I recently moved here from another province and on the advice of a local went to this funky little breakfast place. It was so crowded and tiny but was supposed to be soooo gooood. The waitress said yes she could get us a table for four (we had out of town guests with us) but it would not be for about 30 minutes. We said ok to the wait,and the waitress said we could place our order now which we thought was kind of neat and efficient. We placed our orders and the counter girl who took the order promptly rang up the bill and made us pay! Really? So you have my money……your machine asked me to tip you which I had to do because I had no cash…..yet I have no table…..no food…no clue what the service will be like or if it will be worthy of a 10%, 15% or 20+% or even no tip. You tell me I can wait outside but if I go anywhere…even for 5 minutes you may give away our table. So the restaurant caters to itself and we grovel for whatever scrap we can get , oh and please take our money please if you would be so kind. —East Coaster
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2015.
If you press OK once the tip option comes up, it determines the tip to be $0.00.
You could have said, I’ll pay after I get a table and my food; most reasonable and a common practice in restaurants (save fast-food joints).
Why go outside? If you smoke, quit now.
There you go: sage advice you can use for the rest of your life. I’m certain my other commenters will offer you more. It’s your lucky day!
You could have said “no thanks, I’ll wait for my table before I order”. They just wanted to make sure that you didn’t fuck them over with your unpaid for order if you decided to leave before you got a table. If you order and leave without paying, the waitress is likely made to pay for it so she made sure that wasn’t going to happen. Bravo for her, and you can get fucked for being a douche and complaining about how someone does you a favor.
^^ I agree. If I went to a busy spot and someone offered to do me a favour by putting my order in while I waited for a seat – saving me an additional 20-30 minutes of wait time after I was seated – I would be thrilled and they would already have earned a tip.
And I don’t blame them for saying they couldn’t hold your table if you left the restaurant. How do they know when you will grace them with your presence again? In the meantime, if your spot came up while you were outside they would have people in line wondering why there was an empty table. Are they supposed to say, “We’re holding it while some people have a smoke outside.”?
Folks need to have reasonable expectations. Sheesh!
I take it this was at the Ardmore? the most overrated breakfast place in the city next to Cora (should be CORA’S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
OP, you are a first class shit, and I hope you read this and think about it any time anyone is serving you ever. Grovel? Scraps? Doooooooooooooo fuck off.
Ardmore is cash only.
Cash-only businesses are cash-only because they are too stupid to realize the benefit of taking Interac.
OP. You’re not afraid to tell us what province you’re from?
Why would you pay before you were seated? That seems ridiculous. This has to be a fake bitch.
The Coastal, on Robie. When I’m back in the city I always eat there at least once.
You do have to pay before you eat, but its well worth it. The tip before you eat on debit struck me as odd too but now you know for next time. Go for the Durty Bird next time you eat there.
I had found the place reading through the Best of the City awards. Lot of great, overlooked places in Halifax…….. and Dartmouth?
Dartmouth has gone the way of the dinosaurs.
The Coastal is waaaaaaay over-rated. They remain in the hovel because expanding would kill the dream of a customer finding a table within a reasonable wait. It’s filled with CFAS who miss fighting for an egg sandwich and the opportunity to “be seen”.
If OB wants to be seen, s/he needs to go back to Toronto.
^^^ “Why would you pay before you were seated? That seems ridiculous. This has to be a fake bitch.”
I like the pay ahead type places. At Krave Burger you order and pay at the cash – then they deliver your food to your table. Once you finish your meal you can just get up and leave. No waiting to receive and pay your bill.
So what places aren’t over-rated in Halifax? Maybe McDonalds, because you also have to pay before you sit down there too.
As I noted above (and before I lost my password), this bitch is suspect. There’s just something about it that simply doesn’t ring true.