Topic: Eating out? (Read 6658 times)

Anonymous · « **on:** November 04, 2003, 12:45:05 PM »

Restaurants are fun. I’m the kinda guy that really loves to cook, but hates to clean the mess afterwards. And trust me, if I cook, you may need to repaint your ceiling. So instead, I go out to eat. I get the majority of my meals in restaurants and I wanted to discuss a few patterns that I have observed.

Everyone has been to fast food places. I noticed a few interesting things about them. 80% of the time, they don’t understand the phrase “No mustard”. I even tried using “No mustard PLEASE” and that didn’t seem to improve the odds. So now I go and say “Every time I come here, I ask for no mustard and I get mustard anyway. When that happens, I have to come back to your little counter, return the burger and get you to prepare a new one. You don’t want me coming back here today buddy. Trust me!” And although this requires a lot more effort on my part and makes me look like an asshole, at least I get what I want. But because this tactic was so efficient, I found a huge draw back. In fact, I was so shocked by this discovery that I stopped using the sentence that was getting me results. You see, I figured “What if I’m getting more than I asked for?” I worked in fast food when I was young and some people are just fucking unfair demanding and whiny. And those are the kind of people you wanna take a dump in their burger. Of course, I have principles. I would never do anything to the food just to feel better. But I recognise that a lot of people don’t. So in my quest to getting what I asked for, I ended up wanting to thank the guy for not spitting in my burger! They have the upper hand here. You don’t want to piss any of them off! So now I just shut up when they get it wrong. But that’s not really fair is it? So the safest approach to this problem was to simply not order any food that requires condiments. Gimme nuggets and fries. You can’t really screw up on that so I’ll have no reason to get pissed at you and you’ll have no reason to spit in my food. It’s a reasonable compromise.

Now what about the restaurants where you get served? Waiter? Hello??? I’m fucking thirsty here! The ice cubs are slowly melting so I can manage to get a few sips of water every 5 minutes, but can you get your fucking ass over pronto?? I can die of thirst for free. I’m not paying you to do it for me. Ever had those thoughts? That’s essentially how I base my tipping. If I have to ask for water, or a pop refill, or any form of liquid to quench my thirst, then that person just lost half her tip at least. When I go out, I don’t want to be bothered. I just want to eat, have fun, and not be your friend. So cut the chit chat. It won’t get you a bigger tip. It will do the opposite in fact. If I wanted to socialize with strangers, I wouldn’t be here. Now fetch me a beer bitch! That’s also something that too often crosses my mind while I’m politely smiling at the waitress who won’t shut up.

I could go on and on with more examples of bad service. The only difference with being served by someone or being at the fast food is the way you express your satisfaction, or lack of it. In fast food, you have to be vocal. But you risk ending up with buggers on your burgers. With service, you get to display your satisfaction with the tip. I can be a very generous tipper and I can leave you a penny. You have to work for it. So your food is safe from a stranger’s saliva because they only become aware of your dissatisfaction at the end of the meal. However, those bastards have quite a memory. They associate a face with a tip amount. So beware if you come back. They have the upper hand here too. So you can either hop from place to place and never come back to a place where you got bad service in order to avoid a special food treatment. Or you can shut up and tip regardless of the service. Either way, it’s not fair to the consumer.

So my question is how the hell does the consumer get true value for his money? One one hand, the consumer makes choices. Choices about the menu, about the location, about the style of food, etc. But on the other hand, he can’t pick who serves him. I think he should. I’d like to walk into a place and say “You know what, I’ve been here before. I was served by xxxx and I want to be served by xxxx again because I was very satisfied and xxxx made my dining experience enjoyable last time.” I’d like to be able to say that and not get a strange look. That should be the new way of eating out. Everyone should pick who serves them. And think of the possibilities as an employer! Think about the performance evaluations! “OK… Let me see… you hade 50% less customers than the average. That must mean you suck. Pack your bags.” And in the end, if we had a system like that, the consumer would end up with the upper hand.

Anonymous · « **Reply #1 on:** November 04, 2003, 02:57:48 PM »

As usual, since I'm the person with no life that has been working at a fast food place for quite some time now, I can comment on the whole "screwing up people's orders" thing. A good portion of the time, I would say the order is rung up right. The problem happens in the grill. Either they make the wrong thing, put the wrong sticker on it, or the person that gave you the food took the wrong thing.

Next time Judge, you should just throw the food in the back at the workers since it's most likely their screw up, not the person at the register.

I'm generally a good tipper when it comes to leaving them. I feel like I have to be generous for some reason no matter what kind of service I get. Then again, I always have the debate of how they already are getting paid from the resturant that they really don't need the extra money. In some cases though, the waiters rely on them for their income to feed and clothe themselves, so I don't want to wind up being an asshole and not leaving anything.

Demosthenes · « **Reply #2 on:** November 04, 2003, 04:38:29 PM »

I believe in over-tipping, particularly at places where I am a regular. In a couple of pubs in particular around here, I get treated like royalty when I come in, all because I tip about 3 to 5 % more than the average customer does around here.

Doesn't cost me that much more, but I always have a table, I can run a tab and pay it off whenever I feel like it, and if I order something from the kitchen, I always get extras and freebies when they know it's me (like an extra side of shrimp with my steak, or twice the number of mozzarella sticks that normally come out).

Of course, these places are excellent pubs to begin with; otherwise I'd never bother. But for good service and good food, I feel it's worth tipping a little extra.

pseudonymph · « **Reply #3 on:** November 05, 2003, 11:25:42 AM »

Would you be surprised to know that people really do ask not to be served by certain employees? They like the place; they like the food; they just can't stand that server. But I always sit at the bar, if possible, they give better service usually.

Anonymous · « **Reply #4 on:** November 05, 2003, 02:43:38 PM »

No not suprised at all. But I think that should actually be normal. Most restaurants have a system where all tables are numbered and waiters are assigned specific tables. I say scrap the system, and let the client decide. Or better yet, every place should have a policy that says"If you go thirsty on us, your meal is on us".

Oh yeah!!!

Anonymous · « **Reply #5 on:** November 05, 2003, 02:49:10 PM »

I have a feeling that if clients got to choose what waiter they got, there would be problems that would arise. For instance, if it was a choice between one white waiter and one black waiter one night, and you chose the white waiter, the other guy would cry racial profiling for not picking him.

Anonymous · « **Reply #6 on:** November 05, 2003, 03:00:18 PM »

And he should get fired for doing so!

Binoboy · « **Reply #7 on:** November 06, 2003, 11:27:21 AM »

Quote from: TheJudge

And he should get fired for doing so!

But that'd be wrongful termination and discriminatory practices.

Anonymous · « **Reply #8 on:** November 06, 2003, 11:30:39 AM »

But that'd be wrongful termination and discriminatory practices.

[/quote]

Not if he makes a big scene and hurts business, or effects the way the place is run. They would have no trouble in firing him then if they have a good reason to. But if it was strictly based on the fact that he was black and people don't like him, I could see some problems there.

usernameless · « **Reply #9 on:** November 07, 2003, 07:29:07 PM »

Who says you can't pick who you want? If you don't want Joe Blow to serve you, tell him he sucks and say you want somebody else. I mean what the hell are they going to tell you? That you're a bad customer and they don't want your business? No, they'll say okay, Joe, apparently you effin suck, we'll have Lucy With the Big Jugs be the server. This usually goes fine and well for me, until my whiny ass girlfriend gets all annoyed with me being loud in public. Oh well.

Min · « **Reply #10 on:** November 07, 2003, 08:39:42 PM »

Mom? Is that you?

Anonymous · « **Reply #11 on:** November 07, 2003, 10:39:28 PM »

Quote from: usernameless

Who says you can't pick who you want? If you don't want Joe Blow to serve you, tell him he sucks and say you want somebody else. I mean what the hell are they going to tell you? That you're a bad customer and they don't want your business? No, they'll say okay, Joe, apparently you effin suck, we'll have Lucy With the Big Jugs be the server. This usually goes fine and well for me, until my whiny ass girlfriend gets all annoyed with me being loud in public. Oh well.

Depending on the reason why you don't want them to serve you, your request may or may not be honored by the person in charge. If you tell the manager that you don't want them to serve you because they are black or if they have a lisp that makes them "sound gay", then you'll most likely find yourself being kicked out, or not served until you let them serve you. If, on the other hand, you complain about them being rude or slow, the request may be honored.

TnSpaceSquirrel · « **Reply #12 on:** December 12, 2003, 07:23:48 PM »

I agree. Service workers don't make enough. When I am always greeted with a smile I leave a pretty good tip.

Quote from: Demosthenes

I believe in over-tipping, particularly at places where I am a regular. In a couple of pubs in particular around here, I get treated like royalty when I come in, all because I tip about 3 to 5 % more than the average customer does around here.

.

zumba · « **Reply #13 on:** July 02, 2004, 02:28:55 PM »

SWEET JESUS WHAT JUST DRIBBLED OUT MY ASS?!?!?

phyre · « **Reply #14 on:** July 02, 2004, 02:39:58 PM »

Nice edit, whomever.

hackess · « **Reply #15 on:** July 02, 2004, 02:42:22 PM »

Thanks. I should really start signing these things.

xolik · « **Reply #16 on:** July 02, 2004, 03:09:34 PM »

Why I never tick off my food server: http://stainedapron.com/

pbsaurus · « **Reply #17 on:** July 02, 2004, 04:13:07 PM »

Having worked in the industry, stained apron is fairly authentic. Some of my employees pulled some doozies!

News:

Recent Forum Posts

Shout Box

Author Topic: Eating out? (Read 6658 times)

Anonymous

Anonymous

Anonymous

Anonymous

Anonymous

Anonymous

usernameless

Anonymous

zumba