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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think it's rude for restaurants to give you a time limit

110 replies

msrisotto · 11/03/2017 13:07

I hate it! I've just had a restaurant call to confirm my booking and remind me that they need the table back after 2 hours. If the service is prompt then that shouldn't be a problem but don't like feeling like i'm being pushed out the door and this is a naice restaurant you know?

OP posts:
Original poster
msrisotto · 11/03/2017 14:08

You know they're not doing me a favour my serving me right? I'm paying for their service.

OP posts:
Original poster
msrisotto · 11/03/2017 14:09

I probably was told at booking and as i'm very likely to be under 2 hours anyway I went ahead. I still don't like it as I feel rushed.

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TheOnlyLivingToyInNewYork · 11/03/2017 14:10

Yes, you are. And like most services, you can't have unlimited time for your payment.
If you go to the cinema you can't just sit there when your film has ended and watch the next one for free! They want the seat back after the service you paid for is done. It's the same thing.

SnowWhite33 · 11/03/2017 14:10

Id rather have a 2h confirmed booking than go to one of those currently trendy places where they 'dont take bookings' and wait for an hour outside. Just dont understand the appeal but its clearly popular and loads of people queuing outside for brunch on the weekends.
Normally all restaurants state clearly on their websites if they have this 2h turnaround, and then again its reminded again in an email confirmation/on the phone etc.Agree that the service should be prompt in such cases (and it always has been so far)

fallenempires · 11/03/2017 14:10

You are coming across as being self entitled now Wink

PuppyMonkey · 11/03/2017 14:10

They might have a lounge area where you can go to have more drinks/coffee at your leisure?

Original poster
msrisotto · 11/03/2017 14:12

I'm enjoying my bolshy moment fallen Grin

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gastropod · 11/03/2017 14:13

I hate it too. Doesn't really happen where I live (Belgium), thank goodness. If you book the table it's yours for the evening here.

But when I'm back in the uk I get really annoyed about it!

Meluzyna · 11/03/2017 14:14

I would actually prefer this if it meant that we could be sure of being served promptly: in theory it's a win-win situation - the diners get promt service because the staff know that they have only a set time-slot and reasonably priced food because doing two sittings means that the restaurant is maximizing its potential.
However, the restaurant that works like this has to be absolutely certain that they are up to providing swift service without giving the clients the impression that they are being rushed, and the experience of several PP shows that this is not always the case.

limitedperiodonly · 11/03/2017 14:15

If you go to the cinema you can't just sit there when your film has ended and watch the next one for free!

Once upon a time you could. My parents took me to see The Sting and we missed the first five minutes. So we stayed for the second sitting just to see that bit. It's so good we ended up staying to the end again.

I did it a few more times with friends. That was the 70s. There a lot of things they don't let you do any more.

TondelayaDellaVentamiglia · 11/03/2017 14:17

i think so long as you know, and they keep up their end of the bargain with attentive prompt service it's fine, however they'd have less than no fecking change of moving me on speedily if I'd had to wait 30 mins for starters and another 30 for mains to arrive and I wanted afters!

So they do need to make sure the kitchen is on board otherwise it's a road to disaster!

TondelayaDellaVentamiglia · 11/03/2017 14:17

chance, not charge!

Gwenhwyfar · 11/03/2017 14:19

"It's a place to eat in

Nobody needs over 2 hours to eat!"

No, it's not. You can eat at home or even at a park bench. People go to restaurants to socialise over a meal and drinks and yes it can take longer than 2 hours. It's not about filling your stomach.

NotYoda · 11/03/2017 14:19

It's not rude. It's up-front

Most restaurants don't do it, and most restaurants who ^do6 do it, only do it on Peak days

I've never experienced poor service in a restaurant that operates like this

Take it or leave it - you don't have to eat there

NotYoda · 11/03/2017 14:20

I live in London, BTW. Eat out a lot.

limitedperiodonly · 11/03/2017 14:23

There's a place round the corner from my office that has a queue that forms before 6pm. At first I couldn't work out why there were all these people hanging around the corner of my office building. Then I realised they were waiting for the restaurant opposite but the pavement there is too narrow.

I guess this place turns tables, or more accurately, bar stools, in 20-30 minutes. Some of the queuers eat snacks while waiting. I think it's a young person thing.

Bluntness100 · 11/03/2017 14:23

I don't think it's rude as such, no, it's a sound business need, if a reservation is in place for the table after you for example.

However it doesn't feel nice. Whenever it's happened to me I've found myself clock watching With the continual thought in the back of my mind that I need to leave at a certain time.

NotYoda · 11/03/2017 14:26

limited

Queues of hipsters outside is a sure-fire way of putting me right off a place. But then I was always cussed!

fallenempires · 11/03/2017 14:27

I can see that!Grin
I am quite sure that you will have a lovely meal with professional and friendly service.If you don't then you are definitely NBU to raise the matter with the restaurant manager.YABU though if you decide to become a keyboard warrior and vent on Trip Advisor without trying to rectify any issues first!Wink

JaneEyre70 · 11/03/2017 14:29

I never use restaurants where your table is timed. Trying to cram 2 settings in is nothing more than greed, and a false economy as people who are eating 3 courses, wines and coffees will spend more than someone just darting in for a main! We're very lucky to have a fab hotel 5 miles from us that offer such exceptional food and service, even though it's like stepping back in time 30 years. They make the most amazing foods, all locally sourced and you are served drinks, given menus in the lounge then taken to your table when starters are served. You have desert at the table, but coffees/liquers etc in the conservatory or bar so you can linger at leisure and their dining tables are freed for later hotel arrivals.

lalalalyra · 11/03/2017 14:31

I think it's fine as long as they mention it at booking. We went for tapas recently at 6.30pm and they announced when we arrived they needed the table back at 8.15pm. We went elsewhere - tapas isn't the kind of meal that you want to be eating to a deadline. In this case they should have said when we booked "Sorry we don't have a table, we could give you a table until 8.15pm if that suits?"

Normally it's fine as long as, as pp's have said, the service is up to the job.

Iamastonished · 11/03/2017 14:32

YABU. Unless the service is slow or you are a very slow eater I would have thought that 2 hours is plenty of time. I don't enjoy sitting at the table once I have finished eating. I just want to get up and go home and relax.

limitedperiodonly · 11/03/2017 14:33

NotYoda It's a Vietnamese place in Soho. I think that tells you all you need to know.

Madbengalmum · 11/03/2017 14:34

If you dont like the idea of a two hour time slot vote with your feet and go somewhere else. No one is making you go there.

Original poster
msrisotto · 11/03/2017 14:35

We were once having dinner with 3 other couples and they asked for the table back before dessert! They had slow service and we were deeply unimpressed.

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