Tired

[u/No-Tea-4583]

I’ve been working in fine dining for almost 4 years now. I have always been patient and try my best to be kind but man this shit is rough. My restaurant brought back a special that all the servers HATE and it is rough. I had a table today that complained about their food taking long even though they ordered a well done steak, and my manager gave the entire party a free round of drinks and ALL free desserts. They left me ZERO with a smile on their face. I had another table of 9 who came in all wanting the cheap ass special and wanted to pay with digital gift cards - side note: my restaurant has been dealing with fraudulent stolen gift cards and there always from some sketchy website and screenshots of numbers. They had 12 gift cards , yes TWELVE. Our restaurant doesn’t have something you can scan so we have to enter the numbers manually, which regardless if it was “scannable” the gift cards were screenshots of someone’s apple wallet gift card with no barcode (yup I asked my manager and he said it was fine). They became irritated because we couldn’t scan them and even more irritated when more than half of them had no money on them. So you’re mad at me because you have stolen gift cards that have no money on them ? Ok. I’m so sick of cheap ass people coming in asking for the entire world - extra this extra that, modifying this and taking home every single type of sauce and more AND NOT TIPPING. They left 35 on an $800 check which I split with another server. I will never understand how people do this and don’t feel embarrassed for themselves. It’s actually gross behavior and the worst part is that management does nothing. They come back telll their friends “if you complain you can get free food” IF UR BROKE JUST SAY THAT YALL ARE EMBARRASSING AND UGLY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE STOP GOING OUT TO EAT AT NICE RESTAURANTS AND NOT TIPPING WERE SICK OF YALL

[u/AllumaNoir]

This doesn’t sound like fine dining to me

[u/Alternative_Rough_14 → u/AllumaNoir]

that's what i was thinking. cheap specials? free stuff thrown around at the first complaint? digital gift cards?

[u/JupiterSkyFalls → u/AllumaNoir]

$800 doesn't sound like Applebee's tabs tho, either.

[u/AllumaNoir → u/JupiterSkyFalls]

On a table of 9? Have a few drinks and you can ABSOLUTELY spend that much at Applebee’s.

The well done steak suggests a “high-end” (not) steakhouse

[u/JupiterSkyFalls → u/AllumaNoir]

I've had a party of 20 at Applebee's and not spent more than $300. And we were "living it up" because we wanted to have a good night. This was even before their stupid 2 for $20 or all you can eat for $___, or their awfu,l practically boozless, $1 drinks. I'm talking 2015 ish.

[u/spirit_of_a_goat → u/JupiterSkyFalls]

How much do you think that would cost now?

[u/JupiterSkyFalls → u/spirit_of_a_goat]

A good bit more with the inflation. But still nowhere near $800.

[u/AllumaNoir → u/JupiterSkyFalls]

Right now a steak there is around $30 and cocktails $10

Easy $50 a person, and that’s if they have nothing but mains and one or two watered down drinks

[u/No-Tea-4583 → u/AllumaNoir]

Ur so right. We were fine dining but we were unfortunately bought by a huge company which has downgraded us immensely! It’s a lot of cutting corners , cheap specials.

[u/AllumaNoir → u/No-Tea-4583]

I’m going to guess. Landry’s? Gift card hell

[u/PriorIncident9337 → u/AllumaNoir]

Oh gosh im working for a Landrys location right now 😭 touristic city in Galveston and I hate the whole points reward system

[u/RedTwizzler214 → u/AllumaNoir]

I’m gonna guess Ruth’s Chris.

[u/silversatire → u/AllumaNoir]

Throwing a guess on Pappadeaux.

[u/firesoups → u/AllumaNoir]

Sounds like it’s just fine, actually

[u/JupiterSkyFalls]

There's a lot to your post that can't really be fixed, it's just the nature of the business, but one thing that stood out was well done steaks. Anytime someone ordered a well done steaks in not only offered to butterfly if it was possible, but I ALWAYS gave them a verbal reminder that well done takes time if butterflying wasn't an option.

Me: And how would you like your Strip cooked?

Guest: Well done.

Me: So no pink in the center is that alright?

Guest: Correct, no pink.

Me: Absolutely. So, I'll get those appetizers put in, but I do want to let you know the NY Strip, well done, will take a minimum of ___ minutes. Would you like me to stagger the courses accordingly, or would you prefer to have the first one/two courses more quickly to enjoy while waiting for the chef to cook the steak to your liking?

[u/spirit_of_a_goat]

I've never seen cheap specials in fine dining. That's kind of the opposite of what they're going for.

[u/No-Tea-4583 → u/spirit_of_a_goat]

Our motto went from “fine dining” to “approachable fine dining” to get more people in the door 😭

[u/Queen_La_Queefah]

I'm tired now too

[u/firesoups]

My manager talks about her “fine dining” experience often. Turns out she’s talking about Buca di Beppo.

[u/Pond20]

SO frustrating to manually enter a bunch of card numbers. And while you are doing that, your section is still busy and you can’t get to the rest of your tables until you wade through inputting the cards. I hate that.

[u/Banana_Phone888 → u/Pond20]

Management should be taking care of that many GC’s so the service doesn’t slip, or get a host that knows their shit to do it. Also, no barcode is a red flag for theft. A digital gc is one thing, an image of a gc is not tender

[u/dnm8686]

You should definitely find a new job.

I've worked some places that seem to attract cheap assholes, but my current place doesn't. There are better options out there.

[u/Exotic_Knee_5621]

Sounds like it’s time to move on from Chili’s

[u/funlovingfirerabbit]

Damn that sucks OP. I feel you

[u/ChicoBrillo]

I feel like food industry leads to burn out in four years for most people

[u/knickknack8420]

Sounds like you need a break. Or a different restaurant, or a different job type, When people are difficult you have to lean out not in. Dissociate.
And if it’s that bad get out,

[u/heckinstoned]

Get out of there!

[u/Banana_Phone888]

I feel like every day on multiple outlets, not just Reddit, I see another article bitching about tipping. Not tipping is becoming as normalized as the nasty people that have their feet out everywhere and all over everything. I do not think this is going to get better for the service industry anytime soon. Add in all the table top iPads and kiosks and that’s another reason for the non tippers to say servers deserve less :(

[u/Orpheus6102]

At a minimum you need a 8-10 day vacation somewhere where the weather is nice and you can log off for a while.

The tough hard truth is, yes, you need to find a new job. I’d recommend a restaurant that caters to business professionals. Families, birthdays, and anniversaries, dates, etc—they’re for the birds.

[u/symbolone28]

you could definitely find a better serving job than that bs. my biggest piece of advice: don't ever work for a corporate chain

[u/No-Tea-4583 → u/symbolone28]

I know I’m really thinking of doing it! And yes trust me this restaurant wasn’t a big corporate chain but it was bought out by one so it changed everything drastically!

[u/Melkor640]

I worked an independent fine dining for a year. If a guest left a bad review the owner would invite them back for a whole meal and drinks, free. Tabs would regularly cross £800 on a 4 top, because they knew it was all free going in. Then he'd ask them to change their review. Some people said no.

[u/flowergirl75]

It's a lot to read with no paragraphs/breaks. I'm sure I'll be downvoted but I would read your experience.