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.

When they come and sit at my table to take my order or crouch trying to be all bouncy and friendly just take my order. Damn it

We usually ask for the bill when dessert (or last drink) is delivered, then have card or money ready - "You can take it now, thank you."

Rocket on everything 🤢

hagrus0 us too! Although often bugger that up by haveing another drink.

Having to wait ages for the bill. Particularly when it's the type of place that they should appreciate most people are in a rush (pre theatre for example).

Also when you order the cheese board and the cheese is generous but the crackers/bread is meagre (never understand that as surely that's the cheapest thing to supply?)

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?'

Unfortunately due to other members of the public not understanding what an americano is and being arsey and demanding to know where their milk was I would always offer milk with one and I’d say around half the customers would want milk so it’s not necessarily the servers fault.

Filling my wine glass more than half way makes me annoyed - I'm raging if it's to the top.

Heron that reminds me, DH and I booked a table at a Thai restaurant for our anniversary. Got there to be told they had no knowledge of our booking and there were no tables. So we went somewhere else. When I got back to our hotel if missed a call from them saying why hadn't we turned up. So infuriating!

Turning tables in the evening - especially if they haven't Pre warned you.

Blame the cat cheesy chips? If so urgh

stealth oh no ! Infuriating.

Don't take my wine away from the table! Also, don't keep filling my glass up every 30 seconds.

Courses served with no break in between, generally feeling rushed.

Such loud, banging music that you can't have any conversation without leaning across the table and shouting at each other.

Waiters saying 'NOT A PROBLEM!' at full volume whenever you said thank you for anything, though to be fair this was in Australia. I should hope it wasn't a problem, since it was presumably their job to bring our food.

Ditto to 'guys' and 'you guys'. Please don't.

Boards, slates, and anything else that isn't a normal plate.
Oh, and the really weird shaped soup 'bowl' I was given the other day in an otherwise normal pub. Like a trendy free-standing bath, only with both ends bent right up. WTF??

First thing that came to mind was there being nowhere to hang coats so they have to go on back of chairs. Feels really unspecial, might as well be at McDonald's.

Big groups being booked in at the same time as you! I can't bear loud noise after a head injury and I make a point of phoning to book places now and asking if they have any large parties in much to DHs amusement. We walked out of a restaurant recently before our mains came out as we couldn't stand the noise..... it's in a converted cinema, and they had a table of 32 in.

Booking a table for 8 pm and being told to have a seat at the bar until 8.30 pm (if I wanted to eating at 8.30, I would have booked the table for that time).

Having to get the attention of the staff to remind him or her to bring me that drink I already ordered 15 minutes before.

Nodding at some of these. Hated it when in US servers would sit themselves down at our table and tell us their name and then all this fake chat about how were we and how was our day , whilst hangry DS got angstier. Wondered what percentage I needed to offer to get them to actually wait on us.

Other side of the coin and not particular to waitstaff. Everything is no problem these days. Like your steak rare - no problem, extra drink - no problem, drives me crazy as of course it should be no problem to take a perfectly standard request from the menu.

Yes to ‘have you booked - sharo intake of breath’ erm no it’s noon on a Monday and you have at least 70 plus tables Gino. You’ve filled 10 of them since I’ve been here for the last hour and half. I’m so glad you squeezed us in.

Also yes to topping wine up. I like to know how much I’m drinking and it’s difficult if I’ve gone to the loo and come back to topped up glasses. Don’t take the huff if we ask you not to top us up

Oh yes, two sittings, so you can only get a table at 6.45 or 9pm.

Rubbish if you have small DC who go to bed at 7 or 7.30 and will inevitably wake up at 5 something. Rubbish for lots of other people too. I will choose a different restaurant rather than a crap booking time.

Children.

Waiters who memorise your order. Write it down FFS, you WILL get it wrong (and IME they have several times). I'm not impressed that you can remember things, just write it down FFS.

Also waiters not knowing the soup of the day or what the fish special is. Without fail they always look surprised that I want to know. Although really it should be written somewhere!

Wanky menus. Especially ones that don't have a pound sign, or worse, they have a decimal point

'Slaw....2.5
Skin on fries...3.5

Someone on MN a bit ago made me giggling by saying 3.5 what exactly and stated she was going to take in 3.5 Tupperware lids to see what happens

As a pp said, paper napkins being placed under food - this is more of a problem in cafes, with slices of cake. I don't want my napkin covered in grease and crumbs! One day I'll remember to specify this when I order.

Getting the Spanish Inquisition if I don’t clear my plate 100%. I’m not a big eater and like to just enjoy what I can, I don’t need to shovel the whole dish in if I get full. I appreciate the general “was everything okay with your meal?” when they’re a bit puzzled but I answer with “oh yes it was delicious but I’m absolutely stuffed” that should suffice!

On more than one occasion I’ve coped an absolute grilling! “You really need to tell us if there was something wrong or we can’t fix it”, “Pity it’s such a waste of food..”, “the chef will be most self conscious of what was wrong” etc like fuck off I’m full!!

Pretentious places that list all the ingredients with no explanation, eg "beef, potato, celeriac, jus - 17.5". How is it cooked, FFS?! The poor wait staff must spend endless time answering this exact question (hopefully without the FFS bit).

More of a personal one but I loathe mayonnaise and it seems to be rarely if ever included on a menu, but then the dish arrives and mayo has inevitably been slathered/drizzled all over it. See also: aioli and "crema". It's not a mayo problem of course, but a menu one!

I’ve actually felt far more hurried in the UK than the US! I hate when they tell you they need the table back by X time so you feel like you’re on the clock. Then they disappear and take ages to serve you, then disappear entirely when it’s time to pay the bill. Are they trying to rush us out or not?

I don’t find the portion sizes that different. Appetizers in the US are meant to be shared but I find the mains are more than enough in both countries.

I don’t mind a lot of the things mentioned here. One thing that does bother me is when things aren’t clean. You pick up a glass or a fork and notice it’s not clean and it taints the whole meal.