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?

That is shocking. If they give you 90 minutes food should be served with enough time for you to eat it at a sensible pace

How long did it take them to bring a drink? Because 80 minutes is beyond ample but 10 minutes isn't.

Were there enough staff to cover the empty tables? I've seen a few restaurants where tables are left empty simply because they haven't got enough staff to run the restaurant at capacity?

I like the idea of a 90-minute curfew as much as I like the service charge being added automatically, but the f&d sector is a tough one to survive in so I cut them some breaks.

It doesn't take 90 mins to each lunch...

But by time wait staff have taken order, and food has arrived...??

Also if we're paying 30£ minimum a head, we're often there to actually speak to each other, rather than rush through!

Yes more detail on timings required

But you booked somewhere with a time limit. And you don’t have to finish you chat because you need to hand the table - you can carry on with another cup of coffee or wine in another location.

You were being unreasonable and you know it.

2 hours is standard for an evening meal turnaround. 90 mins would be fine for 1 course lunch but I'd be pretty annoyed if I was having more eg a coffee afterwards or dessert and was asked to finish up quickly especially if there are free tables. Leave a review so that they understand your perspective and can review their system.

With 2 DC who can get 'difficult' shall we say, when waiting around in a restaurant for the bill, I love it when the bill arrives very early on.

One restaurant near us is so delayed with the bill that I often have to send dh and DC out and I go up to pay because the service is so slow.

But they booked somewhere with a time limit. And they didn’t have to finish their chat because they needed to hand the table back - they can carry on in a coffee shop or wherever.

If you book a table with a 90 minute slot, it’s pretty cheeky to then expect to hold on to your table for longer.

I have just booked a table for the Saturday before Christmas and they couldn’t be clearer that it is a two hour booking. Would it be ok for me to go along knowing this and expect to stay all evening?

No it’s not a rush. They had a 90 minute booking. OP was aware of this when she made the reservation. Other coffee shops, bars and restaurants are available if you’re not ready to finish up when you need to hand the table back.

@BigJabroni a typical breakfast at this place is under £15 and most of us had 2 drinks plus we ordered a couple of dishes for the table to share. Our spend was approx £25- 30ph I'd say.

In reality, a 90 minute slot means that someone gets a booking at 12.00, the next people at 1.30 pm etc so of course they won't want the people with the 12.00 booking still lingering over coffee and still needing to pay and clear/reset the table at 1.30 pm.

Sounds like they could have handled it a bit better, and if service was slow, that wouldn't be great with a time limited slot, but I still agree that the restaurant is within its rights to expect the OP to stick to the clearly stated 90 minute slot and that this is plenty of time for a relaxed one course lunch and if you want more time to chat you should move to the bar area or go somewhere else.

Eating one course in an hour isn't rushing though.

Since his gastric (for cancer) surgery DH doesn't like to linger once he has finished eating. He wants to pay the bill and leave. We never bother with coffee after a meal.

He eats slowly so we never rush our meals, but we still manage to usually order and eat within 90 minutes. He can't eat multiple courses and we usually only eat at a local Indian or Thai restaurant or the pub.

This. If it’s such a factory production line at least have an effective production line. Take orders quickly, bring food quickly. But if then the service is so slow, food takes so long to come that you don’t have time to have pudding as well even if you wanted to. That’s not a good restaurant.

OP, I’d leave a review and vote with my feet and not return. Locally I know the places where if I want to spend 4 hours having lunch and a chat with my friends I can do no problem. Those are the places we return to.

Racked up a bill of £300? That is £20 per person, which is hardly anything..

@ARealitycheck that's not entirely true. I've been to plenty of places in France that have very punchy turnaround times. Some of the fancier places that do a good value set menu at midday can sometimes only allocate 90 - 120 mins for the entire lunch opening. BUT they have staff who turn tables quickly and efficiently and often the menu is very limited.

The last lunch I went to, we went at the end of service and it was lovely and quiet and we were left to it.

I know that's not always an option so 90 mins at lunchtime is ok especially at it's peak.

The kitchen and service need to be on the ball though if restaurants are going do that.

I don't think it's generally a problem, but it very much depends on the place whether 90 minutes is reasonable.
I went out for a large celebration meal once and the service was extremely slow. We were enjoying the evening though so didn't complain about it. At least not until they served our desserts after quite a delay, only to then come back a few minutes later (literally just a few minutes later) and demanded we leave because the table was needed for the next group arriving. They refused us any time to actually eat the desserts but still insisted they still had to be paid for.
Obviously we have never returned to that venue. We would have been OK with the time limit, if they hadn't made it impossible to actually dine within that time.

I have just checked local eatery for Sunday lunch and they have a turnaround of 75 minutes!! With children etc in a party of 12 that seems rather short!

@vtrdcat I think it depends on the place. It would be a good amount for the cafe we were in. It's a small independent where I've noticed a lot of people order one dish between two or order food but no drink 😬

P.S just checked good and the average spend says £10-20 so I really don't think the issue was the cost of the bill 😉

*google

Beef is always served rare. If you want it well done it's up to you to ask for the outside bits.

Its a cafe. For brunch, not an actual lunch. That could be anything from avocado toast to a full English.
I'd say 2 cups of £4 coffee and a £12 meal was on the dear side for a cafe.

That seems reasonable. It’s annoying to have to catch the eye of staff for the bill and gives you plenty of time to sort payment. Sounds like an efficiently run place.