Restaurant maître d' talking about us to other customers

[heynow1111]

Went out for a meal with husband to a nice restaurant and booking was 1.5 hours. I am a slow eater and we were having a lovely time chatting so I wasn't clock watching.

In retrospect Maître d'/head waiter was hovering when I was close to finishing and I should have perhaps read this as they were rushing us to finish but I was so enjoying the meal and company I didn't register at the time.

Finished meal and Maître d'/head waiter said (in other words can't remember exactly) "sorry I've been waiting for you to finish, I didn't know what to do". I know they said sorry but you know when from someone's tone they are NOT sorry and what they said was more to point out you had annoyed them? At the time I felt really awkward and embarrassed like I should have been tracking the time or something? So I apologised.

After this had happened husband said that PRIOR to this, he had seen Maître d' talking behind their hand whilst looking at us and saying sorry. So talking about us whilst we were at that point totally unaware we had gone over time.

I think this could have been better managed by when we were coming close to end of our booking, saying excuse me, just to let you know you are coming to the end of your booking as we have another table at X time? I would have thought oh sh** and rushed up!

I completely get it must be annoying when customers go over on bookings and it must be complex coordinating everything but i thought it was handled unprofessionally. Just tell us you need the table now/soon rather than talking about us behind our backs to other customers and then informing us after the fact that we had 'held up' a booking? AIBU?

"Jesus christ 1.5 hours in a restuarant? "

Really? I don't bother eating out unless I know we'll be there for at least 2 hours.
It's only happened to me once that I was rushed out and I would never go there again.

Just seen that this was an actual booking for 1.5 hours. I wouldn't accept that as I want to relax and drink wine etc.

Nobody is crucifying anybody. She made a mistake but seems to think the maitre d' made a bigger mistake, and is not in any case owning her mistake.

The other party waiting for their table (which would have needed to be cleared and reset, once OP finally got around to finishing eating, and then paid the bill) are of no significance, apparently.

I’ve never been to a restaurant that only gives you 90 minutes but 2 hours is very common and its the restaurant’s responsibility to manage that which means they have to run everything on time to ensure they can stick to it, including allowing for diners who might eat a bit slower than average. I’ve been to a couple of places where they’ve taken forever to take your order, too long to get the food and then tell you can’t have desert unless it’s perched awkwardly around a too small high top table in the bar- didn’t go back to any of them.

2 to 3 hours is pretty normal. I usually have two courses. Some people have 3. There is waiting in between and wine, tea, coffee, brandy afterwards.

90 minutes is not enough unless it's lunchtime!

AgentProvocateur

1.5 hours for dinner at a nice restaurant is unreasonable. Aperitifs, starters, mains, bottle of wine, coffee…

Absolutely. It’s supposed to be a nice dining experience not a race.

I agree. If the restaurant wanted the table back, I would expect them to come over and remind me that it was only a 90 minute booking and they had another party waiting.

You must have been there for ages for them to start talking about you. Personally, I think YABU. Other people have come for a good night too and it’s not fair for you to hog the table. 90 mins is more than enough time.

@greenhydrangea Define crucifying I guess. There are plenty of posters being unnecessarily demeaning to OP. And seemingly getting a kick out of it.

Well, that's good to know. Don't go there then. Nobody is suggesting you owe anyone your business. But if your do go to a restaurant with booked time slots, just as with parking spots, you really are expected to honour the time. HTH.

Eh which is why I said that if I did I would.
HTH.

I was irritated just reading that so goodness how the maitre’d felt!

Precisely.

That's not at all what happened - the OP has acknowledged that she should have kept track of time better and has been pretty gracious about accepting some fairly robust (and some completely unnecessary IMO) criticism.

Gordon Ramsay often comes across a grumpy, but his people were lovely for five hours!

Being able to handle situations like that is part of his job. If he's irritated rather than being able to deal with it professionally, that means he's pretty crap at his job.

She has banged on repeatedly about the maitre d' being "rude" and "passive aggressive" - which to my mind does not gel with owning it.

Jesus do we now have to eat inside a 'booking time' as well as freaking paying an arm and a leg for eating??? Who in the heck is ever going to go out? Is this a new thing?

why the heck is everyone giving the OP a hard time about this? what on earth is going on. You can stay as long as you like surely once you've shelled out??

I don't actually think 1.5hrs is THAT long. By the time you've ordered drinks, ordered and received each course, a lot of time could go by, particularly if they're making food from fresh rather than just microwaving like Wetherspoons etc (nothing against them, I go there all the time!)

also I think how much you’re spending needs to come into consideration, if it’s a really nice restaurant and spending €200+ on a meal out with my OH I’m not going to be very happy with a 1.5hr slot, 1.5hrs is completely unreasonable in any decent restaurant. 2+ hrs at a minimum would be acceptable. Although any nice restaurant I’ve been to in the last few years hasn’t had a time limit!

I agree that 1 and 1/2 hours is too short. 2 hours is ok though. I don't think the waiter saying sorry to the other customer counts as talking about you though. He was just saying sorry that the table wasn't ready surely??

Have you ever been to a proper restaurant? 1.5 hours is nothing!!

I feel a bit sorry for the maitre d’ if he doesn’t know what to do when a table is over running, it’s a pretty standard part of the job. It sounds like he didn’t know what to do because he realised he should have been on it enough to realise when the next booking was and that you should have been reminded of this before it was too late (I assume they did make it clear when you were seated). Probably realised he might get bollocked for not managing the flow of customers properly.

"How on earth do you manage with lunch breaks at work?"

Going to a restaurant is nothing like eating your salad or sandwich in your lunch break FFS.

"any decent restaurant. 2+ hrs at a minimum would be acceptable. Although any nice restaurant I’ve been to in the last few years hasn’t had a time limit!"

Exactly. What kind of places are these? Even with pub meals you don't get rushed out.