Jude 2

Well, pet peeves are always a good way to get everyone talking. What are some of your biggest pet peeves while dining out? Pertaining to the wait staff, food, other diners, etc? Here are some to get us started:

-The move toward across the board 20% gratituity
-One used to be smoking but now we don't worry about it.
-Everyone's food arriving at different times
-Longer than promised wait times
-Fellow diners who are consistently unhappy

Not enough booths
No sharing
No substitutions
Massive servings
Coffee considered an additional drink at end of meal
Over-friendly waiters that interrupt you every 5 minutes
Different waiters serving drinks, taking orders, serving orders
Drinks not being refilled
Televisions in every nook and cranny

I could go on and on... (DeWayne, why'd you have to bring this up)

Why do I even bother to go out?!

• Snooty waiters who sneer when I ask for a piece of meat I am paying for to be completely cooked.

• Having that supposedly well-done piece of meat bleed over over my plate like a wounded water buffalo because it is merely seared on the outside/still raw in the middle.

• Menus written in such stilted, effete French language you have to guess what is being ordered: andouillette hure de porc sounds snootier than tripe sausage and pigs head, and costs more, too.

• Overly friendly/flirty wait staff: get me my food, correctly and promptly and keep my liquids refreshed. Period. I tip well if you do.

• Being seated at a table that has been slightly bussed, but not cleaned... obvious oily streaks, grease, crumbs... or the booth looks like somebody poured butter on the seat.

Above all else


DRINKS NOT BEING FILLED.... I am easy to please but this is a must
Get the order correct
wait time to be at least within 15 minutes of what they said
cant stand cold coffee
PEOPLE THAT BRING 6 KIDS IN WITH THEM:lol: ( I am kidding, that was thrown in there for FQ and ILBC...... I usually go with a group of people and have more kids with us then that:wink:

to be honest though as long as the wait is not to long and my drink is filled they get a good tip

the mandatory tip kills me....we "always" tip well if it is "deserved" but it always seemed to me that the service was not as good when they knew they were getting a mandatory tip...

We delt with this alot...for about 2 years my family alone was a party of 13! That usually generated the mandatory tip on the reciept...

This is among others..

dirty bathrooms...
dirty wait staff...
basically dirty anything...come on...I'm trying to eat here!

Smoking areas too close to non-smoking or having smoking areas period.

Tarheelone wrote:Smoking areas too close to non-smoking or having smoking areas period.

In most places today smoking in any public building is illegal, thank God. I realize you live in a state that has a historic tobacco industry, and it is less likely such bans on smoking exist there.

Here's a side question for you: do restaurants in NC still have smoking sections? If so, are we going to all smell like ashtrays after lunch breaks during the 2010 Assembly?

soulsearcher wrote:Massive servings

I thought you were from the south?
I assumed anybody from Paula Deen Territory
or below believed in generous portions with
at least a stick of butter on the side!

My biggest peeve is the "Non Smoking" section
that is separated from the smoking section
by a 2 foot wide walk way. If I had known
I was waiting 30 minutes to sit 2 feet from the
smoke - I would have just sat in the smoking
section to begin with. Had that happen once &
the smoke was so thick my eyes watered.

Pianoman wrote:My biggest peeve is the "Non Smoking" section
that is separated from the smoking section
by a 2 foot wide walk way. If I had known
I was waiting 30 minutes to sit 2 feet from the
smoke - I would have just sat in the smoking
section to begin with. Had that happen once &
the smoke was so thick my eyes watered.

I have not seen a "Smoking Section" in years except when I travel. It's 2008 people -- insist on some laws in your area to ban smoking inside ANY place public accommodation.

Where I live, you can't smoke with 20 feet of the entrance of any public building, or inside. It hurt us big-time with Japanese tourists who smoke a LOT, but we have held our ground. You can't even smoke inside Aloha Stadium during a football game! HOORAY. (Now if they could ban beer sales during games we wouldn't have to deal with obnoxious drunks, fist-fights, groping of girls who walk past, and staggering beer drinkers sloshing beer on other people.)

When near the end of the meal you ask for a drink refill and they bring you a to-go cup. I guess I got the message. I think my tip sent a message too.

I also hate the massive servings!!

I hate when I am treated as though I should feel privileged to be in that restaurant. It is they who are privileged to have me as a CUSTOMER!!!!

Jinjer

I thought of another one. When they're out of pretty much everything you went there to get in the first place.

I thought of another one. When they're out of pretty much everything you went there to get in the first place.

Yea, like being out of buns at a hamburger place. Or, BBQ Chicken at the BBQ place.

Jinjer

the only one that i have is this......

eating alone ....never gets fast service!!

"Here's a side question for you: do restaurants in NC still have smoking sections? If so, are we going to all smell like ashtrays after lunch breaks during the 2010 Assembly?"

The "2010 Homecoming Assembly," will be a "Smokin Event!"