If you follow along at home you may notice I eat in a lot of restaurants.
Call it an occupational and social hazard. First off I have two careers which keep me a little busy. Secondly, I have two young toddlers which make it sometimes necessary to eat out as a family to conserve energy. Third, I am a bit of a foodie and love to experience new tastes. Lastly, I am a military brat who has never lived more than five years in the same house and so I take 'field trips' to stay sane.
It is not an insane number of times, probably two suppers, one lunch and a breakfast every week. The thing is that I try to make the experiences as different as possible.
I have given this a lot of thought and I believe there to be a huge disconnect between restaurant owners and patrons. Here is the number one problem:
Owners are chefs, or like the food they serve, and think you are coming for the food. Patrons are looking for an experience and go for the atmosphere.
Hear me out.
If I am away from home on business, I am looking for someplace to relax and feel comforted. If I am taking my kids out it is because I am stressed and tired and need someone else to take care of things in the kitchen. If I am out with friends I am looking for a sense of fun and adventure. If I am on a date I want romance and attention to detail.
There are very few cases in which the food is the top priority. I go to the same pizza joint because I like their dough; I go to the same fast food place because I am addicted; I go to my favourite Vietnamese place despite the atmosphere because I want their imperial rolls. Most of the time, however, I am looking for a little help from the service industry to make me feel special.
I don't think people who work in and own the places understand this.
I offer this as a list of tips in case you happen to be in the food service industry. Or as a list of pet peeves that some of you may identify with.
When I sit down at a table, bring me something; a glass of water, a crayon, anything to make me feel like you know I exist; it will go a long way.
Make suggestions. I always ask my server what they would eat and some of them treat it like it is the strangest question. It is not. You see this stuff day after day, if you would still eat it, I know it is good.
Kids of any age have a short attention span. If you can't get me their food in 10 minutes, fill the time with other things, even crackers. Also, it does no good to rush their food out to them if you are still going to take 30 minutes to bring my food and I have no time or space left to eat it because they are done and crying.
Water. Every five minutes. Same with coffee. Every five minutes. I am not kidding. There are places I will never go again because I do not like feeling like I am trapped on the Serengeti.
If you are having a bad day, that is fine, tell me. I will be more forgiving. Impatience, rudeness or sloppiness are not what I am paying big bucks for.
Last, but the most serious, bring me the check. I can't tell you how many times I have sat for what seems like hours waiting for someone's attention in order to get out of the place. Once I have the check in hand, I can decide when to pay you, and I feel like you have empowered me to make my own choice about leaving.
That is the quick list, there are of course 100 stories I could tell, from the time we had no cutlery and the waitress decided to just throw a pile of knife and forks on the table and say "here;" to the myriad of times when I actually thought we must have been forgotten.
Don't get me wrong, I have had some of the best moments of my life in restaurants as well, times when the chef came and sat down at the table and talked about the food; or the waiter made me feel like I was the most important person in the universe.
Unfortunately, bad service is becoming the norm.
And that is the thing, ultimately. I go to a restaurant to feel special, to have an 'out of the ordinary' experience, and when you fail to provide it I am not coming back very often, even if it was the most amazing ribs, steak, salmon, or nachos I have ever eaten.
I think the people that work there have become so self-involved and self-important that the customer is no longer anything but a means to an end.
Here is how I handle it. I am a generous person, but I know a tip is a tip; it is an extra for value added. Mess with me and you get nothing. Smile at me and you may get 10 dollars at a coffee shop. I think if we stopped just automatically tipping some appropriate amount to people who don't deserve it, things might change.
Secondly; I tell managers that Lucy Loo has to go. I write letters.
Last but not least, restaurant owners need to become aware of the power of social networking. I tweet where I eat.
I talk about how I was treated and 500 people in Moncton read that and make their own choices. They also talk to their friends. I post on Facebook with actual photos of what I eat. We need more honest critique of the industry.
There is nothing like a good meal in a great restaurant. It is simple to make an impression, and even simpler to have it be the wrong one.
No comments:
Post a Comment