On Mon, 06 Oct 2003 10:44:48 -0400, Nancy Young
> wrote:

>Rhonda Anderson wrote:
>
>> A group of us had to go to Canberra for a conference a couple of weeks
>> away. First night there we went to an Irish pub for dinner where they used
>> the system where you order at the counter and are given a number to take
>> back to your table so they know where to bring the food.
>
>Yuck, I hate it. I expect service like that from a fast food place.
>I go to a restaurant, I want to sit down and have someone take my
>order. No, I wouldn't go there again. Talk about impersonal.

What do we go to restaurants for? Uninterrupted conversation? A
genteel social occasion? Super food? Convenience? There are bezillions
of restaurants that feature meals on paper plates, or famously rude
personnel (some deli in NYC comes to mind) but superior pastrami, or
waiters on rollerskates as entertainment, or cheap family meal
specials, or uniformly reliable chain food, or the ultimate gourmet
experience with 'European' service (on a good night).

Years ago, I got really tired of restaurants with salad bars -- I
don't want to stand in line with a plate; I want someone to serve me a
salad. When I go through a fast food drive-in lane, I want cheap,
*fast* food. When I pay $50 for a meal, I want food I can't/don't cook
at home, and a waiter who will retrieve a dropped napkin in under a
minute. If a 'soup nazi' offers a product I enjoy, I can decide
whether I want to stand in line for the soup.

We can read the reviews and get recommendations from friends. It'd be
nice if Burger King's 99-cent specials were served with perfect
gentility. Not likely to happen. (Can you say "minimum wage"?)

I don't want to grill my own steak, construct my own salad, have
waitstaff sing 'Happy Birthday', or play violins at my table. I
rarely, if ever, can afford celebrated 'fine dining' experiences, so I
go for pretty good food I don't have to prepare, at a reasonable
price. 'Take a number' sounds fair to me.