Waiters hovering waiting for you to finish eating. This drive anybody else nuts?

[sweetiris]

We went to eat at a small italian place tonight. It was 9:45 and the place doesn't close till 10. After the waiter finished cleaning up the other table he proceeded to park himself a couple of feet from our table. He just stood there staring at the table, then his dishrag, then us, and then the table again. He was driving me nuts!! I almost said something to him, but I didn't.
I understand that they need to clean up, but the place hadn't closed yet. Geeeezzz, at least let us finish eating! He reminded me of a vulture. Didn't bother anyone else, just me. Please tell me you'd find this annoying too, that it's not just me!

[StrikeFighter18]

I hope you didn't leave him a tip!


That reminded me of a place I once went to in Madrid, Spain. It was a very popular German restaurant with authentic cuisine. It was very crowded that night (Saturday). Apparently, Spaniards have never taken a cotton to the idea of queues or reservations, so their concept of waiting for a table is to find the table you want and stand around it until the patrons finish up! So here I am trying to enjoy a meal with friends with people standing 2 inches behind us looking down. Now that's annoying!

[DaizyMae]

You're not the only one that this annoys!!! The bad part, though, I've been on both sides of this...I was a waitress for a while, and had to close a lot, and after a long day of slaving 12-16 hours and wanting to go home, I remember a couple times "pressuring" the customers so maybe they would hurry up. It's not something I'm proud of, and I only did it a couple times, but in my defence I was really not feeling well, and to be honest, I was thinking of ME, not the customers....I usually didn't pressure them, though, just for the record...
Now, I've had this done to me, also, and was vendicive...heehee...yep, ME, vendicive..heehee...anyway, I stayed there as long as I could because the waiter was being "overly" pushy....<slapping waiter's hand> I'm NOT done with that yet...heehee Then I felt bad and stacked everything up nice so it would be easier on him...oh well, I'm just a softy I guess...

[Dyllan]

Never had it happen that bad. But, if I'm eating at 10:00 a night, it's probably at a 24 hour restaurant.

But it does annoy me when the place is dead and you're the only customer a waiter/waitress has, and ever 2 minutes it's "is everything okay."

I mean, I like having good service, but you can go overboard.

-Dyllan

[ShainaT]

This drives me crazy too! I have been a waitress so I know what it is like when you are waiting for that last table to leave...but I was never rude about it.


I also hate it when my drink is empty and they are slow in refilling it. Since I can't get up and go refill my drink myself in a restaurant...they need to keep a better eye on it. If the meal hasn't been served yet then just refill it without even asking me if I want a refill! This is probably a bigger problem to me than the hurry up and leave routine that they pull at the end of your meal.

[Dyllan]

I agree completely about drinks.

If I never see the bottom of my glass when I want a drink, the server will get at least a 20% tip from me.

-Dyllan

[telos2000]

Originally posted by sweetiris
We went to eat at a small italian place tonight. It was 9:45 and the place doesn't close till 10. After the waiter finished cleaning up the other table he proceeded to park himself a couple of feet from our table. He just stood there staring at the table, then his dishrag, then us, and then the table again. He was driving me nuts!! I almost said something to him, but I didn't.
I understand that they need to clean up, but the place hadn't closed yet. Geeeezzz, at least let us finish eating! He reminded me of a vulture. Didn't bother anyone else, just me. Please tell me you'd find this annoying too, that it's not just me!

You should have motioned him over to your table and asked him if he wanted a bite of your food. When he said no, you could have replied, "Well, I noticed you staring at us and I just assumed you must be hungry. Is there something else that I can do for you?"

[Corganiacs]

We dont go out much, but when we do, it is best to leave for supper at 6 or 7. By 9 or 10, I really dont want to be rushed when eating.

Never had busboys staring me in the face, but then I dont go out to eat late that many times.

[jskarp]

Sweetiris, did you go in to eat at 9:45? Where I work we are open til 1 a.m. but we never seat anyone in the diningroom after 12:00 and we do not serve food in the bar after 12:20.....take-out only at that point!

[billsmrs]

Yep.....that absolutely drives me bananas!!! When they do that I won't leave a tip. Same goes for when they fail to come fill my cup or ask if we need anything at least once.

[chippers21]

Not to be argumentative but I tend to think it is not especially terrible to try to give patrons the hint to leave when it is close to closing. From the working person's point of view they are only waiting for you and they can get around to the closing process, which takes some time. Most often they have been working for a long time and the extra 15 minutes would mean they actually get to close on time and go home to family or out with girlfriend/boyfriend. Waiters/waitresses have lives too, and I feel a little compassion never hurts.....If it were me I would be overly sensitive, finish up and leave, and wish them a nice evening. Might make somebodies "good memories of work" conversations. Think I am crazy? Fine. But then I believe in small acts of kindness daily, and it brightens my day to go out of my way to be helpful.

[Debbie42]

About 22 years ago I worked at I-Hop waiting tables and my sister was the cook. When it got late now I mean after closing hours and there were still people there she would start turning out the lights. I would then yell back through the kitchen hey we still have people out here. They usually got the hint real quick. She only did this when it was really late.

[3tbear]

There was an article in the newspaper recently about this subject, how restaurants only give you so many minutes to eat, and try to get you to leave, to bring in more customers, more money. They really shouldn't have bugged you so much with only 15 more minutes to go at your table. That's just rude.

My DH and I had a different type of thing at a restaurant, the waiters and waitresses were too attentive. "How is your food", then a few minutes later, "Is everything OK", then "How is everything"? In their defense, it was a new restaurant, and it was nice they were so pleasant, but you know this could be considered too much of a good thing. Maybe they will get better once they've been open awhile.

[kat]

Originally posted by telos2000



You should have motioned him over to your table and asked him if he wanted a bite of your food. When he said no, you could have replied, "Well, I noticed you staring at us and I just assumed you must be hungry. Is there something else that I can do for you?"

ROFLOL!!! OMG, that is too funny!

We have a waitress here who does this same routine of trying to get you to hurry up & leave no matter what time it is. I swear, I'm going to ask her this the next time we eat there (better yet, I'll get DH to do it).

[sweetiris]

Good one telos!

My opinion has always been that the restaurant closes at a certain time. Meaning that I can be in there up until the minute they close. If they want to try to run us out at 9:45, then close at 9:45. I know they may have friends and family to get to, but sorry tough luck, this is their job. I know they have to work later then when the restaurant closes, but that's just part of having a job at restaurant. Any cleaning up that greatly disturbs customers should done after closing. Now if people are there after closing, by all means run them out.

Speaking of waiters being overly attentive, when I was little we used to go to Golden Corral a lot. There was this one waitress who would always refill my glass even when I told her not to (I guess she thought little kid I don't have to listen too). The things was I'd only usually drank about an inch worth of the tea when she refilled. One time I said no and put my hand on top the glass. She then proceeded to pour through the little crack between my fingers. My parents always thought it was funny because that drove me so nuts!

Oh, also, when we went into the italian place it was a little before 9. They just took forever getting us our food.

My family always eats late. If we are eating dinner at home it's usually around 9 or 10. Guess it has something to do with us being night owls. (Guess it may also have something to do with the fact when I was little my family would go shopping all day with only stops for snacks. We'd only go to really eat after all the main stores had closed. Couldn't miss a minute of shopping!).