For the record, this is NOT another bitch about tips. I’d just like to state some things customers should consider that would help our jobs be less stressful, as well as allow us to give high-quality service to everyone, regardless of how much they do or don’t tip:
-> If you have your menus closed and/or staring at me, indicating that you’re ready to order, make sure you are ready to order! Don’t leave me standing there at your table for 10 minutes while you sit there staring at the menu going ‘um, um, I don’t really know… a ceasar salad, I think?’. If I ask you if you need more time, don’t say NO if you really do (need more time)! Normally, I can tolerate indecisiveness, but it’s a bit more difficult to put up with if I have to stand there like an idiot while food for my OTHER tables are sitting there, getting cold and gross!
-> Look around you! If you see that I’m also serving 5-7 other tables, don’t get pissed off that I’m not hanging around YOUR table tending to YOUR every petty need! There are other people I have to serve as well (and some of them arrived BEFORE you!). Don’t hollar out to me, stare, or glare when I’m busy with another table! I WILL GET TO YOU, it just won’t be every fucking minute!
-> After looking around you, when you realize that the dining room is full, it means your food might take a while, perhaps *gasp* more that 10-15 minutes! And especially if I inform you that things may take while, don’t get pissy with me because it actually did. You could have just left when I told you how long it would take!
-> If you don’t get your food as soon as YOU THINK you should, don’t come up to the kitchen hollering, or looking psychotically, at the servers, cooks, and managers! We assume you wouldn’t want your food uncooked/halfcooked so yeah, it takes some significant time to cook your fucking food thoroughly. So fuck off and sit down!
-> Say THANK YOU! It doesn’t matter how large or small the favour was.
This does not apply to the understanding and wonderful customers I have served, just to the dumb, self-absorbed fuckheads.
—Hard-working Server
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2009.
I am suprised that restaraunt staff dont post more bitches on this site.
If you want all of that OP, can you relay this to all wait staff in Halifax: can you stop asking how everything is while I have a mouthful of pasta? It’s not that I hate being asked if it’s okay (although some servers ask way too much) it’s just that you pick the most inopportune times.
Waiting tables is the surest way to come to the conclusion that most people are idiots; leaving the profession makes it easier to be positive about humanity while being less bitter yourself.
Also, can you as waitstaff, come back at least whenever our drinks are empty. I don’t want you to come back every 15 mins to interrupt us, but I sat at a table with 5 other people all with empty drinks the other night and no one came by to refill them. They even came and took the glasses once without asking if we wanted more.
I agree. Customers across the board, not just in restaurants need to exercise common courtesy and not be such dickheads. I will say though that I have seen a lot of negativity towards the servers in this city, more so than in other cities, for example Montreal. They demand a certain amount of respect there, mandatory tipping usually seals the deal on whether or not there is going to be rude assholes in the joint, I think. The reason that I think that is because, unlike this city there is actually an expectation placed on customers there, and therefore it is more likely that customers will exercise some discipline. Another thing I would like to point out is that from my perspective, tipping anything under 18% in a legitimate establishment is unacceptable, unless the service is shit, then I would say that no tip is deserved. Also, I know that there is another section for praise and what not, but for the purposes of giving out a little positivity here there are two places in the city that have excellent servers: The first is Brewdabakers in Burnside, and the second would be The Dragon King Buffet on lower water street.
I’d like to say, Dr. Fever, that in my experience, once a customer has received their food, they spend more time eating it than not. Timing our visits around those few seconds that you’re not chewing is hugely frustrating…I just try to make a small joke about how servers always show up when mouths are full, and give them a moment to swallow before I ask questions.
Heh, Halifilm, never having been a server, I would never have imagined timing visits around chewing being part of the job. Now it seems even more stressful of a job than it did before.
Why so precise with your number, nai blanc? Most people I know think that either 15 or 20 % is the standard (more 15 than 20). Just curious.
I think this bitch is pretty justified, and basically is just based on the idea that diners need to realize they’re not the only customers being waited on.
yeah, something happens to normal people when they go into a resurant and sit down at a table. They suddenly transform into a spoiled Emperor.
Bring me more water, my fork is cold…..I want the red lobster in the bottom left hand corner of the tank SEIZE HIM!
And dr fever, the way people eat in this city if a server was waiting until there was no food in someone mouth to ask them how things are ( quality check as they call it ) that wouldn’t ever get done. The slobs that eat out on a regular basis hardly take a breath between bits. As soon as they swallow the next overloaded forkload is on the way. Aside from that, if a server has 7 tables on the go would you want your server staring at you and waiting till your mouth was empty to pounce over there before you can grab another mouthfull? I mean really? did you even think of the logistics of that?
uh, Dragon Buffet King? In other restaurants we call them ‘bussers’ or ‘bus-people’, not servers.
I haven’t noticed at any mandatory tipping in Montreal in the last 4 or 5 years that I’ve been visiting there. Except for the doorman at Supersex I mean.
Halifilm and LL– I understand that, and I was being facetious. Defensive much?
NB– Tips should not be required. If the food is good, and there’s good service, you get a tip. If not, well, no dice. As a salesperson (let’s be honest, it’s pretty well the same profession, except one is with food) if I don’t bust my ass, I don’t get paid. The same applies to servers. Bust your ass, you get a little extra. If you don’t like that part of the profession, get out of it. Finally, after spending a month in downtown Montrèal, and living out of restaurants for lunch and dinner, I was never required to tip once, except for, as Cranky mentioned, the ever-famous SuperSexe. That’s not a restaurant. Well, kinda….
Dr fever – oh.
please be more facetiouser in the future. Comment with drawn.
I have two good friends who are former restaurant workers. They bitch slapped me into restaurant etiquette years ago.
Tipping is uniquely north american and Australian, no where else in the world is tipping so overblown than here and there. It is completely out of hand, North Americans are greedy bastards who dont feel any shame in keeping unacceptably large donations of money from others when it’s absolutely unjustified, and worse still is those who are willing to give those large sums and make a nominal tip look like last decade. Why don’t you high tip earners making registered nurse wages put up with the shit you deserve.
All restaurant servers should feel very lucky they are here making mad fucking money. And I work in a restaurant too,… FUCK!
Australians do not tip. My friend is serving in Perth for $18 an hour. No tips! Back in the day people would tip before the meal to ensure good service. The bigger the tip the better the service would be during your meal. Most servers make minimum wage here and deserve tips! Being a former server I totally agree with the OP.
you need to quit.
Australians do not really tip – when I lived there I served for a bit, made $12/hour and usually walked out of a 4 hour shift with maybe $5- $10 … and I was pefectly fine with it. Leaving a dollar or so was just a compliment- not a requirement.
The reason I said 18%, Mole Rat, is because I was under the assumption that it was/is the industry standard. If not I stand corrected. Cranky, I lived in Montréal for 10 years. I have never been to Supersex, which is a frat boy tourist attraction; however, in actual restaurants, while they do not have signs up for mandatory tipping, it is commonly known that tipping is mandatory.
A lot of people I know, as I’ve said, seem to think the standard is 15% (especially rural people, who I find tip pretty low). In larger cities than Hfx the standard seems to be 20%. If you say 18% is the industry standard, well thanks for sharing, it’s good to know.
waiterrant.net hilarious
Don’t get me wrong- I get it. Low wages need a bump. But we go to a restaurant for a break, to be served. That’s the deal? Isn’t it. Service?
In North America servers expect tips. We expect service. Don’t rush me out the door. Don’t pour my wine- I like a bit of wine at a time so the white stays chilled. I like a long protracted meal and don’t want you interrupting and rushing us out so you can serve the next punter.
Let’s just clear this up- courtesy to our fellow man notwithstanding- ‘this isn’t a game of who the FUCK are you?’ Serve and serve well if you want to be tipped. I will not even go into a place that has mandatory tipping. Look, be friendly, helpful and patient and you’ll get a healthy tip. Fuck me off and you’ll get zip.
Servers are told to pour wine when someone orders a bottle or craft. So you should let them know when you order it if you don’t want them to serve it to you.
Judging from the snobbish requests such as “pour my wine when I want you to” and “don’t ask me how my meal is when my mouth is full” and all these other ridiculous, stupid complaints- I can tell who has and who hasn’t served. If you haven’t served you are so clueless and self absorbed that I would rather be homeless and poverty-stricken than be a waiter again because people like you suck.
Just remember when you walk your cheap, uptight butts into the restaurant that that person waiting on you is a servER not a servANT- and they are also moms, dads, brothers, sisters, grandchildren, etc. and deserve just as much respect and dignity as you do- and shouldn’t feel at the mercy of your probably $2 tip.
I think we should ditch this tip-based wage crap anyways if everyone else in the world has.