March 2016 Restaurant Questions

[Joe]

Well, the month is almost over, but I have some questions, so here goes.

My friend Karen is married, but is often a "hockey widow" or some kind of temporary widow. She contacted me just before her birthday, because her husband would be busy with something that evening. (Romantic dude, isn't he?)

Anyway, we go out to dinner. We are seated at a table. Then another party comes in a few minutes later.
It seems the waiter is taking a long time to come to our table, but since this gives me more time to talk with Karen, I shrug off my concern.

Waiter comes and takes our order. But the party who came in just after us has not been waited on.

When the waiter finally gets to their table, the guy in the party is loud, boorish, and angry. He chews the waiter out. He says they have been waiting 20 minutes. Waiter says he's sorry but he was waiting on other tables. Guy says angrily "it doesn't take you 20 minutes to wait on other tables," etc.

If you are seated at a table in a restaurant, how long is it reasonable to wait for a waiter (or waitress) to wait on you? If that time limit has expired, what would you do? Just get up and leave? Demand to speak to the manager? Other?

If you are a waiter or waitress, and you are already waiting on five tables (say), and a sixth party comes in, what are you supposed to do? Do you serve the five tables and wait for a "break" before going to the sixth table? Wait for one of the first 5 parties to leave before going to the sixth table? Other?

By the way, this happened on a Tuesday night, not a Friday or Saturday. There were empty tables at the restaurant. It did not seem to be unusually crowded.

 

[Second Summer]

I would think it's the restaurant's responsibility not to let in more people than what they can wait on in a reasonable amount of time.

I think I would probably just get up and and leave.

 

[PTree15]

I've actually have gotten up and left when service has been too slow. I think I, too, waited about 20 minutes and then gave up.

 

[Naturebound1]

I once waited over an hour to be waited on lol. I was livid by the time the waiter took my order, so I got a free meal. That was a long time ago. I've been fortunate not to have something like this happen in a long time. I think on a busy night, twenty minutes to a half hour is not an unreasonable wait. On a more casual night, you shouldn't wait more than fifteen or twenty minutes. If nothing else, the server/waiter should at least acknowledge you and let you know they will be with you shortly if they are so busy. On the otherhand, being obnoxious and verbally abusing the server/waiter because you had to wait longer than usual is uncalled for as well.

 

[PTree15]

I once waited over an hour to be waited on lol. I was livid by the time the waiter took my order, so I got a free meal. That was a long time ago. I've been fortunate not to have something like this happen in a long time. I think on a busy night, twenty minutes to a half hour is not an unreasonable wait. On a more casual night, you shouldn't wait more than fifteen or twenty minutes. If nothing else, the server/waiter should at least acknowledge you and let you know they will be with you shortly if they are so busy. On the otherhand, being obnoxious and verbally abusing the server/waiter because you had to wait longer than usual is uncalled for as well.

Agreed. If they actually come over and say it will be awhile, I might go half an hour. The time I got up and left not one person had come to the table, so I was like, the heck with this, I'm outta here.