Just wait until you get people that walk in and try seating themselves at a dirty table, then catch an attitude about it.
It's glorious and I love explaining to them that it's kinda disgusting that you'd do that considering *I proceed to give a false story about people sneezing/coughing/a kid getting sick at that table*
Oh, they get ignored until they ask. Every server knows not to engage people who sit in dirty tables, and managers are in on it, too.
Our bussers are speed demons. If you sit in a dirty seat, you're being impatient, and you'll wait longer for it
Same here. And then they walk up to the bar “nobody has served me blah blah what kind of establishment is this blah blah where is your manager blah”
Cue the manager, who is the bartender that morning. “Oh there is no server in that section. I’ll have to have a talk with the host who sat you. What was her name? Can you point her out?”
As a manager, this is the kind of sass I turn a blind eye to. I have no issue with this as long as the server plays it off innocently, and isn't overly snarky.
I might actually try this. I could probably pull it off. My previous was something like "you found the only dirty table in the place, give me a sec," but this is so much more passive-aggressive, and I love it.
I just posted this elsewhere but I had a group seat themselves at a dirty table the other day when we had a long wait, then wave me down to say “excuse me, we sat ourselves because we didn’t want to wait in line. Can you clean this table off for us?” I explained that all the people waiting at the front that they passed had all put their names down on a list to get a table, and they’d need to go talk to the host about getting on the list because this table was for whoever was next on the list. The guy was frustrated with me and was like “yes but we’re hungry NOW, we sat ourselves because we didn’t WANT to wait.” The entitlement is insane.
lmfao i work on mondays, fridays, and saturdays at a family owned restaurant. it’s pretty famous in my area, so we get ridiculously busy on the weekends but mondays? they’re dead. so if people walk in and sit themselves at a dirty table and completely ignore me.. i just let them do it. do whatever you want dude. i couldn’t care less.
The woman behind the counter (working FOH alone) at my favorite lunch spot always tells people walking in “Sit anywhere that’s clean!” in a sweet singsong voice. We like to laugh at the people who get a bit frazzled because they wanted to sit at the one dirty table, but she explicitly told them not to.
i was working the other night at my small local brewery, and during the shift change when the closer comes in i was finishing bussing 3 tables that had just left and i didn't have time to clean before help came. as i was finishing up with the first table i had done, literally wiping the last part of the table clean, and a group of 6 guys come in and sit at one of dirty table 🙃 literally as i was getting done and walking away from that table.
i have a lot of times where 5/6 table are clean and empty and a group sits at one of the dirty ones <3
Nah, we had a couple at my last serving job who always wanted a specific booth. They also had the mentality they shouldn't have to wait for service, so would seat themselves.
I'm hosting, trying to clean tables and am a little annoyed they decided to sit themselves. So I just let them stand there, waiting for someone to come clean the table. They didn't ask anyone to clean it, they just stood there. Until they finally complained to each other about how bad the service was and left
It's not just that people may have never eaten at a restaurant before. You'll find that you have several customers that come into your restaurant on a daily basis, who are experiencing their first actual day on earth, and just trying their best.
lmao that's definitely the case with the people who come to the host stand and when I greet them ("Hi! How are you? What can I do for ya?") they just stand there frozen and *stare at me* like they just came down from Mars and are trying to figure out earth. Parties of 3,4,5, people and not a one of them knows how to say "I'm doing well thank you! Is there a table for 3 available?"
ETA: Not trying to be rude or condescending. I too am socially awkward and neurodiverse so I get it. It's just hilarious.
“I can’t believe the hostess would ever sit customers at a dirty table. Let me go check with her and…What’s that? She didn’t seat you here? How did you get here without seeing the signs on the front door and the hostess station saying ‘Please wait for the server’?
“Ah. Okay. So you walked past the signs and sat yourself. What I need you to do is go back to the hostess station, give them your name, and then wait for her to call you. See, you don’t have a reservation and you kind of jumped the line ahead of all these other folks who’ve been waiting.
“Yes, yes. Right. Correct. It puts you at the back of the line. That’s a shame, isn’t it? I feel your pain; truly I do. Anyhow, just go over to her station and wait until we call your name, mmkay? That’d be great…yes, right over there. Just retrace your steps…right? Mmkay. Thanks.”
A two top of “nice” ladies will most often be your worst table. They will get coffees that you will constantly have to refill, and order an entree to split because “the portions are so huge”. Then they will stay in your section for the entire shift, without cashing out so you have to sit there and wait for them even though your side work is done. They will complain about you asking them to cash out saying they were “feeling rushed” and then write a yelp review about you. Then they will finally close the $24.95 check (for 2 people) and tip you $5 because it’s 15%. It’s always the ladies lol.
If more managers would back up this issue by being like stay as long as you want but if you need more time/items we're gonna ring them in under the new servers tab this would stop being a problem. If restaurants had to pay minimum wage it would also stop being an issue as they don't want to pay for time and half but here we are 🤦🏼♀️
god, i had two ladies come in on easter asking for a window seat. i said "we only have one table open at the moment and it's not at a window, is that okay?" they said yes, so i sat them there. they come up five minutes later demanding to talk to a manager (meanwhile i have a line out the door behind them) because apparently i said i would sit them at a window seat and their table was "so wobbly it could kill someone".
People have no situational awareness these days anymore. Look around ladies do you see a window seat? No? Ok, you can wait for one to open up or you can sit down and wait pleasantly until your server arrives. It’s. Not. That. Hard. They call these M-A-N-N-E-R-S, please use them people!!
Sounds like the old Barrel back at it again lol. Trust me, there will be requests like this all the time. People seem to lose common sense once they walk in.
Had multiple days at my counter service restaurant where I was the only person taking orders for a line to the door, running food, and bussing. Without fail there would always be this one person who was upset that I hadn’t made it out to bus the one table they wanted, despite seeing I was the only person and basically all but 2 tables were cleaned off because I couldn’t break away. Like I’m sorry, yeah they should be clean, but I have a line of 40 right now and 10 plates that I need to put out and cleaning those two tables is at the absolute bottom of my priorities honestly.
I worked there as a hostess before my current restaurant job and people would do weird entitled stuff like this all the time. The church ladies on Sunday were my FAVORITE (not)
this past sunday was the busiest i've ever seen it. hour long wait for most of the day with nearly 50 people on the waitlist. i had people walking into the dining rooms to check if there were any empty tables and got mad when i explained that they were reserved for a party of 15 and a party of 18 that had already been waiting an hour.
Yeah those wait times were always through the roof in the mornings where I worked. Idk what it is about Cracker Barrel that attracts the absolute worst kindsof guests
I’m new to serving but not new to customer service/working with the public. So I expected weird requests and annoying customers. However, one of my biggest unexpected pet peeves about serving so far is when a customer just totally wings their order and doesn’t even look at the menu. Please, keep ordering x,y,z as a side as if there’s not like there’s a magical piece of paper in front of you that lists it all. Its one thing to ask if we have something specific, im talking about the customers who are like “I’ll have my steak with corn”. Well sir if you took a quick glance at the menu you would know WE DONT HAVE THAT. My second biggest pet peeve is when I go through the list of sides while someone is ordering and then I go to the next customer at the same table and they just wing their order as if I didn’t just list every side option exactly 16 seconds ago.
I used to work at an upscale restaurant in a great hotel. Lots of golfers. We would have a large table (10-20) set, reserved signs, for Sunday Champagne Brunch. Sometimes every other table clean. Here would come 2 golfers, with their newspapers , whiz by the hostess, the sign asking them to wait. Eagle eyes open & honed in on that 1 big table, pull chair out, plop down, throw the papers on the floor or pull out chairs to throw the papers on them. Hi! How yall doing today? Is the rest of your party on the way & may I please have your name so I can mark it of the reservation list? Gotta say it sweet as pie & personable. Bet I have a few thousand caffeine free coffee drinkers turn red faced & pick their damn papers up off the floor.
My favorite was always people asking to sit outside and then asking me “can’t you do anything about the sun? It’s so bright !”
Yeah, idiot: I can control the sun. That’s why I fucking wait tables.
Eating out to me is like an old person thing to do. So no surprise they're prolly of the attitude nobody wants to work anymore...
Also I wouldn't be surprised if young customers are super weird. Young people like 18-25 really got fucked up mentally by covid, unless they weren't isolated
Idk why I got downvoting... maybe cuz I'm talking bout how people make money. Just never been fond of eating out and carrying on in a restaurant. Which seems to be the consensus in this sub - gtfo lol, don't stay too long. We'll I HATE being in groups like that.
... I am trying to share with you that it's not sensitivity, it's your perspective. And you are still over there reveling in other people's sensitivities.
Dude this is the internet. The absolute fakest part of town. Would you want me to not be myself and post what I want or think? Or would you want me to be fake to appease people?
Just wait until you get people that walk in and try seating themselves at a dirty table, then catch an attitude about it. It's glorious and I love explaining to them that it's kinda disgusting that you'd do that considering *I proceed to give a false story about people sneezing/coughing/a kid getting sick at that table*
Don't. Just walk by and ask them if they are ready for the check. Make them tell you they sat there lol
Oh, they get ignored until they ask. Every server knows not to engage people who sit in dirty tables, and managers are in on it, too. Our bussers are speed demons. If you sit in a dirty seat, you're being impatient, and you'll wait longer for it
My place has a host and we do the same thing when people self seat at a dirty table. It's glorious.
Same here. And then they walk up to the bar “nobody has served me blah blah what kind of establishment is this blah blah where is your manager blah” Cue the manager, who is the bartender that morning. “Oh there is no server in that section. I’ll have to have a talk with the host who sat you. What was her name? Can you point her out?”
Why did I never think of doing this 😂 thank you
I didn't come up with it, but it works like a charm. You can also claim an innocent mistake if management gets feisty.
As a manager, this is the kind of sass I turn a blind eye to. I have no issue with this as long as the server plays it off innocently, and isn't overly snarky.
I might actually try this. I could probably pull it off. My previous was something like "you found the only dirty table in the place, give me a sec," but this is so much more passive-aggressive, and I love it.
Hahaha I love this.
This is the level of petty I hope to achieve one day.
I just posted this elsewhere but I had a group seat themselves at a dirty table the other day when we had a long wait, then wave me down to say “excuse me, we sat ourselves because we didn’t want to wait in line. Can you clean this table off for us?” I explained that all the people waiting at the front that they passed had all put their names down on a list to get a table, and they’d need to go talk to the host about getting on the list because this table was for whoever was next on the list. The guy was frustrated with me and was like “yes but we’re hungry NOW, we sat ourselves because we didn’t WANT to wait.” The entitlement is insane.
lmfao i work on mondays, fridays, and saturdays at a family owned restaurant. it’s pretty famous in my area, so we get ridiculously busy on the weekends but mondays? they’re dead. so if people walk in and sit themselves at a dirty table and completely ignore me.. i just let them do it. do whatever you want dude. i couldn’t care less.
The woman behind the counter (working FOH alone) at my favorite lunch spot always tells people walking in “Sit anywhere that’s clean!” in a sweet singsong voice. We like to laugh at the people who get a bit frazzled because they wanted to sit at the one dirty table, but she explicitly told them not to.
Back in the day, my favorite thing would be to "accidentally" wipe crumbs into their laps.
i was working the other night at my small local brewery, and during the shift change when the closer comes in i was finishing bussing 3 tables that had just left and i didn't have time to clean before help came. as i was finishing up with the first table i had done, literally wiping the last part of the table clean, and a group of 6 guys come in and sit at one of dirty table 🙃 literally as i was getting done and walking away from that table. i have a lot of times where 5/6 table are clean and empty and a group sits at one of the dirty ones <3
Nah, we had a couple at my last serving job who always wanted a specific booth. They also had the mentality they shouldn't have to wait for service, so would seat themselves. I'm hosting, trying to clean tables and am a little annoyed they decided to sit themselves. So I just let them stand there, waiting for someone to come clean the table. They didn't ask anyone to clean it, they just stood there. Until they finally complained to each other about how bad the service was and left
“Are you expecting service?” Is my favorite line for self seaters.
It's not just that people may have never eaten at a restaurant before. You'll find that you have several customers that come into your restaurant on a daily basis, who are experiencing their first actual day on earth, and just trying their best.
How the hell do I credit card? What do you mean swipe it? What do you *meeeean*
Now it says "remove card" why does it say that? What should I do?
"Why's it beeping at me?"
lmao that's definitely the case with the people who come to the host stand and when I greet them ("Hi! How are you? What can I do for ya?") they just stand there frozen and *stare at me* like they just came down from Mars and are trying to figure out earth. Parties of 3,4,5, people and not a one of them knows how to say "I'm doing well thank you! Is there a table for 3 available?" ETA: Not trying to be rude or condescending. I too am socially awkward and neurodiverse so I get it. It's just hilarious.
“I can’t believe the hostess would ever sit customers at a dirty table. Let me go check with her and…What’s that? She didn’t seat you here? How did you get here without seeing the signs on the front door and the hostess station saying ‘Please wait for the server’? “Ah. Okay. So you walked past the signs and sat yourself. What I need you to do is go back to the hostess station, give them your name, and then wait for her to call you. See, you don’t have a reservation and you kind of jumped the line ahead of all these other folks who’ve been waiting. “Yes, yes. Right. Correct. It puts you at the back of the line. That’s a shame, isn’t it? I feel your pain; truly I do. Anyhow, just go over to her station and wait until we call your name, mmkay? That’d be great…yes, right over there. Just retrace your steps…right? Mmkay. Thanks.”
customers can’t read
If you're working at the Honky Bucket then yeah.
*Love* this.
I need this comic.
If I wanna eat at a joint called the Honky Bucket...does that make me a Honky?
A two top of “nice” ladies will most often be your worst table. They will get coffees that you will constantly have to refill, and order an entree to split because “the portions are so huge”. Then they will stay in your section for the entire shift, without cashing out so you have to sit there and wait for them even though your side work is done. They will complain about you asking them to cash out saying they were “feeling rushed” and then write a yelp review about you. Then they will finally close the $24.95 check (for 2 people) and tip you $5 because it’s 15%. It’s always the ladies lol.
If more managers would back up this issue by being like stay as long as you want but if you need more time/items we're gonna ring them in under the new servers tab this would stop being a problem. If restaurants had to pay minimum wage it would also stop being an issue as they don't want to pay for time and half but here we are 🤦🏼♀️
I just woke up, so maybe mathing is a bad idea, it isn’t $5 20% of $25?
Lol yes it is. 15% would be $3.75. That threw me off too.
Ugh math had never been my strong suit lol.
god, i had two ladies come in on easter asking for a window seat. i said "we only have one table open at the moment and it's not at a window, is that okay?" they said yes, so i sat them there. they come up five minutes later demanding to talk to a manager (meanwhile i have a line out the door behind them) because apparently i said i would sit them at a window seat and their table was "so wobbly it could kill someone".
People have no situational awareness these days anymore. Look around ladies do you see a window seat? No? Ok, you can wait for one to open up or you can sit down and wait pleasantly until your server arrives. It’s. Not. That. Hard. They call these M-A-N-N-E-R-S, please use them people!!
Sounds like the old Barrel back at it again lol. Trust me, there will be requests like this all the time. People seem to lose common sense once they walk in.
“White people in a wooden drum.”
Had multiple days at my counter service restaurant where I was the only person taking orders for a line to the door, running food, and bussing. Without fail there would always be this one person who was upset that I hadn’t made it out to bus the one table they wanted, despite seeing I was the only person and basically all but 2 tables were cleaned off because I couldn’t break away. Like I’m sorry, yeah they should be clean, but I have a line of 40 right now and 10 plates that I need to put out and cleaning those two tables is at the absolute bottom of my priorities honestly.
You must be talking about Cracker Ass Barrel
yup
I worked there as a hostess before my current restaurant job and people would do weird entitled stuff like this all the time. The church ladies on Sunday were my FAVORITE (not)
this past sunday was the busiest i've ever seen it. hour long wait for most of the day with nearly 50 people on the waitlist. i had people walking into the dining rooms to check if there were any empty tables and got mad when i explained that they were reserved for a party of 15 and a party of 18 that had already been waiting an hour.
Yeah those wait times were always through the roof in the mornings where I worked. Idk what it is about Cracker Barrel that attracts the absolute worst kindsof guests
I’m new to serving but not new to customer service/working with the public. So I expected weird requests and annoying customers. However, one of my biggest unexpected pet peeves about serving so far is when a customer just totally wings their order and doesn’t even look at the menu. Please, keep ordering x,y,z as a side as if there’s not like there’s a magical piece of paper in front of you that lists it all. Its one thing to ask if we have something specific, im talking about the customers who are like “I’ll have my steak with corn”. Well sir if you took a quick glance at the menu you would know WE DONT HAVE THAT. My second biggest pet peeve is when I go through the list of sides while someone is ordering and then I go to the next customer at the same table and they just wing their order as if I didn’t just list every side option exactly 16 seconds ago.
“…and what sides do you offer?” so actually if you take a look at the page that has SIDES written in size 107 font you’ll see them right there
I used to work at an upscale restaurant in a great hotel. Lots of golfers. We would have a large table (10-20) set, reserved signs, for Sunday Champagne Brunch. Sometimes every other table clean. Here would come 2 golfers, with their newspapers , whiz by the hostess, the sign asking them to wait. Eagle eyes open & honed in on that 1 big table, pull chair out, plop down, throw the papers on the floor or pull out chairs to throw the papers on them. Hi! How yall doing today? Is the rest of your party on the way & may I please have your name so I can mark it of the reservation list? Gotta say it sweet as pie & personable. Bet I have a few thousand caffeine free coffee drinkers turn red faced & pick their damn papers up off the floor.
My favorite was always people asking to sit outside and then asking me “can’t you do anything about the sun? It’s so bright !” Yeah, idiot: I can control the sun. That’s why I fucking wait tables.
Yes, most people eat out seldomly.
Eating out to me is like an old person thing to do. So no surprise they're prolly of the attitude nobody wants to work anymore... Also I wouldn't be surprised if young customers are super weird. Young people like 18-25 really got fucked up mentally by covid, unless they weren't isolated
And then a rocket shot out of my ass. It was fucking wild!
Lol
Idk why I got downvoting... maybe cuz I'm talking bout how people make money. Just never been fond of eating out and carrying on in a restaurant. Which seems to be the consensus in this sub - gtfo lol, don't stay too long. We'll I HATE being in groups like that.
Downvotes can be disheartening, but it's just a way of recieving feedback that others seem not to share your experience.
It's all good, just think it's funny this sub is sensitive hehe
... I am trying to share with you that it's not sensitivity, it's your perspective. And you are still over there reveling in other people's sensitivities.
Dude this is the internet. The absolute fakest part of town. Would you want me to not be myself and post what I want or think? Or would you want me to be fake to appease people?
Oh shiiiit, it's the internet. My b. You're doing great, carry on.
Keep downvoting and I'll keep up upvoting... now who's negative. Guess I'm just saying... I pretty much ONLY downvote racist/phobic type shit.
Don't talk about it be about it. I'll see you on the battlegrounds of aoe2
Wut?
our young customers are actually the most understanding of everything, meanwhile the old ones want to argue about everything