My Restaurant Pet Peeves

OK everybody, it’s time to vent!! How many of you have gone to a nice restaurant and left feeling disappointed and let down by the experience? Well, join the club! I took some time to write down some of my biggest restaurant pet peeves and was surprised by the length of the list once I had finished. Let’s see how many of you have had similar experiences!

Laurie and I absolutely love going out to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Since arriving in Florida back in 2021, we have eaten at over 150 different restaurants, and many of those multiple times – that’s over three new restaurant visits a month during our time down here in Sarasota so far, not even counting multiple visits to our favorites on the list!

I can also say that in almost all cases, we enjoyed our meals as well as the great service. But in many cases over the 26 years that Laurie and I have been married, we have experienced annoyances at the restaurants we have frequented – some minor, and others quite significant. These annoyances, or “pet peeves” include issues associated with the food we were served, the servers themselves, wine service, restaurant policies and practices, and dining room atmosphere to name a few.

Before I go on, let me state for the record that I have great appreciation for those in the restaurant business. We know that servers and others behind the scenes like dishwashers in the restaurant industry work extremely hard under difficult circumstances and for generally low pay, and are underappreciated for what they do. We also know that running and owning restaurants is a tough business, with low profit margins and continually challenging business environments.

That’s why Laurie and I are very forgiving and provide the benefit of the doubt when things go wrong at a restaurant. We tip well for good service (our minimum is 20% unless the service is horrible), and even better for outstanding service (at least 30% and sometimes upwards of 40% in cases of exemplar service). We strive to be patient with our servers when the restaurant is crowded and busy, and gracious when a dish comes out that we didn’t order or that wasn’t cooked correctly. When things go really wrong, we seek out a manager privately to discuss the issue before taking to social media to lodge a complaint.

But all that said, going out to eat is expensive, so we expect high quality food and service when we dine out – and we don’t think that’s too much to ask for, especially at high-end restaurants that tend to break the bank. Based on my experience over decades of frequenting restaurants and with all of the caveats noted above in mind, here is a list of my biggest restaurant pet peeves, in no particular order.

• Restaurants that don’t take reservations. This is a big one for me. In my mind, there is no good reason for a restaurant to not take reservations. In fact, I posit that restaurants that don’t take reservations are either being cheap or greedy. Yes, setting up a reservation system can cost a restaurant money, but the convenience for the customer should come first. If they want to save money, they should find another way that doesn’t inconvenience the customer so much. Alternatively, the only other reason I can think of for why a restaurant wouldn’t take reservations is because they are being greedy. They know that customers waiting 45 minutes or an hour for a table will likely spend more money at the bar while they wait, increasing sales and profits. And yes, I understand that “no shows” are a problem for restaurants, but they can easily build them into their seating plans by accommodating more walk ins based on the restaurant’s history with no shows. For the most part, Laurie and I tend to avoid restaurants that don’t take reservations – there are few restaurants that are great enough to merit waiting in line for 45 minutes or more to finally snag a table. Yes, I’m talking to you Osteria 500, Owen’s Fish Camp, and Agave Bandito!

• Restaurants that seat you right next to another table of diners when the rest of the restaurant is empty. I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to Laurie and I. We walk into a restaurant with a reservation, there are a few tables occupied but most are empty, and the host seats us right next to another occupied table or even worse, in between two occupied tables. How about spreading us out a bit, and giving us just a little space until the restaurant gets busier? When this happens, I’ll usually point to another table and politely ask to be seated there. And yes, I understand server workload distribution and all that, but that’s not a good excuse when the restaurant is close to empty and servers are standing around with little to do in the meantime.

• Tables that are crammed together or in locations where tables shouldn’t be. Related to the previous pet peeve, I also hate it when restaurants cram their tables together or try to seat those with reservations at the worst table in the dining room. Regarding tables that are crammed together, not only does it make conversation difficult, but who wants someone else’s buttocks right in their face as they try to navigate their way to the seat right next to yours? And hearing about little Bobby’s explosive diarrhea earlier in the day or Aunt Gert’s latest physical ailments from the diners next to us isn’t my idea of an enjoyable evening out. I get that real estate is expensive in some cities so packing patrons in is necessary to make a profit, but 18 inches between tables is ridiculous. Our favorite restaurant in NYC is a classic Italian restaurant in midtown Manhattan called Becco. The food can’t be beat, but the tables are so close together that it really does detract from the experience of eating in a fantastic restaurant.  And regarding tables placed in bad locations in restaurants like right next to the bathrooms or busy service areas, how about reserving those tables for the walk-ins instead of those who thought ahead to make reservations? Even better, how about NOT putting tables in these highly undesirable locations at all? There’s a restaurant we really like down here in Lakewood Ranch called Libby’s Neighborhood Brassiere and more often than not, they first try to seat us at the worst table in the place – right in front of a door that servers use to get to the outdoor patio, and also that patrons use to enter the restaurant. We sat at that table the first time we ate there and hated it. Since then, the host has tried to sit us there at least two other times and we have always told them we want another table. I know we’re not the only ones who hate that table, so just remove it – I’m confident the restaurant will survive without it!

• Tables that are too small to hold all the dishes. Laurie and I like to spread out a bit when we eat instead of sitting at a tiny table that we know won’t hold all of the dishes, glasses, and other items. When making everything fit on your table requires the equivalent of solving a complex operations research optimization equation using the simplex method, you know your table is too small. If you can’t fit a wine bottle, two wine glasses, two water glasses, a breadbasket, utensils, and a two dinner plates on the table, it’s too small. If you are constantly knee knocking under the dinner table with your dinner date, the table is too small.

• Restaurants that rush the service and don’t fire the dishes properly. I understand the need for restaurants to “turn tables” in a timely fashion – it can be really annoying when a table of diners lingers at their table for 30 minutes or longer after their plates have been cleared and the bill paid. But restaurants should never rush diners through their meal so they can turn the tables faster. I absolutely hate it when we order an appetizer, salad course, and main course and each arrives at the table before we have had time to finish the previous course. Good servers know to keep watch on the table and “fire” the next course when the time is right to avoid rushing the meal. Some restaurants are notorious for this and do it as a matter of course. We had a favorite local restaurant we went to often in Virginia called Burton’s Grill – great food served in a really nice atmosphere. Only problem was that they delivered each dish like they were competing in a track meet to turn the table as quickly as possible. We would order the appetizer, and it would come out of the kitchen five minutes later, followed by our main course delivered when we were only halfway through our appetizer. It got to the point where I would actually tell the server each time we went there that we didn’t want to be rushed, and wanted time between each course so we could just relax and enjoy our meal. It was ridiculous that we had to actually ask for that, but it worked!

  
  

I have so many more pet peeves to share with you – let’s meet back here next Friday to continue the list!