I'm kind of a freshman foodie... I love all kinds of food and enjoy eating out. (Doesn't food always taste better when someone else makes it?) I enjoy everything from fancy foo foo fine dining to the roadside dives. I am not a food snob. I recently started doing reviews on urbanspoon and am bothered by people's reviews where they let one bad server ruin their experience and therefore give the restaurant a horrible review because of it.
For years I worked in restaurants (high school and college) and have worked in most positions -dishwasher, prep-cook, hostess, server, and bartender. I can tell you in most circumstances when you are seated and nobody comes to take your order (the biggest complaint) that it's usually a miscommunication between whoever seated you (the hostess or another server) and the server who is assigned to that section. I know that you would think that they would notice you but believe me when you're waiting tables all day- after awhile everybody starts to look the same and you don't even realize the people at the table previous to you have left yet. The other common mistake that happens is when the hostess seats too many people in the same section at the same time. That means the waitress has to pass out all the menus and give the specials at the same time, take drink orders, etc. The proper way to seat customers is to stagger them between sections so no one server is getting overloaded with customers at the same time. Sometimes this happens when too many customers request to sit in booths, near the window, etc. When I read complaints where someone waited for 10-15 minutes and no one came so they got up and left - I'm like- "how are they going to notice you left if they didn't notice you sitting there to begin with?" The best thing to do is grab the attention of any server or go up to the hostess stand and let them know. Every restaurant manager wants you to have a good experience, and if you politely let then know of the mishap they will likely make it up to you in some way.
Keep in mind too if it's a new restaurant, that there are a lot of growing pains and kinks to work out so by you letting them know, they can address these issues so they don't happen again.
The biggest mistake customers make is NOT waiting to be seated. The biggest complaint from servers - when people just walk in and sit at a table that hasn't been cleared yet. (especially when there are plenty of clean tables) UUggggh! That means you have to drop everything you are doing (ignoring your other customers) and clean off the table so the customers don't have to stare at half eaten grilled cheese. Worst case scenario - the server thinks you are the last people there and thinks you haven't left yet, therefore ignores you. Waiting to be seated will not delay you getting served.
Sometimes the server is just having a bad day at work. (Haven't we all had those?) Maybe they are short staffed, or she had to take something back and the cook was a jerk, maybe the last customer stiffed her on a tip. Just try to remember that we are all human and we can only do our best most of the time. I'm sure you are not the perfect worker 100% of the time and wouldn't want people to judge your employer when you are not at your best.
So let's give everybody a break here and try to salvage something good from something bad. I always give restaurants second chances when the first time wasn't good. Let them know while you are there so they can remedy the situation. And then maybe you won't have to let it ruin your time and go home bitch about it on social media websites.
No comments:
Post a Comment