Just an "I couldn't believe it" waiter moment. Went to a Thai place for dinner last nice.

C

cynupstateny

Well-known member
Small, family owned, but nice. There was a party of eight across from us. Polite, knew what they wanted, no hurry.

First the waiter (son of the owners) told them he was far too busy to do four separate checkes. The meal included either soup or salad. He said to the group "OK- everyone who wants soup, raise your hand" He also told them he couldn't be responsible for any mistakes in their orders if they spoke too fast.

I asked for extra heat in my dinner and he forgot that, too.

The problem with reducing the tip was that HE didn't bring the food- his sisters did. He only took the orders.

Just wanted to rant.

 
Contrast that with my favorite Greek place. The owners run everything. When she takes..

..the orders, she does it from memory. She never writes anything down at the table.

She is always perfect and when you go to pay, she writes up the ticket from memory and rings it up.

I love it.

Michael

 
Geez, that's pretty bad. The problem with reducing the tip is that the owners won't know.

I was a waiter for 10 years. Only a polite complaint to the owner or manager will have any impact. Tell them how much you normally like the place. Also, sending back the food for extra heat will force them to pay more attention to special requests in the future.

Separate checks are another issue. Many restaurants won't do them because they often don't all get paid. I hated them. It's almost impossible as a waiter to get four orders from a busy kitchen at the same time.

 
It always bothered me that wait staff refused to do separate checks

In one way I understand their problem with it, but if 4 separate couples came in and sat at separate tables, would they not serve them because "it's our policy"? They're lucky they have a crowd in this economy.

Besides that, you nailed it - "the waiter (son of the owners)" - he'd never make it in the real world.

They probably split the tips there, especially if it's family. A phone call or comment to the owner (if you go again) would be about your only option I guess. Sorry.

 
Dawn, if they sat at separate tables they would be served one at a time.

A party of 8 expects to be treated as one party. the kitchen will treat every order of 2 separately.

Say, a waiter has 6 tables and 6 tickets in his pocket. It's pretty simple and he can then concentrate on all the other aspects of making people happy. But if he has a dozen or more tickets in his pocket, he's much more likely to screw something up. It's very confusing, and detracts from the service.

And then there were times when two people would want to split a dessert. I'd ask "Who's check does that go on?" and they'd stare at me like I had 3 heads.

I'm not saying restaurants should refuse to do it, I'm just saying you'll get better service if you don't ask for separate checks.

 
And I see your point--restaurants have to be extra accomodating in this economy.

 
The separate check thing has always been a pet peeve

I traveled with my work, and there was always a group of us that went together to the same classes or conferences. We HAD to have our own checks to turn into the finance dept or we'd be in trouble. One time, there were eight of us and when the wait staff came to our table, my boss told her we needed separate checks. She said, "I can't do that". All it took was for her to spot his gun under his jacket when he moved his arm to agree to our request. He was a police officer....I was so impressed....since I was the only civilian in the group.
Separate checks are really no problem now as most restaurants have computerized and the wait staff puts info. into their hand held device, and it is all figured for them.

 
We had a bad dining experience last night too - noticed the full moon and wondered

Most of our problems were with the staff and not actually the food. I had a coupon for a hibachi grill - DD thought she liked THIS hibachi grill, I wanted to eat in the sushi bar area. We were seated long before the father and two young sons were seated. We got a beginner chef that couldn't even hold on to his spatula during hi show opening. Fried rice - tink he put teriaki on it - too sweet and he was throwing it everywhere. Never seen a hibachi chef so messy. Served the father and sons first - now I know that most Asian cultures serve men first but come on, your in America and it's women first or first seated for heavens sake. Cooked the shrimp and gave the father and one son the typical 2 shrimp sample and the rest to the other son. None for us. Cooke their steaks and swordfish and served it before even putting ours on the grill. The 'expert' chef came over to the table next to us after he had put their steaks on. He gave all his people 2 shrimp, did a much better 'volcano' (our guy's lighter barely sparked and he couldn't get things to catch on fire but then he would put more oil on there after he finally got it lit and nearly singed all our hair!). But most of all, he had a full table of 8 vs our 5 with chicken, steaks and shrimp and he finished his whole thing within about two minutes of our guy finally finishing our food and serving us.

Then getting the bill and getting it back so I coud leave was another 15 minutes or better. She took care of the father and sons and ten never checked back for the longest.

Needless to say - second and last time there. First experience was good but I'm over hibachi and bad service!!!

 
This is a perfect time to talk to the mother. I would bet money the daughters..

can speak some English, and you can make it clear through them the result of the son's atttude. You gotta know the daughters wouldn't like their tip reduced for their obnoxious brother's actions. Junior may be looking for aifferent place to work if his approach to customers does't change.

 
Not sure about guns justifying separate checks, but could it not have been arranged beforehand?

one waitperson, especially assigned to the large party, willing to do separate checks, sans firearms, with perhaps a pre-arranged menu? (And gratuity).

I still don't see how computers can figure out who is paying for a shared dessert. Again, it comes down to this: do you want to pay your waiter to treat you like royalty or to keep tabs on dozens of tabs?

I'm part of a non-profit and sometimes have to be re-imbursed from scrappy reciepts with certain items circled that are reimbursible and others not. It's not a big deal becase my lowly fax machine is also a copier. f you don't have a copier, doesn't the finance department? I can't believe it's that hard for corporations to remimburse for random expenses that weren't arranged beforehand. Brandishing weapons should really not be involved, lol.

 
A lot of companies have the "VIP" policy - the most senior person at the meal

pays the tab and remits it on their expense report.

 
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