Restaurant Annoyance

[countrygirl12]

What are the greatest things that annoy you when your at a restaurant?

For me, it's the following:

1.  People lingering at the soda machine at fast food places
2.  The waitress being slow with refills at sit down places
3.  People who are messy or make noises when eating

Having to flag down a waiter or waitress for refills or things I need
People talking LOUD on a cell phone
People who let their phone ring forever before they answer it
Unruly kids being loud
Employees too interested in socializing to pay attention to customers
Messed up orders
Tables being dirty

*I don't eat out very often.  People are nasty.  You have no idea what people do to your food before you actually get it.  I have seen food dropped in the floor and then put back on the grill or just on somebody's plate.  And it's unreal how many people have diseases like AIDS, Hep, and other things that I wouldn't want them touching my food.

[mrisha]

The biggest annoyance for me at a restaurant are parents who allow their kids to run around like untrained 4 legged  animals.  Another are those who get on their cell phones and talk so loud that it becomes very irritating.  I want to say shut up or take it outside.  People are simply ignorant and stupid.

[natashaspy]

mine has to be children that run wild around the restaurants and are screaming at the top of their lungs.  i always took my son out of a public place if he was crying so as not to disturb the other people there, and would never let him run rampant like kids do today!!!

[lguzman1]

What really annoys me is when people let their children run all over the place. If your going to take your children have them behave. I had my own children and my children had to behave if they wanted to come with me or they would stay home. 

[tfw6693]

  I enjoy watching everyone else. 

[o2bnocn]

The biggest annoyance I ever had was waiting for the food. It took forever.

[dmahoney]

I'd have to say dirty utensils, rude employees, and improperly cooked food.

[lvstephanie]

I think I can top everyone about this matter.  I was at a restaurant with my new boyfriend, it was a romantic meal and we were both looking forward to a 3 course dinner with wine and desert. Our appetizer came, which took way too long but as the conversation was good, we didn't say anything. We enjoyed our wine. An hour later, with no main course in sight, my boyfriend called a waiter over and suggested they may wish to hurry up and bring us our entree. There had been some couples who had arrived after us and had already eaten and left. The next thing we new is that our bill arrived, for the whole entire meal! We were shocked and went straight to the kitchen. The waiter told them we wouldn't pay our bill but we said, we didn't even get our entreee but were charged for it. In the end, the boss said he was sorry for the mix up and we did not need to pay for anything. Then we got fries on the way home!

Sounds similar to what happened to me, once.... I had gone to a restaurant by myself with a good book to read while I ate. I had received my food ok, but at the end of the meal it seemed to take forever for the waiter to come back with the bill. He had also never came while I was eating to ask for refills or dessert, but since I was so engrossed in the book it didn't really bother me that much. I actually thought that perhaps he saw I was reading and was trying to be considerate by not interrupting my reading, so after several long minutes of sitting with the empty dish in front of me and no sign of the waiter, I just marked my page, closed my book, and looked around for my waiter. After another long bit of time had passed, I finally yelled "Excuse Me!" to flag down a waitress in a different section as she passed by my section. She came over and I explained that it was now over an hour since I had last seen my waiter, and that I was ready to get my bill and leave. She left (presumably to get my waiter) and came back shortly with the manager. The manager, being extremely apologetic, had told me that my waiter had actually left early claiming that all of his tables had been taken care of. Because of my long wait, the manager comped my bill completely. As I was leaving, I gave the waitress a tip for helping me out even with my frustrated attitude.

Thus, I'd have to say my biggest pet peeve with restaurants are inattentive wait-staff. Whether it's simply not refilling pop / coffee in a timely fashion, or something more drastic like Penwoir's and my situations.

[rainman306]

I believe that a lot of waiters still only make the TIPPED employee minimum wage which I think is only $3 something an hour.

Do you think higher paid servers would provide better service??

Most restarants charge a decent price for food and sit-down restaruants more than fast food, I think they should be able to affort at least regular minimum wage like $7.50+ an hour.

[betlynjua]

I can think of 2 things right off the bat that bother me at restaurants.  Number one is noise.  I hate loud places.  My husband and I were considering taking some friends out to lunch the other day and even though the food is very good at this particular establishment, I was in no mood for the loud noise that usually occurs there.  My other problem is when servers make excuses for very slow, almost non-existent service.  I was with my husband at a place we enjoy.  We ordered our drinks then we ordered our main course.  All of a sudden, the place got real busy.  Other guests that came in after us were served before we were.       Our server came to our table and tried to tell us that the place got slammed with people.  Well, duh, I could have told her that.       Needless to say, my husband and I had what turned out to be our free drinks then left.  We did have an appointment to make and didn't have all day to wait.

[moonangel]

kids that jump one the seat in which you share the back with them   watching waitresses carry large amoutns of dirty dishes and them came out with their fingers on your plates and you know that the had no time to wash their hands  I actually sat behind my boss one time they did not realize that I was there and I heard them talking about their raises in which at work that day we all had been told they could not afford to give us a raise
I also hate it when your waiting to be seated and you can see so many empty tables then when you finally get seated you realize that the owner was just to cheap to try to get in more help

[squirrelgirl44]

Servers that take forever... I don't know if it is just me, but there are times I wait 5-10 minutes before anyone comes by at all. Or when you are done eating, the check takes forever. And even if I leave my card/cash out it takes forever for them to process. Honestly, service has gotten so bad in restaurants I hate even going.

[sherryinutah]

Music that is way too loud so you have to get your food "to go" if you want to have a conversation with the people you're eating with.

 

[reiddb]

I usually have good experiences....sometimes when the waiter/waitress is TOO friendly.  I had one actually sit down next to me at the table once, telling a story...\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

[bud1]

Spoiled little brats  and  their unaware parents.