Time allowed in restaurants these days

[Toots22]

AIBU

Went to a fairly nice cafe / restaurant for lunch today - 4 of us. The booking was for 90 minutes so I knew that up front. Place is busy, it’s a Saturday, I get it. But after paying £45 for my 13 year old and I for lunch, for a main and a drink each and then get pretty much kicked out the door before we’ve even finished our drinks, when we get the bill without asking and the server appears with the card machine immediately (there were empty tables). I know the cost of living etc is through the roof but is it unreasonable to be hacked off these days at the cost of things and the little time you’re allowed in a place for that price to just to enjoy your food and have a little bit of chat over lunch?

Well Im sure restaurants know what they're doing and what they can get away with in terms of rushing customers. As always, vote with your feet.

Why are you sure restaurants know what they are doing? They are going out of business everywhere. I do vote with my feet and probably others do too.

I hate this. Just as restaurants were opening again in late 2020, we went to a fancy pizza place, it was virtually empty, but we were given a strict 90 minutes. We could only order using an app which we struggled to download as there wasn’t WiFi and the signal there was terrible. It took us nearly an hour to order as the waiting staff wouldn’t come near us as we really did have to order using the app. The food arrived at about 80 minutes into our booking, we were asked to settle our bill a minute after the food arrived. We’ve never been back, it’s ridiculous and it wasn’t even that good.

The customer may want three courses though so 90 minutes would be very rushed.
I eat out a lot, but won't eat in restaurants with a time limit like this, as I want to take my time and not have to constantly rush or clock watch.

It took you 80 minutes to eat one course and not finish your drink. YABU. What took you so long?

It is well known that restaurants “turn” the tables at least once per service. They have bills to pay.

Depends.
I can see how for a small but popular place, just a few of the tables whiling the day away for hours on end, would easily end up with a financial disaster.
Unless you're going through expensive bottles of wine or cocktails. A couple of coffees and a long natter after a meal won't cover another hour's worth of wages and overheads.

That’s ridiculous! I wouldn’t have gone back either and won’t be going back to this place.

I would have just ordered pudding in this situation!

I generally have an opposite problem to this, nobody ever wants to bring us the bill!

Because they are ran by businessmen with more nous than you and me. If theres a demand they will fill it and if they piss a few people off along the way so be it.

Or Nando's!
Can't book at either but they don't kick you out.
Granted it might not tick the fine dining box, but it definitely ticks the 'get everyone fed at a reasonable price without any pressure' one and sometimes that's exactly what we need (me, teenage son & his grandad who has Parkinson's disease which means things can be unpredictable).

Off the top of my head I can only think of one restaurant that has the 90 minute thing; a rather nice Turkish place. The service is excellent and while it can sometimes feel a shame to not be able to sit and chat over a coffee, we know that before we book.

It gets bashed left right and centre but if you have a half decent Spoons nearby you cant lose. Free paper and pens for the kids, a pub magazine for grandad, meal deals, unlimited coffees, and no nonsense grub with lots of options to personalise and the staff are usually a friendly bunch.

We wanted Sunday Lunch at The Hand and Flowers for DHs 70th birthday. (Tom Kerridge) That was time limited - 2 hours. That’s not enough for a celebration meal. So we booked Aulis in London instead. That’s a full on experience and it’s over when they have finished cooking! If anyone wants a table back in 2 hours that’s top price, we don’t go.

Totally agree. I went out for an evening meal and was told the slot was 90 minutes. I thought they would bring our mains quickly, but it was the same wait in any restaurant. We had a dessert, but no time for coffee, and you could not have had three courses. I will not be back.

There is time to sit down, have the menu brought to you, choose, get someone to take your order, get it cooked and brought to you. That usually takes about 20 minutes minimum, unless they are just microwaving it.

There's absolutely no chance I'd be leaving my table under those circumstances.

i worked in hospitality for well over 20 years so I'm pretty well versed in service standards and pressures

So 60 minutes to eat one plate of food and not quite finish a drink? That is insanity.

Most people don't meet up in a restaurant to shove their food down their throat as quickly as possible and leave. I'd say an hour for ordering and eating was perfectly reasonable.

So you go to a timed restaurant and get annoyed about being timed out

It’s not just about sitting down and stuffing a plate of food down your throat. It’s about taking time to eat it, enjoy it and have some good chat and relax whilst you’re at it.

I got annoyed because by the time I got my food, I didn’t have time to finish it or finish my drink before they brought me the bill and machine to pay and didn’t even get my food order right so goodness knows what would have happened if I’d complained about that. I’d have to have left without eating it.

So why did you book somewhere with a 90 minute slot?

Why didn’t you tell them they got your order wrong?

And why did you mention not having finished sipping your drink in the original post but not the more important info that they hadn’t brought your food in time for you to have eaten it?

I attended a hen do in a "trendy" restaurant. They took an hour to take our order, mucked it up and several main courses had to be redone. They then started fussing that we needed to vacate the table for the next party that was coming, I said we would not be leaving until we were ready given the fact that they had made such a muck up of something so basic as serving lunch for 12 women and a drink. Unsurprisingly the restaurant is now closed down because nobody had the first clue of how to run it, the "manager" was totally useless and like so many places they put all their efforts into style over substance. It's not a sustainable business model in hospitality.

Well if the 90 minutes includes them taking payment which I suppose it would then I don't really see a problem. I mean it could have taken 10 minutes if your card had been declined or you were calculating who pays what.

She probably assumed the restaurant would take her order and serve her food promptly which would mean an hour and a half would be about the right time to eat lunch.

i can only imagine that many of the people posting here have very little experience of eating out prior to Covid because 90 minute eating slots were absolutely not a thing until the last couple of years.