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| Waiting for brunch at Prune |
We love eating out in New York City, but as extraordinary as many dining experiences can be, there are still some things about the scene that are just downright annoying. We've all encountered them (unless you've figured out some magical way to lessen that three-hour wait at a no-reservations restaurant). Today, we're airing out these pet peeves - from wacky reservations systems to being duped into double paying gratuity at some touristy restaurants - click through the below slideshow to see what gets our blood boiling in the Big Apple. Also, be sure to should out your dining grievances in the comments!
You forgot the upscale restaurants that try to scoot us out after an hour. Yes, we know that you want to squeeze two seatings in between 5:30 and 7:30 before the theater. That is your problem. I do not like paying $$$ for a meal and then have the bus boy,waiter and others stop by my table to see if I am done. If I want a McDonald's quicky meal I will go there and pay $10 and not $100
ReplyDeleteParking yourself at a table in a busy restaurant for more than 10 - 15 minutes after your meal is completed is more obnoxious than anything the restaurant might do to encourage you to relinquish the table so a waiting party can be seated and enjoy their evening, too. Most reputable fine dining restaurants will let you linger as long as you want when no one else is waiting for the table. People who don't understand this should stay home and sit at their dining room table and enjoy as leisurely a dinner as they want. Doing so in a busy restaurant is ignorant, rude, arrogant and extremely selfish. Restaurants are in business to make money. They are not your other home where you can park your ass at the table and sit there all night or until your theatre opens it's doors to let you in. Frankly, customers wear out their welcome by doing this and restaurants would rather people like this not come back. Honestly, people who do this probably behave this way in all situations and wonder why they do not get repeat invitations. Simply put, they don't get out much and have no edicate or understanding of social graces. It is all about them. Probably not very happy, either.
DeleteYou need a small country to boss around, this forums to small for your exaggerated outrage
DeleteAnd what if I'm still ordering dessert and drinks the whole time? I'm not just sitting there and not ordering. My group is constantly buying drinks. Several times, I was asked to leave because another party is coming. There were free tables but my party was never asked to switch tables. We were asked to leave. My group was NOT rowdy to deserve this treatment. What type of business etiquette is this? If we see a restaurant that's busy with people lining up we have no problem going to some other place. But there were free tables. I agree some customers do wear out their welcome but its also restaurants themselves not giving a damn about their customers or the waiters not taught proper etiquette.
DeleteIf you are continuously ordering, the restaurant might be in the wrong. But just because there are empty tables doesn't mean that they don't need your table. That depends on how large your group is. Reservations are based on a reasonable amount of time for people to dine. At a nice restaurant, it's usually around 2 hours for 4 people. A saavy restaurant manager will allow hosts to tell the party when they are reserving that they only have a specific amount of time if they know that it's a reservation at 7pm on a busy night and they will need the table back at 9pm for a larger party. If you are a group of 6 and you've only had your table for an hour and a half and no one told you that they needed the table back when you booked your reservation, then I would say the restaurant is in the wrong... but if you are a group of 3 people and you have been eating and drinking for 3 hours on a saturday night, you need to move to the bar or go somewhere else to continue your night.
DeleteAlso, don't forget that even if you are a party of 2, if there are a few tables empty around you, perhaps they are expecting a large party after you and will be putting those tables together. Just things to consider. If you know that you will be dining a long time, consider making your reservation a few hours before they close so that they don't plan on getting your table back or tell the host when making your reservation that you are planning a special night and might take a little longer. If you do mention that you will be taking your time, be prepared to have later options for your reservation. I find it is always worth telling the host if you are celebrating a birthday or having a romantic evening or meeting old friends for a reunion because a good Host will take into consideration that you might want to hang out longer than other tables. As long as you are nice when you book your reservation, a good host will want to make your night enjoyable and if you are not demanding in your requests, the host will try to accommodate if it is possible (sometimes it's NOT, don't take it personally)
DeleteThe problem was originated by those Celebrity
DeleteChef, go to Italy copy and pretend to been raised
with that kind of food.
Idiots like most of wanna be New Yorkers belive
that kind of crap and assume to be able to comment .
RESTAURANTS ARE IN BUSSINESS TO
MAKE PROFIT NOT NOT TO SPREAD THE WEALTH.
If You can afford to dine be a Signore and everyone will Remember You and be grateful for
You to join the Restaurant.
If You are not in condition to spend that kind of money stay home, complaining and finding a reason to bring down a restaurant is gutsless, vile
and cheap.
Grow up Man or eat hamburger L and D
Folks,
DeleteThe problem here is people don't stay home and cook their own food enough. Dinner at a restaurant (especially a nice restaurant where you're paying top dollar) should be considered a night out. The diner should be allowed to stay as long as he or she wants regardless of whether they continue to order without the feeling of being rushed (get out of NY and try eating in France or Italy and see). If half of you tried using "that thing" sitting in your kitchen called a stove, you'd be healthier, you've have a bigger bank account and you'd find that no one would be rushing you out of your favorite restaurant. If fact, I guaruntee the restos would be more welcoming to your business. Try it and see NY!!!
Boo hoo!
ReplyDeleteThis was in response to the stroller grievance...no, I do not have young children but please stop giving parents grief!
DeleteAgreed. However, there is more to consider. Parents need to be in control of their children's behavior, as well as their own. If parents have no respect for others, then neither will their children. Like everything else in life, children need to be taught how to behave appropriately in all situations including dining out. Unfortunately, parents who are ignorant generally raise ignorant children.
DeleteCouldn't have put it better myself. You must be in the business
DeletePark slope parents are the worst!!!!
Deletebringing their kids into the bar for happy hour, crying over a restaurant not having a kids menu, asking if they can bring their huge stroller into the restaurant, leaving a huge mess, with food all over the place, and saying sorry but leaving a small tip. i hate park slope parents at restaurants.
Ugh the stroller issue is growing... extending far beyond Park Slope. I mean, the above picture is taken in Ditmas Park, an area I thought would never fall to the yuppie parent crowd! SOS!!
ReplyDeleteIt also isn't fair to the restaurant to call and make a reservation for 8 guests and when called by the restaurant, the person making the reservation says yes I am confirming a party of 8 only to show up with 3 guests. Yes restaurants are in business to make money as well as to create an enjoyable atmosphere for it's patrons, but come on folks to not call when a group shrinks or worse yet to " no show " is the rudest thing a group can do. It empacts the restaurant, the staff and also your chance of getting a reservation there again
ReplyDeleteYup. There is such a thing as being a good host AND in being a good guest. Who was it that said, "there is never a good excuse for bad manners." Unfortunately, good manners are lost on most and, in our society today, are often erroneously seen as a sign of weakness rather than as a strength. And, the real shame of it is to where such behavior is leading us.
DeleteHilarious. I especially love the hosts that follow you trying to get you into the restaurant! Another favorite that you didn't include--the overly helpful host that checks on your table 20x a night. Also, Roberta's wait is lame. That's a great quote!
ReplyDeleteThe double confirm is necessary because there are so many people that simply don't call to cancel or change their reservation, or worse, they simply forgot what time the reservation was made. I cannot tell you the number of people that I call the day before their reservation and decide to cancel, change their time, change the number of people, or realized that they forgot they HAD a reservation. When there are days where I was so busy that I didn't confirm a reservation, the odds of that reservation not showing up are greatly increased. This directly filters into the other annoyance of the "non-existant" reservation complaint. Those reservations DO exist, they are just booked. The host WANTS to help you. They want you to come in because in many nicer restaurants the hosts get tipped out from the house and the more people who walk in the door, the more money everyone makes. People are always upset that they can't get a reservation at 7pm the day before they want to come in. Guess what? That is exactly the time that everyone else wants to come in... so you better hope that some jerk doesn't make a reservation for 10 people at 7pm and then not even show up... it happens, which is exactly why there are restaurants that require a credit card to book a party larger than 4 people.
ReplyDeleteDon't even get me started on automatic gratuities in hotel bars and restaurants. They exist because too many tourists leave zero tip. The service staff ends up suffering to the point that they can't afford to work at the restaurant and then the restaurant suffers. I worked at a hotel restaurant/bar in midtown and they didn't add gratuity. Every single night there were several checks that were more than $200 that left me no tip. Some of them even told me that I was a great server, so I know it wasn't my fault. If I have $500 worth of checks with no tip, I lose about 100 dollars. That is a LOT of money, especially when I get taxed based on my sales. I lose more money because I am taxed on money that I didn't make.
A reminder e-mail or call, with a request to be sure to cancel if you don't intend to keep the reservation, should be more than sufficient.
DeleteRe: the included gratuities, these are expected for parties of 6 or more ordering food, but to do so on drinks - esp. a 20% gratuity, for nothing but wine, no fancy cocktails - especially away from tourist areas (ie. the East Village, where this has happened to be at a wine bar) is uncalled for.
Can't anybody spell anymore? You are all an embarrasment to New York City.
ReplyDeleteOh the IRONY. Check yours first.
DeleteAre you also an EMBARRASSMENT? Or were you going for irony?
ReplyDeleteMy god you are all very angry. I am also in the business and yes guests are rude and not understanding and impatient but guess what, they pay your bills and put clothes on your back and send your kids to school. How about you lose the pretentiousness and get back to the job of providing a wonderful evening for people who quite literally pay your bills. Or get another job that is not so challenging for you. New Yorkers crack me up.
ReplyDeleteIf you put up with 3 hour waits or goofy reservations policies just to be at a trendy place, blame yourself. There are enough good places that respect their customers to suit me.
ReplyDeleteI HATE it when waitresses automatically add the gratuity.. shouldn't it be upon the customers' discretion? When that happens, they can treat you however they want because they're still going to get their share.
ReplyDeleteIf a server treats you "however they want", they will probably get fired from their job if it's a good restaurant. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who don't know how to tip and automatic gratuity has become necessary.
Deletem writing from northern Italy, where we had a discussion last night with the hotel manager and some guests at our hotel bar. The manager indicated that the reason the service (tip) is included is that the staff will automatically get a living wage without having to be overly servile and fawning. The unions are fully behind this idea. It's part of the concept of the "dignity of work" that the conservatives in America claim to foster. The service remains, without extra tipping, generally impeccable. And this in a fairly socialistic society. MW
ReplyDeleteSeriously when are restaurants going to get over the "we have 5:30 and 11pm available" for reservations? Come on!
ReplyDeleteThese places are going to stop doing all these annoying things when people stop falling for it, when it hurts business, or becomes outmoded. If people would stop throwing money, and crazy amounts of it, to be treated this way, it would change the picture.
DeleteAt the restaurant I work at people call for a reservation at 7:00 the day before and I only have 5:30 or 9:30 because all of the times in between are BOOKED. I have a very hard time believing that a restaurant would not book a slot that was available. That makes no sense at all for business unless it is a really high volume restaurant that does quick table turns and wants to save space for walk ins such as 5 napkin burger where they have a line out the door
DeleteWhen talking about ridiculous waits, you can't not mention Ippudo, the infamous ramen shop on 4th ave.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to yankee land. this rarely happens in the south. in fact, many people complain about how slow and leisurely meals are in New Orleans. Up here it is what is best for the restaurant, not the customer. Unless you are a celebrity
ReplyDeleteYou're totally right, people who have kids should NOT be allowed to go out to eat. Shame on those stupid breeders for trying to be hip and cosmopolitan like you.
ReplyDeleteRe: No. 9, harassing hosts. This was originally is a European strategy, or maybe a Mediterranean strategy practiced on tourists. Our family first encountered it on the island of Rhodes around 2004. We were on vacation so we responded in the spirit of guests in a foreign country: we smiled at the hustlers and moved on. As I recall, the guys assigned to do this were good-natured and didn't chase anyone down the street or do anything scary or obnoxious. We always looked at the posted menus. Which reminds me, posting menus in restaurant windows or on sidewalk boards was another practice I first observed abroad, and one that I was grateful to see American restaurants adopt.
ReplyDeleteHere's another thought on the being hurried along at table. When I'm choosing the restaurant in a neighborhood, I eliminate all those that have as their chief claim to fame a reputation for being "a scene." I choose a place with a reputation for interesting food, and we go very early, well before the hours city dwellers keep. We usually either want to get back to Connecticut at a reasonable hour or move on to a jazz club.
ReplyDeleteWe don't want a scene; we want to have a conversation.
My family's biggest challenge is not ordering too much. We often make the mistake of going by what the critics or the waiters suggest, and each source has their own reasons for recommending that diners cast a wide net. We wish we could keep to our plan of ordering a couple of appetizers each and dessert, or only a main course, or only a nutritionally well-balanced assortment, but we rarely do.
You're an idiot.
Delete