tipping

About a year ago, three friends and I were visiting a city a couple of hours from our home town. It was somewhat late at night but we decided we wanted to eat out. After looking up local reviews and searching for a place within walking distance, we finally chose a restaurant. We walked through the road entrance to find a sign stating that we had to be seated at the other entrance that was in the mall. That’s alright; we walked through to that entrance and went to the hostess. This is where it all started to go down.

After talking to the hostess and requesting a booth, she said the wait would be about 40 minutes, handed us a buzzer and acknowledged the next customers. We stood outside the entrance outside the window of another store and waited. And waited. And waited. It was about an hour and twenty minutes later when we noticed people who had arrived after us were being seated. We stood up and went to the hostess. I asked if our table was available yet and mentioned that we had been waiting for much longer than anticipated. She apologized, checked her book and then sat us immediately. Turns out our buzzer hadn’t been activated and the hostess didn’t even take our names down. It was a little annoying but didn’t matter that much, we knew it was busy and everyone makes mistakes.

We were finally sat in a quiet secluded booth and were told that our waitress would be coming soon. By this point the rush had slowed down considerably and about only half the tables were filled. She arrived about fifteen minutes afterwards and took our drink order. It took her another twenty minutes to arrive with our drinks and she then took off without taking our appetizer order, which we were ready with. Another twenty or so minutes go by and she finally comes back, takes our orders and takes off. This is how it went basically throughout the night. She would come, take our order or drop something off, then disappear for a long time. We weren’t able to get refills in between meals because of this and we didn’t see her at all until she came by. The food was great and at a decent price. The waitress’s manner wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t the best either. The longest wait we had was between receiving our meal and getting the check and actually paying the check.

By this point, I was frustrated at how we were treated compared to others around us who were seated and fed in a timely manner. Now my friends and I are young, in our late teens. But I thought after this service, something needs to be said. Also, the manager may not know what’s going on and should be informed because they would lose customers if this was a common occurrence. None of my friends had ever complained officially before and were reluctant to do so. I stood firm in my belief and when we saw the waitress again finally for the payment of the check, I asked for her manager. After receiving a slightly dazed and confused look, the waitress said sure and took off. This time, it only took about ten minutes for the manager to show up.

After pleasantries were exchanged, I explained our situation to the manager. Now, I wasn’t hoping for a free dessert or a discount for our meal, I just wanted to inform the manager and maybe receive an apology. The manager, being about 22 or so himself, listened to what we had to say. What did he say to what happened? Thank you for telling me and then walked off. No apologies or explanation, just thank you and walked away without waiting for a response. After this the waitress gave us our change and an icy stare as she walked off. After leaving a very small tip (probably shouldn’t have left anything after that), we walked out to the glares of the hostess, manager, waitress and the waiter that had to help us out at one point.

Now, my friends and I loved the food there and the environment was great. I would love to eat there again, but with a bit better service and respect. We may be young but that doesn’t mean our opinion is any less important than any other customer. I felt like our comments were brushed off due to our age and I have suspicions that the man we talked to wasn’t even the manager. It frustrates me to think that such behaviour was allowed just because we were young. We ordered food and drinks like everyone else and paid like everyone else. Has anyone else ever felt like this? That you were treated disrespectfully due to your age? It’s annoying to say the least and does make me, and friends and family, question about going there ever again.

P.S. We figured out that after having received our buzzer to leaving the place, we had spent over FOUR HOURS there. Good thing we’re close friends.

Tagged as: long wait, owner/manager, server, tipping

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