Waiter Rant

Over my many years of eating out, I have had probably hundreds of waiters/waitresses, but I have always wondered what it's like to be on the other side. I don't know if any of you out there have worked as waiters before, but I have not. Other than a brief one-night charity thing which doesn't count, my expeence has always been from the perspective of the one being served, not the server.

From my view of the situation, it's pretty simple. Just don't be rude to me, serve me the food I ordered, refill my drinks in a timely manner, and maybe check on my table now and then to see if we need anything. Almost regardless of how dinner is, I will generally leave between 15-20% as tip.

Beyond that, there's not much more to it. Rarely do I talk to waiters or waitresses about anything beyond the most superficial of small talk. I almost never make special requests, like changing ingredients in a certain dish, or ask to be seated in a booth vs. table or whatever. If they completely mess up my order, I might send it back, but even then, I sometimes just eat what they gave me anyways.

When I leave the restaurant, my short experience with the waiter or waitress is usually over and done with for good (unless I happen to get the same person the next time I'm at a restaurant). At most, if he was really rude, I'll say to myself, "wow, our waiter was a real jerk", or if she was really cute, I might say "wow, our waitress was really cute". But I don't go home thinking about what the person is like outside of work, what he/she does for fun, what his/her family situation is like.

Anyways, like I was saying, I've never been a waiter but I've wondered what the view is like from their side. And recently, I came across this blog that has given me a some insight into that very subject. The site is called Waiter Rant, basically a blog written by an anonymous guy who works as a waiter at some NY restaurant.

Before you dismiss the thought of reading some random guy writing about his experiences as a waiter, let me just say that this blog is actually very well written and, at least in my opinion, worth reading. I've spent a good amount of time in the past few days going through his archives, and I do recommend it to anyone out there who has any amount of interest in what it's like to be a waiter (if you have none, then skip it). I would say that if you don't mind wasting your time reading this blog, then you will probably find his stuff pretty interesting. Just something to consider.

He's got some pretty entertaining stories about customers and behind the scenes stuff at restaurants that people like us don't normally see or know about. Also shares a lot of thoughts that you wouldn't typically expect your waiter/waitress to be thinking about, but they obviously do. You'll have to read those for yourself though.

If you don't feel like reading through his stuff, I have picked out a few pieces of knowledge I garnered from my reading that I will summarize here:

1. Waiters/Waitresses prefer tips in cash, not credit cards

2. If you want your server to like you, don't order tea

3. The amount you tip your waiter/waitress means much more to him/her than it does to you

4. There are a lot of really bad restaurant customers out there

5. If you make a really bad impression, there are many ways your waiter/waitress can get revenge. They also have long memories when it comes to that stuff.

Have a nice day everyone.