To be fed up that table service will end.

[Thewinterofdiscontent]

One of the silver clouds of lockdown was the lovely table service. No more queuing in the crush at the bar or hunt for a table. Drinks and payment bought to you.
It will be a right pain going back to shouting orders across a soggy bar and juggling the drinks back.

Yabu, sorry. It might be more convenient for us but it is yet another thing hammering profits for a struggling industry.

I actually wonder if some will keep it - I know lots of people who liked table service (I actually quite like a crowded bar myself, but my taste in pubs runs towards the rough/old man's end!). You'd have to expect to pay more in those pubs that had table service, though.

I agree, because I'm a lazy bastard, but ultimately it will be easier on service staff to go back to normal

I remember the first time I brought my DH home to Dublin, we all went out as a family and he jumped up to buy the second round, my brother told him to sit down, he said No, No, I am buying this round, my brother responded you will not get an argument from me, (he was 20 and broke but it is table service in this part of the pub.

We flew back to London on the Sunday and he told anyone who would listen how civilised a bar system we had.

YABU, I'm kind of looking forward to it coming back!
Plus it'll be a lot easier on the staff.

I agree OP, its made the experience in pubs far more pleasant.

Most places will keep app ordering, but otherwise everyone I know in the industry is desperate for it to end.
Combination of increased costs, impatient customers and staff shortages cited by all.
Soap box moment -
Please be considerate and polite to hospitality staff, things do go wrong occasionally but firstly they deserve courtesy and secondly they are far more likely to help you if you're nice 😊 it's been a tough time for staff and employers and enough pubs were closing before covid.
This has been the worst year, and I've been in hospitality my entire life. I've never known anything like it 🥺

I really appreciate table service. Hope some places keep it.

Plenty of bars have always been table service and will stay that way - and if it’s that important to you, you won’t mind finding them and paying the premium which they’ve always charged.

But apart from many venues needing bar service and fast turnover to survive, a lot of people actually really like the busy, jostling, stand-up, bar service nature of pubs. Do you think when hundreds of thousands of people go for Friday after-work drinks at a packed central London pub with their friends, that they’re really there for the quality of the drinks? Of course not - it’s the atmosphere they specifically want.

I am a fan of table service, it’s how many pubs and inns operate in other countries. It does require adequate staffing though.

They are keeping at table ordering vis the app here

Agree OP table service is lovely. I will miss it. I hate queuing, I’m too long in the tooth for it.

We go to the kind of pubs that have apps and et with our drink so we'll continue to do that mostly. But it will be nice to go and get a glass of water etc myself instead of expecting someone to wait on me

I like table service as an option but I also like the idea if being able to go up to the bar too. Also I think there is a difference between "table service" via an app or just relying on staff being available for customers to flag down - I love the first and hate the last.

If I'm out for dinner with people then it's nice to be able to get food and drinks delivered via an app as and when we want them without having to wait for a staff member to stop by our table or be within eyeline to gesture over, but equally I'd love the option to be able to stop by the bar on the way back from the loo and grab a new drink and have it there and then rather than having to wait an indeterminate amount of time for my drink to turn up after ordering on the app - if its busy then I know I'll have to wait a few minutes whereas when everything is done via app then you never know if you should order your next drink when the 1st is delivered, because its a minimum of a 20 minute wait, or if you can finish your first drink and then order the next and it show up a couple of minutes later.

90% of the bars in my town are and have always been table service during 'food service' hours. Tbh, were usually home before food service stops...

Wetherspoons had the app before the pandemic, most pubs will be glad to end table service as it needs more staff than serving at the bar.

I really hope that some keep it too, I’ll definitely choose pubs that have it over those that don’t. (An app is fine btw, don’t need a person to come to the table to take the order.)

I like the table service but it's not financially viable for many places.

I prefer table service. And I'm not convinced it isn't financially viable because it's the norm in every other country I've visited.

I hate it, it takes so long to get a drink! I can’t wait to be able to stand/sit a bar

I’ve enjoyed the distance between tables, our local Miller and Carter for example pre covid the tables were so close together you may as well have been in the same party.

I’m going to miss it, I’m disabled and struggle to stand up for long periods of time so it meant I could go to places I normally couldn’t. I know it’s not viable for many venues though.

@Thewinterofdiscontent

One of the silver clouds of lockdown was the lovely table service. No more queuing in the crush at the bar or hunt for a table. Drinks and payment bought to you. It will be a right pain going back to shouting orders across a soggy bar and juggling the drinks back.

I'm hoping that the apps will continue. Some pubs did have them before Covid, but I agree it's been lovely being able to book a table just for drinks

I haven't been to a pub in ages as I actually hate the queueing at the bar, always takes ages to be served. And the couple around us who do food are not worth going for eating out.

I much prefer restaurants/gastro pubs where you have table service anyway

Just choose where you go to.

If bars/pubs carried on doing table service, they wouldn’t exist much longer.