Servers & Chefs
WAITRESS' NAME
This is event happened while I was the chef at a restaurant on Cape Cod.
One busy summer night two restaurant waitresses, Kelly and Mary, were trying to
help each turn tables so that we could accommodate another seating before
closing time. Kelly asked Mary to add up a check and drop it at a table that was
waiting to leave. Mary added up the check and wrote a salutation to thank the
diners for their business. Kelly then went to the table to pick up the check.
The diners commented on what an interesting name she had and did it run in her
family. She brought the check back to the kitchen and read Mary's salutation. It
read, "Thank You Anus." 6/08
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THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING SERVER
Dining experience that definitely was NOT kosher...or.... server in need of a
GPS! Well known chain kosher style deli in Tampa Bay area. Husband and I have
eaten here often, and have found the service to be somewhat inconsistent, but
never this bad. We started with an appetizer - which came out fine, but we still
did not have eating utensils, and our server magically disappeared for the
longest time. I had to get up, walk over to the hostess station, and then waited
there for what felt like 5 minutes for someone to appear. Finally, utensils are
brought to our table, but food is now room temp. Salad and soup arrives next.
Salad dressing on side in cup has white scum on top. Of course where is our
server? Who knows.
I sit there and give it exactly 10 minutes, when I have to get up AGAIN and go
to the hostess station. This time the manager is there and I explain to him that
our server just disappears and I show him the tainted salad dressing. Some time
later the server shows up to ask what other type of salad dressing I
want....again he disappears for some time, and I flag down another server who
brings me my salad dressing. Next our meals come.....and Oh My God. My husband
had ordered the brisket on top of potato pancakes, with NO gravy. Of course, the
meal is swimming in gravy. I ordered the salmon cakes, but asked for potatoes
instead of rice. And what did you think was on my plate? Rice, of course, and it
was cold. And worse yet, the veg of the day was supposed to be green beans.
Instead we get creamed spinach - to which our server says they ran out of green
beans. Now, my husband is lactose intolerant and can not eat this...and I just
plain do not want to. We were never told nor asked if we wanted to substitute
the veggie. Or it should have been taken off the bill.
Well, again our server disappears before we can protest our dinner, and I had to
get up once again, find another server and demand that the manager come to our
table. Before the manager arrives, the server comes back and asks what is wrong
(seems he could find his way back quick then). We told him to look at our plates
and see if that is what we ordered. He said yes it was and we said no it wasn't,
and that we couldn't eat creamed spinach. He just looks down, says sorry, and
walks away never to be seen again.
Manager arrives, we explain very patiently, and to the manager's credit he comps
our meal, but we decide to leave anyway since we now are completely disgusted
with the whole ordeal. We believe this is a good lesson in why you should stick
to local eating joints, because the chain places do not train their staffs to
get it right or care to get it right. We will heed our own advice from now on.
1/21/08
SELF SERVICE RESTAURANT
Back when I was working on my undergrad, I played in a band to make money to pay
my bills. One night, around 2 am, after playing a gig in a medium-sized town
several hours away, we decided to stop at an all-night dinner in a small town on
our way home. When we first arrived we were told to pick any seat we wanted, but
that it would be about 15 minutes until we would be served because they were
having a shift change and had to close out the registers. The group I was with
agreed that this would be fine and patiently waited.
After 30 minutes of waiting, our server finally comes over to the table and
takes our order. None of us ordered a big meal; just soda, coffee, hash-browns,
and eggs. After waiting for 20 minutes, I try to flag the waitress over, but she
was preoccupied with a phone call. After several more minutes of waiting, one of
our group gets fed up with the service and gets our drinks for us. About 10
minutes later the waitress comes over and says "Good, someone brung yall, yall's
drinks" (it was in the deep south and she really did say it this way);
apparently not noticing that she was the only waitress in the place. At this
point, we ask if we could have some refills and if she knew when our food would
be ready. She responds by saying that she has yet to turn in our order to the
cook but she was on her way to do it.
My group and I were fairly frustrated by now, but with no other eating options
for two hours in either direction we agree that we should just wait it out. A
few minutes later we see our food come up in the window from the cook and still
the waitress is chatting on the phone with no interest in serving us. After
waiting long enough that we feared our food would be cold, we just went and got
it ourselves along with our own refills. After finishing our food we chatted for
another half hour about the poor service, especially noticing that we were the
only people, although many had come and gone, who actually had anything to eat
or drink. After this we decided that we were ready to leave, but the waitress
showed no interest in taking our money (we had intended to pay with a credit
card). So we figured out what our bill was and left the cash on the table, along
with three pennies from the take-a-penny jar for a tip, just to be spiteful.
11/07
THE WITTY WAITRESS
The information board at the front of the hotel-based diner proudly proclaimed,
"We have borscht every day," should have given us pause. But we had been driving
for 3 hours without breakfast, and it was 10:00 a.m. with another 3 to go, and
on New Year's Day, there wasn't a lot open. The restaurant was packed - usually
a good sign.
When we sat down the waitress immediately told us a long, rambling story about
gambling, leaving me wondering if she was extremely hung-over or perhaps
mentally ill. Coffee and toast appeared immediately. And then the wait began.
After 30 minutes, an indescribably inedible breakfast (including sausages of an
unnatural greenish color) was placed in front of us. During this 30 minutes, we
started to notice that NO ONE in the restaurant had anything except coffee and
toast.
After we were served, the lady with four children at the table behind us meekly
pointed out to the server that they had nothing but coffee and toast, and they
had been here longer than our table. The server stated that they had only
ordered cereal. "No," says the hapless mother, her voice breaking "remember, I
gave you a coupon for two farmer's breakfasts. And we haven't gotten the cold
cereal either, and it's been almost an hour." "But if you'd ordered eggs," says
the server with infallible logic, "I would have asked you what kind of toast and
how you wanted your eggs." "I did," said the frazzled mother, "I said wheat
toast [which we've eaten] and scrambled."
"I honest to God don't remember that," said the server. "Never mind," says the
diner, "just bring me the check for what we've had." "Oh," said the server
airily, "I couldn't charge you for just coffee and toast."
As we were leaving, my mother hit the restroom. On the way back, she heard a
father telling his teenage children that they were leaving, "But," says the 15
year-old boy, plaintively, "we haven't eaten. We only had coffee and toast."
11/07
FINGER-LICKIN' GOOD
This formerly famous Baltimore restaurant is no longer in business, thankfully.
I was not the recipient of this disgusting story, but I witnessed it. I was at
dinner with my husband, our 2 1/2 year old son and newborn daughter, and my
mother, who had come to town to help with the baby. We took her to dinner at
this wonderful restaurant which was famous for its floor to ceiling artwork...
We had a nice dinner, no problems. However, the large birthday party table
behind me was about to, and they never knew: the waitress who was cutting their
strawberry shortcake pushed each piece of cake onto a dessert plate, licked her
fingers, and cut and pushed the next piece - over and over again. Her back was
to their table, so they could not see what she was doing. I found the first
person who looked like they were in management, and ratted her out. You kind of
wonder why places close. Perhaps persistent food poisoning did this one in???
11/07
A SIP FOR THE SERVER
My sister and I dined at a well-regarded French restaurant in Providence, Rhode
Island, where the food turned out to be excellent but the service something
less. The coup de grace came when our waiter brought the (rather expensive)
bottle of wine we ordered. Declaring that he wasn't sure if it was properly
chilled, he poured some in a glass and drank it! Then he left us with the rest
of the bottle. I guess we should be glad he didn't want to make sure our food
was warm enough! 11/07
RESTAURANT DISHES OUT RUDENESS
This story is short and not really that sweet...
Three friends and I went to a steakhouse one Saturday night, and the waiter took
our drink order first, like usual. We all ordered flavored soft drinks that the
bar would have to mix for us. The drinks did not come until an hour
later...after we had gotten our meals. Then, as we were eating our meals, the
waiter began to bus the booth behind us (the restaurant was packed and we ended
up sitting at a table that was made for six, leaving two extra chairs at one end
of the table) and proceeded to put the dirty dishes on the empty end of our
table. We looked on in utter disbelief, and even the people whose table was
being bused looked shocked. I have no idea why we didn't get the manager.
10/07
CALAMARI CONFUSION
Not long ago I went to a restaurant to celebrate Oktoberfest with my boyfriend
and a friend. We ordered few beers and some appetizers. Fifteen long minutes
later we received our drinks, and it took an additional half hour for the food.
Apparently there are two calamari dishes, the appetizer and a sandwich. We
thought we had ordered the appetizer, but were given a large sandwich.
Explaining the confusion, the waiter took back the sandwich and offered to bring
the calamari appetizer. We decided this would be a good time to order another
round. We got the calamari fairly promptly, but apparently they had run out of
clean glasses, so we had to wait for other patrons to finish their drinks before
we could receive ours. Due to this extremely slow service, we asked for the
check...which was given to us...$35 dollars on beer and appetizers. I paid with
my check card and we were just about ready to go when I received my receipt... I
had been charged $651! How does that even happen?! I ran over to the waiter and
showed him the receipt. He fixed it, but needless to say, I won't be returning
there any time soon! 10/07
Signed, Slow and Overcharged
WOULD YOU LIKE TOAST WITH THAT?
My father wanted to have lunch for the purpose of making an important
announcement, he had decided to remarry, and so we went to a restaurant near my
sister's home. It was a nice enough looking place, I'd describe it as a step up
from the "flare" type of eatery, and since it was lunch time we ordered
sandwiches.
First, Dad orders a tuna salad sandwich which earned him a lecture from the
haughty waiter that it's not "tuna salad" but just tuna. Sorry, but anyplace
I've ever gone that made shredded tuna with mayonnaise has called that tuna
salad. Whatever, he should have known what was meant and held his tongue. Then
he asked if he wanted the bread toasted. This guy was real big on pushing toast.
For myself I ordered a ham sandwich. I was asked if I wanted it toasted and I
said no. I can't remember what my sister ordered.
So my food shows up and it wasn't ham and it was on toast. I pointed out that it
wasn't what I ordered and the waiter offered a weak apology but then added "you
did ask for toast, though". No, I did not ask for toast. It was this pony tailed
passive-aggressive "server" who was all about toast, not me.
Dad was paying, so the waiter earned his standard 15% before taxes tip. If it
was me, I would have stiffed him. Dude was definitely in the wrong business.
I don't think that restaurant is around anymore. 10/07
SURLY WAITER, WON'T YOU BE MY VALENTINE?
My wife
and I were long looking forward to a romantic
Valentine's Day dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant
in Tampa. We were promptly seated at a candlelit
table that had been reserved for us. As we reviewed
the menus, a tuxedo-clad waiter came to our table
and asked if we were ready to order. I told him that
we were just given our menus, and that we planned to
take our time for the special occasion. Sporting a
slight curl in one of his lips, the waiter said in a
haughty tone that we only had an hour to spend at
the table since another party was due to arrive at
that time. My wife
and I looked at each other in astonishment as he
brusquely walked away from our table. I found the
maitre d' and told him about the rudeness, and how
much the special occasion meant to
us. He said the waiter was new, and that he'd speak
with him. The waiter said nothing the rest of the
evening about us having to leave early, but he was
clearly peeved. Just to spite him, we remained at
our table for nearly 3 hours. I usually tip well,
but I gave the waiter 12%, which actually was too
much. If I spend my money and my time at a
restaurant, I expect to have an enjoyable
experience, especially with my wife on Valentine's
Day. 01/07
Signed, Spiteful Hearted
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