Restaurant Reservations; Why Timing is Everything
Have you ever been to the doctor or the dentist? You arrive a couple of minutes before your appointment only to be greeted with a smile and told that there has been a bit of a delay and you’ll need to wait for your appointment. Or you could come back another day. And you’re only the second booking. Well, the same is true in most restaurants. There is only a finite number of employees both on the floor attending to guests needs and in the kitchen to prepare the dishes. So, when a couple of tables turn up late or early, or a couple of guests monopolise the time of…
If you want better service in a restaurant, respect these five unwritten rules
Answer by Maxwell Arnold, former sous chef, restaurant manager, waiter, and busboy, on Quora: The relationship between a server and a customer can feel like an adverse one at times. Quite often, this is because the two parties simply misunderstand each other. I benefit from the experience of both working as a server, and being someone who dines out on the regular – so I understand what the dynamic is like from both sides. For customers who get the most out of the dining experience, they understand the many nuances of the restaurant business to include several unwritten rules that they have to go along with whether they like it…
The Top 35 Restaurant Etiquette Fails
According to the Telegraph, these are the ‘top 35 most irritating restaurant faux-pas’. They go on to say … If you’re reading this while dining at a restaurant, well, you’re beyond help. But the rest of us can take note: pollsters have identified 35 of the most inexcusable eating-out faux-pas, and, bloody hell, Brits, this is shameful stuff. Number one on the list? Clicking fingers for the waiter’s attention (rude). Two: talking with a full mouth (gross). The third on the list is “being too loud and raucous”, which at least suggests that someone – if not the poll’s joyless respondents – is having fun, but we can all agree…
Should Restaurants Charge Cakeage?
Would you bring your own food to a restaurant? There are two, sometimes conflicting, rules in the restaurant business: The restaurant’s duty is to create memorable experiences for the guest The restaurant makes and sells food in order to pay its bills and make a profit In general, when a guest arrives and does what is expected of them – i.e. orders things from your menu that you have carefully designed or selected – and pays the bill we are able to meet both rules. The team can focus on creating a memorable (happy) experience and the restaurant is paid for doing their job well. However, when a guest decides…
The TripAdvisor Generation
Is our moral compass as a species broken, or being rapidly redesigned? It’s difficult to point a finger and identify any singular incident. Many have suggested that changes in the family group or changes in the way parents assume schools will teach the children values that should be learned at home. Many say that it is the rise of on-screen violence and reality television feeding the viewers a glut of skewed imagery and behaviour patterns which are then seen as normal and copied. Others identify the Internet for what it allows us to do, to say and to contribute to. This post isn’t a debate about the failings of society…
What is the restaurant industry’s big problem?
In short: Customers. I read this piece in February’s Restaurant magazine by Tony Naylor and couldn’t help but want to share it with you. You join me in A Very Good Restaurant. A waiter is asking the woman at the next table how she liked her main. Basically, she didn’t. There was too much thyme, or was it rosemary? And the lamb was overdone. The waiter smiles dutifully, grimaces sympathetically and diplomatically avoids pointing out that neither herb was present in the dish. I’m not even convinced she had lamb. It was probably venison. [Been there] A few days later, a chef is ruefully describing to me how everyone who…
MISADVENTURES IN THE RESTAURANT TRADE
