An opinion, and a Suck.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Okay, so there is a local Chinese food place that does buffets at certain times on certain days. I love it. They actually put the good entrees and appetizers out, not just the cheapest shiz on the menu.

As you can guess, it gets WAY busy during buffet times! Despite not having as much workload due to diners getting their food themselves, waiters are still running all over the place to make sure the people in their sections have everything they need, come back to a cleared table with their umpteenth plate of food, getting them stuff that's not in the buffet but they ordered a la carte, etc.

So me and my boy toy take a seat at the sushi bar because it was a long wait and the manager offered it to us so we wouldn't have to wait. This was awesome because I love watching sushi chefs make sushi. Yes I am weird.

Now, our server was very polite and attentive. It took a bit to get our drinks, and he had to come back to double check what we wanted to drink, but I was A-OK with this for a couple reasons.

A) Like I said, completely jam packed restaurant.
B) Hey! I'd prefer the waiter to come and double check my order, even if he did forget.

So it was not an offense deserving of tip docking, and the BF agreed.

After that he made sure to keep coming back when my water got low, bf's soda got low, or when he noticed I had cleaned out an entire pot of tea by myself (and got me a whole new pot! I really had to pee when we got home though. )

BF and I ended up tipping at our "Excellent service" rate.

Here comes the suck;


Behind us there was a table of four, they came in after us so I heard everything. They kept trying to order alcoholic drinks despite not having ID, waiter carded them and then each time they tried to order more alcoholic drinks he'd offer to have them make it virgin. That was a no-go, apparently.

When they finally decided on their drinks, and to get the buffet, the poor guy had gotten so confused he almost mixed up their drink order with one at the table alongside them.

-The restaurant is kind of strict about not writing things down, the waiters are expected to be able to remember that stuff.-

So he went back and asked them to confirm the drinks.

Oh man you thought he had just demanded they all strip down, have sex on the buffet table, and then eat the results.

One of the sushi chefs (the shortest one, which I found really amusing) took his big sushi knife and walked around the bar and approached the table really slowly with a completely calm look on his face.

Long story short they immediately stopped giving the waiter trouble, but I noticed a whopping ZERO tip. I felt bad and gave the waiter a couple extra bucks I had on me. I know I shouldn't feel obligated to cover for someone else not tipping... but meh!

[PepperElf]

but i understand too. they sound like they were butthurt that they couldn't get booze without ID and kept pushing it. so naturally they took it out on him when he dared make a mistake.

if they had bothered bringing ID in then this wouldn't have happened. no fault but their own for 90% of it.

[Merriweather]

I don't get the "not writing it down" policy - I mean, I know some places are like that, but why on earth would that be considered desirable by management? Maybe if everyone ordered straight off a set list with no substitutions or choices, ok, but expecting anyone to remember several people at several tables, each choosing sides, dressings, etc. as well as special requests for no-salt or on-the-side or whatever - and remember it not only long enough to tell the kitchen, but keep it in mind while taking yet more orders, in order to remember who had what at what table, and even double check that the kitchen got it right? For what ? dozens of people over a shift, probably over a hundred, right? (not sure how mnay tables most waitstaff handle, or what average time of a diner is). Geez,
I don't see how anyone could do it. And why? Seeing a waiter with no paper or pen doesn't impress me with how great the restaurant is - in fact the opposite. I feel much more reassured when I see them write down any special requests I may have, I would think anyone would, especially anyone with either allergies or health issues of any kind.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

They have a computer PoS system. So they only need to remember it long enough to go to the computer, input it and any special stuff, and what-ever-else.

He had just gotten side tracked between my order and the computer, and for the other table I think he just went straight to the computer but they had ordered so many different things and canceled them...yeah.

Not to sound racist (but it's going to totally sound racist anyway) it's a Chinese food place. Around here, the Asian population kind of fits the stereotype of "WE MUST BE PERFECT AND DO EVERYTHING BETTER!"

Therefore flash memorizing orders is the way of the restaurant. I've never had my order wrong there (even with fancy changes and everything else) so it doesn't really bother me all that much. He still had the order correct when he came back, he just wanted to double check. Pretty sure he was a new server as I've never seen him there before.

[raudf]

I admit, I feel really strange when a waiter/ress doesn't have a pad and pen to write stuff down. I guess because I've had my orders screwed up so many times by those who had the ability to use the pads, but refused to for some reason or other.

And that group at the table? What part of "No ID, No booze," did they not understand? Oh, right.. silly me, the part where his mouth moved and formed the word, "No."

[bainsidhe]

I've also been a bit when a server takes an order without writing it down. An impressive skill I'll admit, but a bit pointless in the grand scheme. I have the attention span of a gnat, and thus could never work there. How do you keep things straight with the constant interruptions and distractions that naturally happen in a busy place?

[AmbrosiaWriter]

How do you keep things straight with the constant interruptions and distractions that naturally happen in a busy place?

It's a little talent that people with good mental organization skills have, or they have their own mental system to keep things in order (like how some people have their own special handwriting shorthand to make note taking easier.)