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To the middle aged couple who ate at my restaurant tonight and received sub-par service: thank you.
It's 3am, I'm exhausted after a 14 hour double, I seriously doubt you even know a redditor, but I need to say this to someone. You came to my national chain casual dining restaurant earlier tonight. We have a promo going at the moment that probly brought you in, or maybe it was our classy ads, but either way you came. You waited patiently at the door for an hour even though the hostess told you it'd be 20 minutes. You were eventually sat at my one of my tables. I saw you, though you probly didn't see me. I was lugging an overfull bus-bucket into the kitchen at the time because one of our bartenders is one rude customer away from a nervous breakdown and I try to help her out. I wanted to rush right back out to great you, but the kitchen hadn't understood the special request on one of my orders and had waited until the rest of the order was ready to mention their confusion to anyone. I don't speak Portuguese or Spanish, it took a bit to clear the confusion. When I did finally get great you I was flustered and out of breath. I'm sorry. I had just been screaming at an angry Brazilian and I was a bit out of sorts. I didn't offer you any specials, but you already knew what you wanted anyway, drinks and meals. I took your orders and tried to go ring it into the computer. I failed. Upon leaving your table I was waved down by an overweight woman at another server's table. She was extremely unhappy because the dish she ordered that is described in our menu as featuring a certain ingredient, had that ingredient in it and she didn't know. I calmly explained that to her in as polite a manner as I could muster, but she waved my explanation away, shoved the plate in my hands and demanded a manager. Ten minutes, a few other problems, and a lot of stress later the situation had been remedied and I remembered I hadn't put your order in yet. I'm so sorry. I did finally get your orders in and get you your drinks. I'm sorry your drinks took so long, but of the five bartenders working tonight only one was assigned to making drinks for service bar (*all* the guests not sitting at the bar) and it happened to be nervous-breakdown bartender. I'm sorry your food took half an hour to come out, but last week I had the audacity to loose my temper and yell at a cook who was taking a long time to fix a mistake. A mistake he'd made. Twice. Ever since then my food seems to take a bit longer than all the other servers. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't check on you more, or refill your drinks more quickly. But as I think you saw I had one table asking for drink refills, extra sauces, napkins, more crayons for their kids, and everyother damn thing they could send me after one thing at a time; I had another table with just one lonely old man with whom I was desperately trying to play chinese checkers (he come's in once every two or three nights, he has no family and he's lonely. we try to keep him company for as long as he's there); and another table who kept saying they where ready to order things and then would sit there staring at the menus saying "umm.....yeah. I want......what'd I want hun?" For what feels like an eternity while I tried to cast you apologetic glances at you. I think you liked your meal, because you ate it, but I didn't really have the chance to talk to you about it. Again, I'm sorry. You didn't receive the service you deserved, but you where polite and undemanding, my other tables weren't and so you simply weren't the priority. I'm sorry, but it's just how the job goes. I just want you to know, I used to work in fine dining, I've served celebrities and politicians. I've chatted with Oprah and talked wine with the director of the CIA. Hard times are hard I'm stuck in a corporate hell-hole of a restaurant. I normally would've given you the best service you've ever had. I would've helped you find the perfect dish on the menu to quench whatever craving you had at that moment. And I would've recomended the perfect drink to compliment it. But I couldn't. Between taking care of my other tables, helping my co-workers and singing "happy happy birthday", I just didn't have time. But you tipped 50% and wrote "Thank you" on the slip. Your service was bad, but you saw *why* when you looked at the people around you. I couldn't chat with you, but you could tell I wanted to. You didn't have a great meal, but you didn't blame me. Thank you. A thousand times: thank you. I hate my job, but it pays the bills and gives me the flexible hours to go back to school. I've had a horrible week and as much as I need to work, I was seriously contemplating telling my pompous manager to take a step back and fuck his own face. Then I saw your tip and your note. I'm going back to school. I'm getting out of this horrible job. But tonight, the extra few bucks you gave me, along with the shortest of notes, turned a horrible night into a good night. Thank you. Edit: TLDR: When you go out, tip your server well. nine times out of ten any problem you have isn't even their fault. Edit2: Wow. I posted this late last night just to vent, never thought it'd make it anywhere. I tried to read through the comments thoroughly, but there's a lot of them, so let me just address some of the more common points. 1. Yes, working in a kitchen is difficult and stressful. I've done it, I know they don't make as much as servers in most cases, but there's several reasons, I'll give you one. When a cook's coworker is an asshole, he/she can yell "Stop being a fucking asshole you dick!", when a server's guest is an asshole he/she has to say "Yes sir, you're right sir, can I get you anything else sir!: 2. If you think all you're server does is bring you your food, you're either an idiot or an asshole or both. You deserve the crap service you get when you're a douche to your server. 3. I agree, tipping is stupid. That's kinda the point. I'm a professional, despite the doubt some of you cast, the fine dinning bit is 100% true. An average server takes your order, keeps your drinks full, brings you your food and processes your payment. A good/great server turns a meal into an experience. They put on a one man show just for you and your party. They make you laugh, they make you smile, they provide conversation if it isn't there and discretion if it's needed. A good server doesn't just take your order, they help you figure what item on the menu your personal tastes would enjoy the absolute *most*. I've had people tell me I was an incredible server because I kept them talking and laughing for most of the meal and I've had people tell me I was an incredible server because I took care of them without saying a word more than was absolutely necessary during important meetings/conversations/whatever. 4. For those of you who get it, thank you. A big reason I posted this rant instead of screaming it at the sky was in the hopes that someone might read it and leave a better tip next time they're out. Seriously, you want to make a stranger's night? Eat out and tip 30%. That extra few bucks will make someone happier then you'd ever believe. I'm sorry, I just woke up and I'm starting to ramble a bit, let me get to the point:serving is hard. Harder than you think. If you've never done it you have no basis for opinion, trust a professional, it fucking sucks. I'd much rather make an hourly rate based on my skill and experience, but that's not how it works in the US. So next time you're out, pay a bit more attention, take an interest in what's going on. If your server neglects you and you see him flirting with some hostess all night, by all means, tip him poorly, he deserves it. But if they do their job and seem to care about taking care of *your* needs, tip them the standard 20%. If you have issues with the restaurant, take it up with a manager, don't blame to kid trying to keep the heat on. One last thing, I see a lot of people in this post and elsewhere saying some version of "It's not my fault the server is so stupid they got stuck in a crappy job. If they don't like it they should work somewhere else." Let me take this opportunity to say this: Fuck you. It's not that easy, trust me I've tried. Besides, most of the people I've worked with in restaurants are either single Moms doing their best, parents whose spouse works days so they need a job with night hours to help pay the bills without needing a nanny, students who need a job with flexible hours because of school and grads who are just paying the bills while looking for a job. Did you see lazy fuck-up in there? No you didn't, because the lazy fuck-ups don't last a week and the people who *do* do the job deserve a consistent paycheck just like everybody else. So tip the 20% standard, consider it part of the cost of your meal, and be more vocal about giving servers decent wages and scrapping the tip system. Edit 3: Look guys, I don't make the rules, but 20% has been the standard for a long time now. I'm sorry, but it is. If you're tipping less for good service, you're under-tipping. Edit 4: Shit guys I'm sorry, I guess 15% is the standard. I usually get 20%, so I guess I just started expecting it. My apologies. more