To think some hospitality businesses don’t help themselves?

[EagleMount]

It’s tough times in the hospitality business but am I being unreasonable to think some don’t help themselves?

The last two meals out the same thing happens. Get to the end of the mains and want to order desserts. Wait ages for plates to be collected. Eventually that happens but no offer of dessert menu, no offer to get more drinks.

Have to ask for dessert menu. Decide what we’re having. Then wait. And wait. And wait. Then 25 minutes late decide thats enough waiting and go and buy ice creams from the local shop on the way home, after having to pay the bill at the bar.

Thats £20-30 lost on desserts / coffees.

Neither restaurant was busy and there were plenty of staff on. Yes, I could’ve hunted someone down to order desserts but I’m not sure why I should have to conduct a manhunt to get a sticky toffee pudding.

I should add there are great places who are really on top of the upselling but some are really not maximising their opportunities.

AIBU?

I wouldn't worry about them; if they really needed the extra £20-30 they would have tried harder. Even at 100% markup that's at best £15 net, or about an hour's wages for one of the staff. Your desserts are trifling. Pun intended.

why on earth did you pay for the desserts?

She didn’t. That’s why the establishment lost the money.

YANBU. Food is basic and Service is dire. It doesn’t help that people treat service workers like they’re some sort of marginalised group who have the god given right to be sulky and helpful, rather than people doing a job. I’ve worked in the service industry, it wasn’t easy but I still worked with pride, that seems to be lost these days

Absolutely

The problem is, they're not bothered

*unhelpful, not helpful

I've basically stopped going to restaurants. I can't justify all the money for a good meal but poor service which is practically everywhere at the moment.

Agree. I actually think it stems from people having no training and so they don't know any better and people who have businesses that they don't know how to run (and must also not eat out much either of they don't know what they should be doing!)

yeah me too. It's truly awful out there. I'm not paying good money for that.

I worked in hospitality for years so I get vicariously bothered when service is rubbish. It’s got so expensive to dine out that it’s special when we go out, and poor service only underlines the expense. Drinks, desserts and coffees have much higher profit margins than main courses, so it galls when businesses don’t follow through and lose sales in the process.

There's no welcome and it's like they don't care if you stay and it always feels rushed once you've asked for the bill. No asking if you'd even like a coffee.

It does seem that many restaurants don’t train their staff in basic manners or building rapport with customers. So often in the UK you get service staff who don’t smile and barely speak and make zero effort. I don’t understand it. It feels like it’s almost wrong to want or expect good service. They want your money but don’t want to have to put it any effort to get it,

Many service people are not in it as a career, they are in there way to something else.

as pp states, service career isn’t valued & looked down on, so service isn’t trained or regarded as important

this is the end result, advice mediocre service

It’s mostly casual workers not the owner so makes no difference to them if you have pudding or not.

It does if the tip is a percentage of the total bill. And part of the job is upselling and optimising all the various opportunities to sell.

It’s the staff training that’s the problem.
Nobody does it, or even appears to know how to do it, anymore.
Also, pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

It’s online courses that are very uninspiring rather than in-house face to face, which I admit could be will but somehow you learnt better for stuff like customer service

The problem with hospitality in this country are majority of them are young and working just to get some extra cash. Same goes for retail. Plus very little training.

In America, people make a career of these.

I went to the local Indian restaurant and their service was perfect. Attention to detail and could answer any question/recommendation.

I was speaking to a friend the other day who spent half term in New York with her kids. She said it was eye opening how good the restaurant service was. I totally hear you OP - went out the other month for a special occasion and god it took so long for each element. First to order drinks, then to get them to come back to order mains. Finally managed to order pudding and after 20 mins they brought us the bill forgetting they hadn’t brought us the puddings! The kids were bored and frustrated. All for over £125!

We’ve stopped going to restaurants unless it’s a special occasion now. You get poor service and they want you in and out asap so no time to even order an extra drink they rush over with the card machine.

I recently had the opposite experience. I can only describe it as 'american style' service. He was over the top and I found it annoying tbh. He grabbed an empty chair then sat in it backwards to take our order and was asking pointless questions about our lives. The whole thing felt really performative and I'd have much preferred normal service.

Most staff are 30/40s in one of the regular places we used to go. The very young ones actually offered better service.

I've had quite poor service the last 4 times I've eaten out, similar to op, young waiting staff standing around doing nothing, felt I was hassling them to even get their attention and then get them to come over and serve us. felt like standing up and screaming 'don't you want my money, all I want is a 2nd drink".

@Mishmashs the difference being that in US they have to give good service to ensure tips give them minimum wage. Not saying it's good here but it's a scandal how the US treats restaurant workers in the US.