was one of the worst experiences we ever had. In my 7 years waiting tables, I never let a table go more than 15 minutes without at least me doing a quick check on them, no matter how busy we were. I'd also never serve someone food that looked like what we got that night.

While no long wait was involved, on another occasion we ate at the Cheers in the Boston airport while waiting for our plane. We were with my brother and his wife, both of whom had also waited tables. Our waiter acted as though we were both scum and an inconvenience. My wife ordered a water. He brought it out in a rocks glass (a small, 4 oz. glass), and refused to refill it. We had only gone in for a small bite since we weren't overly hungry and didn't have much time before our flight took off, so we only ordered appetizers. I ordered the nachos, which were rather large, so my wife and I split them. He verbally refused to bring out a plate, napkin, or silverware for my wife, even though we were charged $1 extra since she was sharing. We ordered a second round of drinks, and since he didn't like my attitude (in other words, he didn't like me asking for more water, a plate, napkin and silverware for my wife), he decided not to serve me. When I called the manager over, he said that next time my wife ought to know better and order something. As we were leaving, my brother and I got into a huge argument over the tip. He was leaving $5 on a $25 bill, while I was leaving nothing. The service and attitude had been atrocious, and I wasn't going to reward someone for that. My brother said he was embarrassed and angry, and walked out. I took my time getting my coat on, and had another confrontation with the waiter, who claimed that if I didn't know any better, I should avoid coming back into the "big city". The only good thing that came out of the whole experience was that my brother had left the tip in cash, instead of leaving it on his credit card. That way I was able to pick it up as I was leaving. While that may not have been the most honest thing to do, I just couldn't have lived with myself knowing that that waiter had received any sort of a tip for the horrendous service he had given. I waited until we were safely on the ground in Columbus before giving my brother his $5 back.

 

[Eric Kahn]

Scott, you are more forgiving than I am, if a waiter had treated me like you were treated in boston, the whole airport would have heard about it before I left and I would most likely argued about the bill since they did not provide the extra plate and silverware your dollar for sharing was supposed to get you.

I would have also called the corporate management of the chain from the restaurant on my cell phone after the comment by the manager who I would have told that I have been in New york city, Chicago, LA, San Francisco and Cleveland, and never have I been treated as I had in the little town of Boston.

 

[Chuck C]

edit to my last comment: I have nothing against college kids. I happen to be one! In fact, I always sympathize with the servers at the restaurants off campus. They are usually great but also overworked. It's the punk meat-heads that come in and ruin it for the patrons that know how to behave at restaurants. Even if service is bad, I know that the servers tried their best, so I leave them a big tip.

Scott, you probably got someone who was either new or just bad at his job. To back up my comments, I find that non-college, older folks make better servers.

 

[Scott Leopold]

I normally wouldn't have been as restrained as I was, but my wife, brother and sister-in-law were all insisting that I let it slide. I also figured that things would improve once the manager came over. I generally have no problem making a stink when needed, and have been known to walk out on a check in extreme situations (the two worst instances of this involved, in addition to awful service: 1) an inedible meal that they still wanted to charge us for, as well as me ordering a beer, never getting it, then being told I had to still pay for it; and, 2) sitting at a restaurant for over an hour waiting for 3 of our 5 meals, never getting even the salads for those three meals, being offered a free round of drinks, never getting the drinks, but then being charged for them--that instance led to the restaurant eventually going out of business).

I'm generally a great tipper and not-at-all demanding--having worked as a waiter I realize how difficult it can be and I'm always willing to let things slide when someone is obviously busy or having a rough day. As long as I get prompt and somewhat courteous service (in other words, they're not scowling at me), then I'll give 20% or so. If I receive great, friendly service, I've been known to give much more. Long story short, we took my son to Hooters for his 7th birthday, the waitress was great, but the construction workers at the next table were upset because they didn't get sung to and hugged like my son did so they cussed her out and walked out on their bill. We left over 40% total because of the great service and out of sympathy for the awful treatment the other table gave her.

On the other hand, as difficult as it can be, it's not at all difficult to smile at your customers and give them a quick, honest explanation when the meal's taking longer than it should. Even on my worst days, I never let my personal problems impact my service, and if the kitchen staff was screwing off (or some other big problem occurred), I'd do whatever it took to make it up to my customers (a free beer or dessert could mean the difference between a great tip/return customer and no tip/disgruntled customer). When someone's clearly not making any effort, or is sharing their bad attitude with me, I'll speak with my wallet. If it's bad enough, I'll involve the manager. If it's really bad, I'll do my best to make their day as bad as they've made mine.

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

I went to one Outback steakhouse, don't know if it's standard policy at the chain or not, but when you went in, if there was a long enough wait, they'd tell you approximately how long it is, and hand you a pager. Then, you bugger off. They page you when your table's about ready.

 

[MarkHastings]

There's a very popular seafood restaurant in my state and whenever my band plays there (on a Sat. night) we always check to see what the wait is...3+ hours was the wait last time (Dec. 17, 2003).

I just recently went to a fancy restaurant and had 7pm reservations. It's the type of restaurant that only takes 5, 7, and 9pm reservations for the entire restaurant...We showed up to the place and there were over a dozen people waiting outside (it was cold out). We had 7pm reservations and my brother (thinking they didn't all have reservations) was like (in a victorious voice) "Well, watch as we walk right past them all..."

Little did we know that everyone outside also had 7pm reservations and we had to wait outside for over 20 minutes! - We actually caused quite a stir when we were finally called in. This one guy (who had been waiting a while) was furious that we were going in ahead of him.

He said something like (in a snotty tone) "Well! I guess you have to know someone to get a table" - and my sister-in-law replied "We do!" to him, even though we really didn't

Hopefully that ticked him off even more because he was being a real dick about the whole situation.

People need to CHILL when they go out to eat. It's not good to eat when you're stressed.

 

[Chuck C]

Mark, that reminds me of an experience I had once. I met my parents, brother, aunt and uncle at a restaurant once. They arrived about 15 minutes before I, and they gathered around the bar. When I walked in, there were about 20-30 people waiting to be seated. I tried to make my way to the bar, and this one dude was physically blocking while scornfully saying 'you have to put your name down.' I didn't say anything as I forced my way through to the bar. Boy was he embarassed when he saw me gleefully united with my family.

 

[Mike Voigt]

I intensely dislike having to wait for a table more than about 15-30 minutes, but that also depends on the type of place. If possible, I make reservations ahead of time, especially for larger groups, because the restaurant often has to arrange for those, and they should get a bit of early warning.

OTOH, there are times I like to go to a place on the spur of the moment. However, we always pick out one or two other restaurants, depending on whether we expect a wait. If it is just too long, then we go on; they're usually close by.

I've left - once - a massive tip before (100%) on one occasion where my wife and I received absolutely flawless service, on our anniversary - not overdone, but perfectly timed. The waiter knew to a 't' when to refill, had the dinner out about a minute after we were done with our salads, etc., etc. Just perfect - the guy ought to open up a training school. I doubt this will ever happen again - it was almost like that waiter read minds, that was how well he - and the kitchen - executed.

My normal habit is 15% for good service, 20% for exceptional service. On rare occasions it might hit 25%.

I prefer local joints to chains. However, I have to say we have a bit of a soft spot for Carrabbas or CF.

Speaking of Carrabba's, here's a trick - if it is just two of you, and they have this, go to the eating bar - usually right in front of the cooking area. It's fun, you can josh with the personnel while they're getting your food ready, and every now and then they may make a batch of something or other and just give it to some or all of the folks at the bar, for free. Nice way to try out appetizers, etc. My personal favorite from Carrabbas is their oven-fresh pizza; watched it made right in front of my eyes many times. A couple times, they even asked me, as they were making it, if I wanted this or that on there... nice.

 

[wally]

So looks like Cheesecake Factory is about 50% 50% I'd like a vote on Melting Pot for the most over rated/over priced chain.

My vote is