In article >,
ChattyCathy > wrote:

> James Silverton wrote:
>
> >
> > This is a topic that has been discussed from time to time over the years
> > and I suppose a *complaint* to the waiter for slow service, as the
> > nearest representative of the restaurant, is in order. If waiters have
> > any sense they will apologies to the patrons but they don't deserve
> > berating for something that is probably beyond their control, even you
> > are tempted and I'll admit it is hard to resist. The berating should be
> > reserved for the manager!
>
> In some cases, yes - but lemme tell about a friend of mine... We met at
> work and became friends; very nice guy, until you got him into a
> restaurant....
>
> We used to go to for lunch/dinner fairly often; didn't matter if we had
> booked a table or not, about two minutes after we were seated, he'd say
> to the server, "I don't like this table, can we please move to another
> one?". If it was possible, the server would move us to another table.
> If that was not possible, he'd call for the Manager... Once we were
> seated to his (dis)satisfaction it was time to peruse the menu. He'd
> *always* ask for something that wasn't on the menu - and demand to see
> the Manager (again) so he could demand *why* whatever he wanted wasn't
> on the menu... And of course they never had the wine he wanted on the
> wine list, or the soft drink he wanted, and the service was always too
> slow, etc. etc.. The thing that finally ticked me off completely was the
> arguments we had about how much to tip the server. I always ended up
> 'slipping' a decent tip to the server myself (with an apology for his
> behavior) - sigh. Do you get the picture now?
>
> Anyway, eventually I refused to go to a restaurant with him unless he
> "behaved himself". He was indignant when I told him this ("Who moi?
> Difficult?"). <lol> But I had some "peaceful" meals with him after that...

I've heard it said that you can tell a lot about people by how they
treat people they don't have to be nice to, such as people in service
jobs -- waiters, checkout operators, etc. If someone's nice to YOU, but
an arsehole to the waiter, how nice are they really?

Miche

--
Electricians do it in three phases