waiters forgetting we ordered an appetizer then going back and having it with the meal. Really not what we wanted.
Having our food show up cold after a long wait.
Seeing everyone that came in way after you get their food and you are still sitting there starving, and even worse when they ordered same thing you did. This just happened to us recently really ticks me off. Our waiter that night just kept disappearing to who knows where for long periods, no offer of tea or water or beer for my husband.

I get really grumpy about all of the above. But, dislike most when you can see your order is up under the heat lamps and they do not serve it in a timely manner.

Sometimes I order from the appetizer menu, being vegatarin that is the only items I can eat, it is ok with me but~~I want it as my dinner not before, most waiters get it others can not handle it.GRRR

Once it was taking so long for them to take our order, I used a napkin and took everyones orders~~walked over and gave it to the manager. One time DH got so pissy we had our orders and my DD who was 10 had not gotten hers, he went into the kitchen area to see what was going on LOL! ASAP we got it and I think some $$ off the bill.

Have you watched Restaurant Stakeout on the food channel? This man is invited to restaurants having problems and has cameras and microphones installed unbeknowst to employees, except the owner, and shows the owner what is going on behind the scenes.

Amazing what they find out, employees goofing off, making out, on cell phones constantly while customers are wondering where their meals are.

One guy was telling customers that the credit card thingy wasn't working and would they pay in cash and then he put the money in his pocket when he got to the cash register. Then they confronted him and he denied it until they showed the film, then he said he was deserving of it for all his hard work. lol He was fired on the spot.

Very interesting program of behind the scenes, I really liked it.

Donna, Restaurant Stakeout is staged. They hire actors to steal, drop dishes, argue with customers, etc. It can be fun to watch, anyway!

Donna I watch it also~there are 2 different guys that do shows like that. Makes me feel like I have a right to speak out more if things are not right.

Had an extremely busy day at work yesterday, got no lunch and had to stay late to chart and give report. It was my 8 hour day so it wasn't as bad as it sounds. I was so thirsty and a little hungry by the time I left so I met Alex for dinner since it was his birthday. We chose a Japanese restaurant close to his home that we had never been to.

I ordered hot tea but it had bright pink lipstick on the rim. GAG. She brought me a new cup, thankfully, a totally different color because I don't know if I could have drunk it if it came back in the same colored cup. Same thing happened about a year ago at Chilis. How do they not see that bright colored smear of lipstick? And if lipstick stays on their washed dishes, what else is still on that you can't see?

The food wasn't great, the tea tasted like it had been sitting all day and was super strong and bitter. The tempura tasted like it had been rewarmed. The waitress was pretty good in the beginning and kept coming back for our order, we were talking and trying to decide what to order...but after we got our food, we never saw her for a long time. The tea was cold, couldn't drink the last half of it because it was mostly tea leaves.

This is a pretty expensive restaurant...sushi/steakhouse...but the bathroom sinks were rusted and really nasty looking. How much does it cost to buy a little replacement sink?

Kathleen hit upon my peeve somewhat. That is, unclean restrooms. If they can't keep the restrooms clean, I'd sure hate to see the kitchen!!

some mentioned above, but it is service I have problems with. I know that the cooks work better with some waitresses than others. Found that out years ago when a friend worked at Denney's. When I ate there always got her because she split her tips with the cooks--others did not. Also her food was always hot and fixed the way I ordered. I always left more because of that. Would I do that now? with a waitress I did not know? Not sure.
Anyway, one of my pet peeves is a single women sitting at any table, not getting the same service as a man.
Also the neatness of the food on the plate, and yes I do like hot food.

If you don't like the look of the bathroom, the kitchen is probably worse..
I'm not a big fan of restaurant chains... where you can't see into the kitchen.. most of it is prepped off-site and just reheated... Head to the small, locally owned places and also check out the board of health citations..

We have a lot of wonderful smaller restaurants around here. I have three pet peeves. The first is the tremendous amount of noise, so much I can't hear my dinner partners. I think this should be addressed when the restaurant is designed. There are ways to prevent noise from bouncing all over. The next is not enough light. I have been reduced to picking up a candle on the table and hovering it over the menu to read it. Yes, I am old! And third -- and my biggest -- is tables too close together. Sometimes I feel like I am dragging my butt in the food of the table next to me when I am getting to my chair. You cannot have a private conversation because the people next to you are so close. I particularly can't stand when I am sitting at a banquette and the waiter has to pull the table away from the wall to let me in and out.

I used to work as a waitress and I know how hard it can be and how many things that can go wrong over which you have no control. I really appreciate a server who can make the entire experience seem seamless.

Call me a grouch, but I don't like really chummy waiters, who keep talking to me. Just bring me my food, keep my drink filled, and leave me alone. I will leave you a nice tip....but I don't go out to eat to be entertained by waiters.

I am sooooo glad I don't have to deal with this stuff because I don't eat out (maybe once a month.) Dh has to travel for his job and has horror stories. He gets many meals comped, even though he's on an expense account and doesn't get any personal benefit. it's just the principle of it.

My gripe is with the music and this man said it best in the Albany NY paper this week.

Here is a link that might be useful: Restaurant Music

A few gripes:

⢠The fad of the high metal ceilings and hard walls so the noise echoes
⢠The 25-40 watt light bulbs in some places.
⢠The small print on some of the menus. I carry a magnifier with a light but the light doesn't always work. Seems the fine print us usually around the places with the dim lighting too.
⢠A big gripe - as soon as the sun comes up most places scramble to close the blinds. I like to see out. I like to have natural daylight. I don't get it.
⢠Places like the "Five Disappointments" who seem to feel if they can't make a good product, just give you a lot more of the bad stuff and everyone will be happy. Not me. I'd rather have a few good fries than a bag full of drippy limp cold ones.

I want to see Glendas answer to this

My eating out habit is locally owned family run restaurants.
Familar with the daily menus or can check online which determines what direction I go to have my daily dinner.

One restaurant posts their menu onlin daily and when I see they have hamburger steak, I try to get there early enough to beat the crowd. BUT have gotten there, walked in the door and hamburger steak is scratched off the chalkboard, cause they ran out.

It's one of their most popular food on the menu which is only once a week.

Ted's Downtown if you don't get there by 1, they run out of their famous cornbread muffins.

My rant is when I want breakfast for lunch, I usually go to IHOP, one of the few food chains, and get pancakes that have been previously made and can tell they are not freshly prepared when ordered. Doesn't happen that often but it has happened.

I live close enough that I can run home, when restroom needs hit. Thank goodness.

One gripe are salt and pepper shakers that have not been wiped off periodically. And salt that doesn't come out of shaker.

Hartley's Home Cooked Foods is usually low on steak sauce or completely out. And their used bottles always seem sticky, which I have mentioned to the owner.

Detired, I know what you mean. There's a little cafe in Versailles (about 15 minutes up the road from us) that we love. Last week we took Duray to eat there for the first time. It's tiny and it got crowded after we got there. A group of about 6 or 7 women came in to eat...there were no tables available and no place for them to sit and wait. So, they stood all around the other diner's tables including ours. One woman's rear end was almost touching our table. I didn't like it at all.

I would have gone somewhere else. In fact Duray and I went grocery shopping last night and we went and got dinner before we shopped. I forgot it was Friday night so we started to go to Longhorn Steakhouse, parking lot was packed. Then went to Bob's Bigboy, packed again, then to Beef O'Brady's. We walked in and walked out as it was wall-to-wall people and I didn't want to wait. We ended up eating at our usual sushi place a few doors down...which brings me to another issue I had....idiots who open the front door when it's snowing and freeze everyone in the restaurant. I'm at the point where I almost don't care if I embarrass my kids and came so close to shouting at the stupid girl to close the d@mn door! We were sat right in front of the front door at first and I asked to be moved. Everytime the door opened I would get a blast of ice cold air. So, they moved us a table away. Could still feel it but not so bad, until the stupid girl stood there for over 5 minutes holding the door open. Either walk in all the way or go back out. Sheesh!

Kath, I had a similar experience at a pub near me. My friend and I went to dinner and the first available table was right at the front. Some guy with one of those fat bellies that makes him look like he's pregnant was standing so close to our table, his belly was hanging over it. I was tempted to poke it with a fork, but instead I pretended I was cutting my food and gave him a shot with my elbow. That moved him back a few steps. Altogether, that was an awful meal and we have not gone back.

I definitely ask to be seated elsewhere if I get blasted by cold air from the door. There's one restaurant in town that has a small vestibule but they hang a curtain over it to prevent air blasts. It works well.

I almost never go to a chain restaurant because we have so many wonderful small privately owned restaurants here. I do think the chains do a better job with comfortable seating, but they have the money to pay astronomical rents for larger spaces.

I hate waiting. Hubby and I went to a nice pretty expensive place. Ordered sur-n-turf steak and seafood, then waited 45 minutes. We got disgusted, told waiter we were leaving, got our coats on, just as the food arrived. We left without paying- hope the food went in the dumpster. Of course we didn't get a refund and have never gone back.

My biggest gripe has to do with the need to wear my coat while eating in a lot restaurants. I know that the workers are probably warm enough, but some places are ridiculously cold. I always take a sweater into a restaurant in hot weather and wear 2 layers in winter under my coat in hopes of not freezing.

Rest rooms can be an issue for me. Would someone please tell me why the doors going in/out are so heavy/stiff. Anyone who has a disability (uses a cane or walker) understands what I am saying.

And just yesterday, I spoke to the manager of a favorite eating place for at least the 5th time in as many years about the fact that the purse hook in the handicapped stall is broken off and useless. Maybe this time it will get fixed...it is a new manager as of last month.

Yes, Glenda. I know what you mean about the sticky residue at IHOP. The management shoud know that this is bound to be a problem, especially with little kids putting their hands everywhere: chair backs, edges of the table, padded seats, etc. My friend and I used to go to IHOP fairly regularly on Sunday mornings and I would make sure to check the seats of the booths and chairs before I sat down. The sticky salt and peppers and the handles of the syrup pitchers also.

Luckily we now have a new Broken Egg to go to here in
T-town instead. So much more fun.

maxmom, we have Another Broken Egg here, but my son loves loves loves Over Easy, that's going into Mt Brook. He raves over their oatmeal pancakes.

Singsongy sort of valley girl voices of waitresses. Blech.

My children always give us gift cards to Cracker Barrel...I never go there that I do not have a complaint...finally told them to save their money...poorest service ever...have two in my wallet now...think I will use them in the gift shop...

This post was edited by momof6 on Sat, Mar 2, 13 at 20:40

Glenda, you live in the BIG city. We only get bits and pieces of good restaurants here. I never heard of Over Easy, but oatmeal pancakes do sound good.

maxmom, I live off busy 280 area,

gazania I am with you on the restrooms! I don't know how many I have tried to get into and out of in my wheelchair that I was using both hands and both feet trying to get the dang doors open. Then you manage to get part ways in and it shuts on you trapping you. And they have the nerve to call them handicapped equipped, well great but make it so we can get in there. I often have my husband walk with me in case I can't get the door opened to go in. Of course then I am on my own to get out if I am alone. And some places think all that extra space in the handicapped stall is for storing stuff. I guess they have never tried negotiating a wheelchair chair around in a cramped stall. it's barely enough space with nothing in there.
I have been to several places that there's no way to get around between tables making it to the restrooms is also a challenge. You learn to head that way early it may take you an hour to get there and back! (that's with no line of course )

Dirty cutlery. Grungy cups. There is one place that sets each place with a cup in case you need it, but they don't clear the extra ones away. They sit there until somebody uses it. I check my cup EVERY SINGLE TIME before they pour coffee, because more than once there has been something in the cup or it was dirty. YUCK. I don't like it there, but sometimes I get vetoed.

When you get your meal, but have to wait for certain add ons that you need to eat it. For example, your pancakes come to the table hot, but get cold while you wait for syrup to be brought out. Or you have no silverware and everybody disappears as soon as the plate is dropped off.

For the most part though, I don't mind eating out.

Dances.

Waitpeople who come back to the table 5 or 6 times while you're trying to have a conversation/eat to ask if everything is alright. OMG....if something is not ok, I'll let you know. We always leave a bigger tip if the waitstaff leaves us alone to enjoy our meal.

This is really kinda minor... but there are some places where they have a lot of tvs going.. usually more than one channel... of course no sound... so how come they don't activate the 'closed captioning'... And I'll go on to say, the places are already pretty loud due to piped in music or just plain noise..