Everyone loves food...and everyone loves food, even more, when you don't have to slave over the stove to cook it. When in the mood for a fancy meal, or you are simply too lazy to cook, you head out to a restaurant, expecting impeccable service and a great meal. However, restaurant servers everywhere have many pet peeves about the job.
1. When guests try to reinvent the dish by requesting for an unnecessary amount of substitutions
You know what they say, "the customer is always right." However, the kitchen thinks otherwise and they will scream at you when you come in asking for the Asian Tuna Salad Wrap without the wrap, no green peppers, only red, and the tuna sliced on top of the salad, cooked rare, or the Italian Panini with sauteed mushrooms and onions added to it (nowhere on the menu even indicated that we had onions and mushrooms hanging around ready to be sauteed).
2. When the kitchen messes up your order
Your table specified that there is a dairy allergy, so the omelet that they ordered needed to be cooked in oil as opposed to butter, without cheese. You are concerned for the health of this family so in addition to specifying it on the ticket, you even make a trip to the chefs to tell them personally of this request. But no, you bring out the omelet and there is cheese oozing out of it. The guests could have died.
3. When guests completely ignore your presence as you try to take their order
Hello? I am trying to serve you and bring you food! Your conversation can take a 30-second pause instead of talking over me as I read you the specials of the day. Phones are also a huge problem - the screen can wait a few seconds.
4. When you get seated 3 or more tables at one time
In this moment, you wish cloning was legal. Your tip is on the line and that is your main source of income as a server. You don't want to keep tables waiting but you also need to be in six places at once.
5. When you get seated right as your shift is about to end
After a long day of being over-enthusiastic with customers, you cannot wait to get home and just lay down. But once you get a table as your shift is ending, you can guarantee that you will be at that restaurant for another hour or two.
6. When customers take out all of their anger on you when something is wrong with their food
I am terribly sorry that the pancakes were not fully cooked on the inside. They looked fine on the outside, which is why I gave them to you. I was not going to rip apart your meal to check and make sure that they were cooked to your liking. Please don't freak out at me, I will fix the issue that was not even my fault.
7. When you get tipped 10 percent or less
Yes, inflation is awful and you find that the acceptable tipping percentages are slowly increasing. Most people do not understand that servers do not have a wage, and they make a living off of their tips. When your bill is $65.74, don't leave me a $4.00 tip. Even worse, a coworker of mine once had a table of nine with a $170.00 bill and they left no tip at all.
8. When a table asks you for 50 thousand things all at separate times
First they ask for ketchup, then they realize that they want honey mustard, then they need more ice. Just tell me all at once so I am not running around like a chicken without a head!
9. When you have to train a new server
Every server usually has their own way in which they get things done. When you throw another person into the mix, it kills your daily rhythm.
