Who is unreasonable here - the staff or the potential customers?

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A reasonably busy tourist city today at lunchtime: we enter one of those vintage style tea and cake/ lunch tea rooms about midway through the lunch peak time. We meet the staff just after entering and its established that we do want lunch - not just drinks and begin to make their way to a table. It's in the next 'room' of the cafe and we are tersely are told its a table for four. Bit of confusion here over us thinking that means its reserved and we then make their back into main part of cafe there is a raised section with four out of five tables free so we begin to head there - it is quieter and there are window seats. We are stopped again - no, those are tables for four/ five (maybe ... if two people squashed on benches!). There is a table for two but it is currently dirty and full of plates, she will clear it for us. This table is squashed right by the serving hatch in the busier area. I've experienced this before and would prefer not to... but no, same blunt tone - this is the only table we can have.

Anyway, long and the short of it is, we leave a cafe about a third full and find a great one a few streets over. Happy ending all round - they kept their table rules and we were eventually fed.

I was just a bit amazed! They have great reviews on tripadvisor, but I spoke to a friend who went in there as a single person and was asked to move tables. Does this happen anywhere else?!

Timely: Or - just a thought - stop being so entitled and take your business elsewhere?

Anyone else getting the urge to play diner dash?

Hahahaha

"BewtySkoolDropowt

I don't think it's unreasonable for two people to be asked sit at a table for two"

No it isn't but it is unreasonable to treat potential customers as if they are a nuisance. If some of those surly, sullen waiting staff do not like dealing with the public, aka customers, then they should do something else. Just who do they think they are? They are supposed to be polite and pleasant to all customers.

I'm not sure I agree that OP can be described as entitled, simply for wanting to enjoy some lunch, at a reasonable sized table, at a place where they purport to sell lunch and had available tables...

A table with two seats and two place settings is a reasonably sized table when you are a party of two.

"Trifleorbust

I honestly don't think it matters whether it makes sense in your head or not. It's not your business. The staff in this cafe - and presumably the owners - don't want to offer tables for four or five to a pair or couple. As stupid as you might think that is, it is totally up to them how they run their business."

Sigh. Some business if your staff are rude and unpleasant.

But there weren't two place settings as the table was full of rubbish.

The OP didn't say they were rude or unpleasant. They were "blunt", which may be another way of saying not apologetic/stating it like it was. She couldn't have the big table, so they told her. That's not rude.

I reckon Trifleorbust is a waitress in a greasy spoon.

The waiting staff sound appallingly rude. They are there to jolly well serve and they should plaster a smile on their faces whether they like it or not.

Delicate - so? You say that as if it would insult me... Is there something wrong with waitressing that I am yet to be made aware of?

And why don't they clear the tables? Isn't that part of their dreadfully hard job?

"jolly well serve"

My god, do people still talk or think like this?

If a cafe is two-thirds empty I'm more particular about where I sit. They should have let you have one of the nicer tables for 4 straightaway, then it might have been freed up for a party of 4 later?
When a cafe is nearly full I'm prepared to sit anywhere (within reason). They shouldn't have expected you to sit by the serving hatch when the place was two-thirds empty!
On the other hand, if you can see that the cafe is filling up fast, you do have to be more flexible, as you're potentially denying other diners a seat, and the cafe some of their revenue.

YoutheCat: If the OP was saying she didn't want to wait, I would still be saying she should have gone elsewhere rather than demand a table they had already told her she couldn't have, but I wouldn't think she was that entitled. But she's not saying that. Even if that table had been cleared immediately she would still have felt entitled to a bigger table, despite it being appropriately sized for her group. That is what I believe is entitled.

"Trifleorbust

"jolly well serve"

My god, do people still talk or think like this?"

Don't they within your circles?

I don't have circles, Delicate.

In a quiet cafe people should be able to choose their table. A larger table is nicer got all sorts of reasons. The OP is quite right to feel thoroughly aggrieved. The sort of service you receive can totally ruin or enhance your customer experience.

Trifle, you are defending the indefensible.

...for all sorts...

Its not like the op was sitting at a table for 8.Tables for 2 can be very small.

If its not that busy there is no harm having a slightly bigger table.

I'm hardly defending the indefensible, Delicate. It's a very common approach at lunchtime in a busy tourist cafe to hold back bigger tables for bigger groups. I fully expect that they knew they would be busy in 30 minutes or so, and had been told to put twos at tables for two. I totally get that a larger table is nicer, but it isn't unreasonable to be offered sufficient space for your group, or the option of going somewhere else.

But the owners didnt know if a bigger group was due.Otherwise it would have had reserve on it.Plus there was a few bigger tables going spare,not like the op sat in the last remaining one.

Dustarr: I get that, totally. But they work there every day - they'd know when their busy periods are, wouldn't they? It might have been 20 mins before the exact time when they get inundated every day, and they might have known they would need the space before the OP and her friend would be likely to be finished, so they said no, they could take the smaller table or find somewhere else to eat.

AnotherGreenDot, I agree completely! I tried to make this point earlier. If, as you say, the cafe had been filling up fast, we would have sat wherever indicated. But with plenty of room in the cafe, it does no harm to at least find out if we could have another table where we would stand a better chance of being able to hear ourselves talk! On this occasion that was not possible, and there was a wait, so we thanked them politely and left. I know exactly what you mean about the serving hatch! I have sat right by the counter on enough occasions to know it is often difficult to hear your friend over the noise (smoothie machine/ coffee machine etc) as well as the staff going out or whatever.

Delicatepreciousthing1 I would not call it outright rudeness no - they were possibly too blunt/ matter of fact in directing us away from two areas, but we hadn't realised the system before then. I concede I can't answer for cleaning the table - maybe she was waiting for something.