Restaurant pet peeves.

[TheLollipopShoes]

What are your pet peeves in restaurants?P.S I know what a difficult job working in a restaurant is and how hard it is to run one is but I still want to have a moan.

Over sauced pasta for me. I like a light coating only. I know that most people prefer more sauce than I do which is fine but I don't expect to have to call in Tony Robinson and co to excavate my fusilli.

Food served on wooden boards. They've ruined more than one pizza/sandwich for me. The boards usually aren't aired correctly or cleaned with an old cloth and it leaves a damp smell/taste on my pizza,

Ingredients that aren't mentioned on the menu. I know that they can't list every single item but I hate it when there's an ingredient that I hate that's a major component of the dish but isn't listed in the description so I spend more time trying to avoid olives or raw tomatoes than I do eating.

Other customers who are too loud. Especially groups of blokes who all try to out do each other with their manly laughing and bellowing

Children running around and/ or shrieking

Music that's too loud so you all have to yell at each other to be heard

Rude waiting staff. I don't want to stop life stories or anything but eye contact, smile and basic greetings are essential, as well as please and thank you. And customers -you need to do the same

Clearing the table before everyone (usually me) has finished eating. It is rude in my book, indicating that the meal hasn't been eaten fast enough. Guaranteed to make me put my cutlery down and walk out.

Being asked if everything is alright with your meal,before you've even taken a mouthful. Or almost as annoying,being asked just as I've put a big forkful of food in my mouth if everything is OK I'm looking at you Wetherspoons.

Restaurants that look put out if you ask for a glass of tap water rather than an overpriced bottle of mineral water.

Restaurants that leave great big gaps between delivering main courses to the various people at your table. OK,I know it's not the end of the world,but it's just a bit irritating when someone has to wait nearly 10 minutes after everyone else to get their meal.

Restaurants who insist on seating everyone together in one big clump,despite there being numerous tables available. My friend and I haven't seen each other for months and want a quiet cach up,which isn't possible if we're seated slap bang next to a table of 8 people,screeching with laughter every other minute.

Waiting ages for the bill.

When I order a black Americano (shouldn't have to specify black - an Americano is black by definition), being asked 'Would you like milk with that?'

Just listen to the bloody order!

Having to ask several times for some tap water. We have ordered wine/beer/juice bit would like some water too especially if I have some wine.

It annoys me when you spend a while looking at the menu and finally decide on something only to be told they don't actually have the food advertised on their own menus. Had a day out recently to a country park, which has a lovely restaurant and was one of the main reasons we chose to drive 10 miles and then catch a passenger ferry there. After deciding to get a couple of their amazing cheeseburgers was told no burgers today. Chose something else, they didn't have that either. Chose a third dish, they didn't have that either.

Surely it would have been helpful to put up a sign or have the waiting staff inform the customers of anything on the menu that isn't actually available before they order?!

Also tables too close together, had this a few weeks ago. I was just about to start eating when a family sat at the table behind ours and the woman rammed the back of my chair rather hard about 4/5 times in her attempt to sit down, not great whilst recovering from surgery.

I'm in the US at the moment so portion size is my main annoyance. I can't wait to come back to the UK to have a starter sized starter, a reasonable sized main and even a pudding. Here appetisers feed at least two people, mains are huge and I don't know what pudding is like because I never have room for one.

Also, deep fried Brussels sprouts are not a delicacy, New England.

Being asked multiple times if everything is ok as a former waitress, we hate doing this too, but we have to especially if there is management around or if it's quiet so we're not just 'standing around doing nothing'. It is annoying but I sympathise with staff now when they do it

Being asked what I'd like to drink before we've had a chance to even look at the drinks menu, let alone decide what food we might like and pick a wine to go with it.

joggingon When I first started working, I was the lowly admin person and had to book tables for team nights out and the like. When once I was told that there wasn’t a table at our preferred restaurant for our team of 5, my older more worldly wise colleague phoned and asked for a table for 6. And got the booking. She said never to book an odd number as restaurants don’t like “losing” a cover if they have square tables, so will either squash in the extra person or just refuse the booking. We turned up and simply said our friend wasn’t well. No one batted an eye. We got a lovely big table for 6. Plenty of room for bottles of wine / water etc.

Being asked multiple times if everything is ok This annoys me but i was told by one of my friends.Its so you cant complain at the end of the meal.

Kids popping their head over the divide and staring at you while you eat.
Staff ignoring you when you are trying to get their attention.
Bringing the kids food way after yours.Especially if we are getting starters.

Enjoy! Bellowed at me like a command

Not bringing water
Not remembering who ordered what when there are just TWO people at the table
Yes to the incognito ingredients....if it's not listed I don't want it!
Yes to the "do you want milks with that" AMERICANO....I have taken to holding their gaze, and asking for a BLACK coffee instead, defying them to ask about milk.
Asking "do you have a reservation?" when there's more staff than customers
Yes to boards and slates....I'll have a nice plate thanks
and the thing for putting stuff in little extra dishes...fair enough for a sauce, but beans in a ramekin and on another memorable occasion peas in a scallop shell....just put the buggers on the plate with the rest of my food.
AND, if you bring the food and then ask if we'd like sauce, vinegar, ketchup don't leave us hanging about with out rapidly cooling meals whilst you malinger about the kitchen
oh and HOT plates please, unless its a salad! :o

I am not a complete harridan though and am not mean to waiting staff. unless they start it ;)

Specials rattled through at top speed in a mumble.
Wait staff not writing things down.

Again in the USA, having to answer endless questions about an order. I ordered a ham sandwich yesterday:
Ham fried or cold?
Tomatoes?
Mayo?
Cheese?
American or Swiss?
Lettuce?
White or wheat?
Toasted or not?

It was a delicious sandwich.

We have an ongoing family challenge to successfully order a main course without attracting any questions.

The now almost ubiquitous practice of leaving '£' from prices. I find it, doubtless irrationally, irritating.

Me too, Midsomer. It looks wanky.

Lack of tap water for the table, not clearing plates away but on the other hand trying to clear plates that aren't finished yet, expecting you to decide within 10 seconds, waiting to pay, being asked if everything is OK after the first bite, any digs about looking at your phone instead of talking to your partner (keep your fucking nose out, sometimes it is necessary to check your phone), idle chatter about where we're going next when you just want to answer with - for a lie down because I've been a piggy.

We were out in a large group for a family meal and the waitress kept calling people young lady or young man. This was to people aged 50+, I found it really patronising but it wasn't appropriate to complain at the time.
I did however email later.

Bad acoustics. So many places don't have any soft furnishings to absorb sound, so every word is amplified and bounced round the room - if you have any hearing issues it makes life very difficult!
Jugs of water and glasses should be provided as you sit down. I'm sick to the back teeth of having to ask for water and usually have to remind then as well.

Plonking hot plates of food down right next to the baby's high chair

Not telling you something's off the menu until you have chosen what you're ordering.Would much prefer to be told upfront!

Being asked if "everything is ok with you guys" . I have never been a guy.
Waitresses with long hair not tied back.
Staff returning to the kitchens empty handed when there's dirty plates left on tables.

Being called 'guys'.
Food served on slate tiles or boards.
Desserts in those horrible recycled glass jars with the narrow tops, all mushed up.
Having the food thrown at the table because the manager is short staffed, stressed and having to help out.
Unwashed salad and rotting rocket.
Pesto on everything and no mention on the menu.
Ketchup etc. served in little ramekins so you wonder if the previous user had double dipped their chips in it.
Staff not knowing ingredients when asked, going off to ask kitchen staff who also don't know because it is bought in, in a restaurant that serves 'home cooked' food. Should have kept the labels on the packets it came in.
Splashes of unknown brown liquid on the walls and the radiators next to the seats and layers of dust on the skirting board. Chips and peas on the floor under the tables.
Waiters with BO.

Specifically in chain coffee shops if also ordering hot food : giving you your coffee immediately and then having to wait for the food. The coffee is usually half cold by the time the panini (or rather panino) arrives.

Been out for early dinner with a friend today - kids running around so asked them politely to stop running inside and maybe go outside. They went outside and brought in 4 family members who told me to "fuck off ". Charming

I have a disability so find it hard to cut up food. I often go for the easy option (soup or pasta). If I order a pizza/meat I explain the disability and ask the waiter/waitress if they can cut it into bite size pieces. It’s so embarrassing when they forget or just score a pizza. I get my companion to cut it, or ask again. They will take it back to cut, but by that time it gets cold. I can understand they and kitchen are busy, but it is frequent that I I often go for the easy option (soup or pasta).

Oh and I want a plate not a board/block!

In an empty restaurant refusing to allow 2 people to sit in a window because the table seated 4. Resulting in loss of the customers.
Allowing children to bounce on the sofas and scream while parents ignore them and other customers complain, eventually giving up and walking out without ordering, not just one table left.
Having a policy that asks children not to disturb other diners but not extending it to the garden where diners are also wanting to enjoy a quiet meal and hold a conversation without it being turned into a playground.
Not clearing up dog shit from the garden, or sweeping up cigarette ends/cleaning ashtrays.