On Tue, 07 Oct 2003 11:41:03 +1000, Craig Welch >
wrote:

>On 06 Oct 2003 23:09:06 GMT, ospam (DJS0302) wrote:
>
>>Well I'm sure you were just the perfect waitress at all times. Perhaps you
>>should start teaching a course on how to wait tables and deal with snooty
>>customers such as yourself. You could teach new waiters how to read people's
>>minds so they would know whether a dining party wanted to be left alone during
>>most of the dinner or if they wanted the wait staff to constantly check to see
>>if anything else was needed.
>
>There are parts of the world where the notion that the waiter would
>interrupt the diners for any reason at all in the middle of the meal
>would be the strangest thing.

Yes where I live (New Zealand), it would be considered very strange.
The tradition here is that if the diner has some complaint or query,
then he or she will call the wait person. I always find it
disconcerting (and rude) that in some other countries the restaurants
(or their staff I'm not sure which) feel so insecure about either the
food or the sevice that they have to check up all the time!
>
>>Perhaps you might try a system where people can
>>call the waiters on their cell phones. As far as reducing the tip is
>>concerned, you were totally wrong for doing so. I only reduce the tip if the
>>waiter is definitely rude or unattentive. I don't consider interrupting a
>>conversation for two seconds to ask if the dinner is okay to be rude.
>
>And as you've no doubt read in this thread, many people *do*
>consider it to be rude ...

TigsNona