During my travels around the world I have eaten in a huge variety of places, from Michelin star restaurants to street food venues in the suburbs of an Asian cities, munching on roast duck while playing my favorite royal vegas casino mobile games. And I found that many of them have one thing in common: annoying waiters. Sometimes I feel that waiters have a special class in waiter school (if there is any) that teaches them how to annoy their patrons. There are exceptions, of course, and notable ones. But without further ado, here are the 5 things I hate most about waiters all over the world.
1. Smoking
I don’t say that waiters should not smoke at all. I myself am a smoker, and I would be the last one to deny the right for anyone to light one in their free time. But when it comes to waiters at a restaurant, the smell of smoke can be very unpleasant. I hate when a waiter comes to my table right after smoking, even outside. The smell of cigarettes is embedded in his or her clothes and hands, and it annoys the hell out of me – especially since I am not allowed to smoke in a restaurant.
2. The Menu
A good waiter should know what’s on the menu, and what it’s made of. There’s nothing more disappointing than having a waiter who has to run into the kitchen to ask if the Tikka Masala has chicken in it, or if there is any of it left.
3. Too much interaction
When I go to a restaurant, I usually want to do two things – eat and socialize with the person I sit with at the table. Making friends with the waiter – especially if he or she forces me to – is not among my priorities. Waiters should keep social interaction to a minimum, and be respectful at all times – patrons are the ones paying their salaries, after all. A good waiter should be mindful of the patrons’ reactions and know when it’s time to move along to another table.
4. Not enough interaction
Leaving the patron breathe is important, but abandoning him is a no-no. A good waiter will not return to the table every five minutes to ask if you are ready to order, if you want something to drink, but will be mindful of the patrons and be ready to act when he or she is summoned.
5. Information (too much / not enough)
When a patron asks about an item on the menu, a good waiter will know what it is and explain it briefly, but correctly. The patron is not interested in the life story of the steak, but answers like “everything’s great” when asked for a recommendation is virtually no information. A good waiter will find the balance between the two. And, by the way, sous-vide is not sexy – I don’t need to know that my meat was slow cooked in a plastic bag.
+1 – A good waiter won’t take a nearly untouched plate away from the table without asking if there was something wrong with the food. And if there was an issue, a good waiter will seek for a way to solve it by either removing it from the receipt or offering something as a compensation.
