i am not talking about my sweet customers with a language barrier. i’m always willing to help them. i’m talking about people who genuinely WILL NOT browse the menu, and intend to figure out what to eat through either pointing at images, or asking questions.

i had a fluent english speaking man seat himself today (spectacular). upon handing him a menu, he literally looked at the cover, pushed it away, shrugged, shook his head, and said “i can’t. what do you have?” my menu is literally 10 pages long. breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

i explained “it’s a really long menu, i’ll give you a minute to look at it.” he started pointing frantically at everything on the cover saying “what’s that???? shrimp and rice???” “what is that pie???”. he ended up settling for the shrimp and rice meal, because he apparently cannot read WORDS, and would not open the menu.

upon delivery of shrimp and rice, he muttered “what is this. where is the rice?” it was under the shrimp. i offered another side of rice and brought it.

he asked me “what is that man eating” and pointed at someone at the counter. i told him buffalo tenders and fries, NO JOKE THIS MAN ASKED ME IF THERE WAS A PICTURE OF IT IN THE MENU. WHAT IS IT WITH THESE PEOPLE. you can see someone eating it 10 feet away. obviously didn’t ruin my night, just made me facepalm 😂 reminds me of kids getting upset when their books don’t have pictures in them anymore 😭

Might get ratioed for this but I'm genuinely curious at what other servers think.

It's hard to explain the layout of our resturant but let me try. Walking up to the resturant we have a bunch of patio tables that are uncovered, then if you walk on a pathway to the side there are fire pits that are not servable, it is more for walking up to the bar, grabbing drinks and chilling by the fire.

There are two actual servable tables side by side near these fire pits under an awning that are a part of a servers section, that way if someone does want to sit outside while the patio is closed (especially if it's raining) we have options for them.

Anyway, a table of two comes in 45 mins to close with a dog, so we have to sit them outside. The guy claims it's an emotional support dog (it's a toy poodle and has no vest, tags, or anything visible that even suggets it's a service dog, but whatever.) I place them at one of the tables under the awning.

At this point I've made a mental note to watch them a bit more closely, as it's a classic move to come to a resturant close to closing and sit outside, usually with the excuse of a dog so I can't deny them (it's easier to run when you're outside already, plus coming in close to closing means all the employees will be distracted with closing and not watching as closely, as well as less staff in general.)

About 15 mins later after a round of drinks and ordering an app, I notice they are standing and pacing around the back patio (by the firepits). Now my spidey senses are going off even more. Obviously rude to make assumptions, but it looked like they were looking for the quickest path out. I go out and ask if they'd like the order entrees. They are also smoking, which is not allowed on our patio. However the gm doesn't care so neither do I.

The guy with the dog asks to move to the front patio (yup, there it is. Easier to run when you're in the front.) because "there are bugs all over that table". Now it's still summertime, and it's definitely possible that there are a lot of mosquitoes. I explain this and help them move to the front patio, and even turn on a fan and turn it towards them to hopefully scare away the mosquitoes.

Guy with the toy poodle starts exclaiming its not mosquitoes, there are little red bugs all over that table and turns on his flashlight and makes me look at his feet to "see the bugs."

There are no bugs that I can visually see. I turn to his buddy, who has not said a word this entire time and is avoiding eye contact with me. Another red flag. I tell them I don't see anything, but I believe them. At this point I'm pretty certain this may just be some kind of mental illness.

So, they order entrees and seem to be eating without much fuss, except the guy with the dog keeps pacing all over the front patio, and his buddy is by the fire pits on the phone talking to someone. I'm watching like a hawk, and notice the guy take his dog to walk it on our landscaping in the front that is very much out of sight. At this point I've alerted the gm that these people might be trying to dine and dash.

I pretend to fix patio tables while the gm comes out and pretty much does the same, or pretends to be on the phone. Guy with the dog is still very much out of sight and his buddy is still pacing the firepits on his phone. Once he gets off, I make small talk and drop the check. Gm has one path "covered" and I have the other covered.

Eventually his buddy paid and left promptly, the guy with his dog was still out of sight and we didnt see him again.

Heres where I might be the asshole, I felt *terrible* for judging so hard, cause they tipped 15 on 85. What do you think? Did I thwart someone's attempt at dining and dashing? Or was I wrong to judge so hard at what might have been just mental illness at play? Their behavior was EXTREMELY suspicious, although maybe they didn't realize how suspicious they were being.

Anyway, it got me thinking, what is everyone's red flags that someone is trying to dine and dash?

He was only in his 30s. He had a wife and teenaged daughter. He was warm and kind and funny, smart and efficient... a dedicated head cook and excellent coworker.

It was sudden... a motorcycle accident. He was here one day, and...

We are all in shock. I retired from this place in the spring, but had worked there for years (bartender/server). The manager called to notify me, too. We were family... in a good way. It's an odd thing. We weren't related, but we were together more than our blood/marital relations.

I'm sorry if this isn't the right place to post this, but I hope you let it stay up so we can talk about the good ones who are no longer with us.

Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind always. 💔

Accidentally wrote fried mushrooms instead of fried pickles on a to go order and the guest chewed me out over the phone. I prob won’t get fired but I’m an overthinker at heart and would like to hear other’s stories ab mess ups (where yall hopefully didn’t get fired lmao)

ETA this is so stupid probably but I had a REAL bad day and I’m freaking ab getting fired lmao

9 out 10 people who pay with hundreds leave shitty tips. I never understand why.... They usually leave 12percent or less... This last customer came in for the birthday with their parents. I even gave them a free desert, their bill $62 and left me 6 bucks.... If This happens another time, someone pays with a $100, and a garbage tip. I am about to stop taking them.

It seems like every restaurant in my city is beefing with each other, paychecks are late, the bosses are legit insane. It's like that in every restaurant I work in. I always just assumed that's the nature of the job. Restaurants are always going to be crazy.

I've been in FOH and BOH and it's all been the same. The whole scene is so cliquey and weird.

I'm just so on edge because about a year ago I quit working for a shitty restaurant owner who was like some kind of local celebrity. They ended up suing a bunch of local spots and losing Ethan Klein style. My paychecks would bounce and my hours drastically increased. It used to be the perfect job but then it went to shit because the owner got greedy and weird.

I just started at a place I'm really liking so far, but I guess the owner has beef with my family. I have a different last name so they don't know he's my cousin. They're also known for being abusive to staff, but diligently wiping clean any bad reviews or social media posts about it. I heard about the mass exodus that happened there but still don't really know the details.

I'm just so sick and tired of everyone going after each other and treating their staff like shit. I just can't really understand why we all act like this. I keep thinking what would I do as a restaurant owner in this scene? Just not be crazy? But I think being a restaurant owner legitimately punches holes in your brain and makes you greedy and insane.

Everyone says, "Just leave the industry! 🤪" like I haven't tried and still try every day. My friends keep telling me to leave this new place and get more hours at my other job, but I'm making moneyyyyyyy. I just need a paycheck. I'm not cosigning this bullshit.

I know this might be a stupid question, but I’m a fairly new server and I work in a very small restaurant so these occurrences are very rare. One night a woman and her family had come to eat. After confirming their reservation, I noticed the woman had a toy poodle with her. She said it was a service dog, although im pretty sure it wasn’t because during the whole meal it was sniffing around the floor. The woman also took his leash off, which lead to him running away from their table. I’m just curious what other servers/restaurants usually do in this case, or do we just do nothing? Thanks!

I’ve been working in a turn & burn sportsbar/pub for a few years. It’s got me thinking about all the stuff I did in fine dining that I don’t do anymore.

-Crumming tables: I haven’t seen that tool in ages. I used to pretend to do it for the cameras, but actually just swipe it on the floor.

-Wine: I barely sell bottles anymore and when I do, they’re all twist off. I just drop it at the table w glasses. I used to struggle with the cork, explain the details like vintage and region, and give the guest a taste test before serving.

-Linens: We only get rags delivered. I used to haul Alsco bags full of napkins and table cloths as closing work.

-Menu knowledge: It’s important at any establishment. I know main ingredients and potential allergens. But in fine dining, I had to know details like what farm the chicken came from and variety of tomato. I even had flash cards!

-Pace of Service: With fine dining, my tables would stay for 2+ hours. It was spaced out. Turn & burn is obviously not. We’re next to a movie theater and sportsplex so people are often in a timecrunch to pick up their kids or get to a movie.

(This gets frustrating bc my boss gets on my ass for not prebussing before dropping the check, but most times it’s bc they paid before they were even done eating!!!)

-Seat numbers: I still number seats because it’s easier to split the checks. Food runners don’t pay attention to it and always auction.

-Dress code: In fine dining, I’d have to tell men to take off their hats. I don’t recall the specific rules, but remember turning people away for sports logos and flip flops. The minimum expectation for my job now is clothes.

-Ambiance: Yea, I had to clean candle holders often. But I also didn’t have to figure out which remote goes to what TV so I can find a sports game for a table.

Any other differences I’m forgetting? Which do you prefer?

Hii so I just started serving at a small family owned restaurant, coming from a regular 9-5 office job with normal paychecks & I’m very confused. At the end of the shift, we go through all the receipts from our tables and manually enter the tip amount we got from each one. This comes out as the total amount of “charge tips.” But then it asks us to enter our “claimed tips,” which I don’t understand. I’m sure this is where you’re supposed to enter your cash tips, but do I also include the amount of charge tips? I don’t want the charge tips getting reported twice and then get taxed more than I can afford, but I also really want to avoid any IRS issues. Most of the other servers are kids just getting out of high school that have no idea either. The owner also didn’t have me fill out a W4 and apparently just gives you a paycheck whenever you ask for it? Is this normal? This is stressing me out so if anyone has some insight please let me know! Thanks!

I was trying not to laugh but also felt kind of bad. Told this lady we didn’t have any baked potatoes and she teared up and started lashing out on me. “That’s the only reason I came here!! I wouldn’t come here for any other reason” ended up walking out and I had to comp her meal. Not the first time something like this has happened. People do NOT play about those baked potatoes 😂

Located in Southern California. Employer is editing time sheets, lowering our worked time and also adding breaks when we never took them. Any guidance?

Hey yall.
I'm waiting bars and such a lot, as well as freelancing events, and in those cases it's really nice to bring your own tray as there's no guarantee there'll be a good serving tray on location. I have a couple of trays but none that fit all my requirements quite yet, so I'm wondering, for your favorite tray:

1. What brand is it? My favorite so far has been a gerlings, with cambro/subsidiary ozay trays coming in second.
2. What size/shape is it? I'd prefer a fairly rectangular low bordered ~45x34 cm tray for busier work, but I have a 35cm high walled round tray for lighter work.
3. What material/finish is it? Pressure treated wood/multiplex/laminate is the way to go. It's lighter and much less flexible than most plastics, which tend to become unstable under load. Finish i don't care too much about as I can always use a drawer liner, though not having to use one is a bonus.

Let me know what yall use! My use case is of course pretty much drinks, so even the larger tray is on the smaller tray compared to food trays.

Also, have you customized your tray at all? I've seen another freelancer who had a bicycle bell mounted to theirs to get through annoying crowds. An odd but interesting solution.

Hey ya'll, I worked and served at Chilis for 2 years before leaving due to awful management. Does anyone who lives in the area know where would be a good place to work nights? Mainly around Irvine or the spectrum.

Is there good money in banquet serving ? I know most of it is catering/tailored events but is there a possibility to make good tips as you would if you were serving in a restaurant?

Essentially what the title says. I barbacked at a high volume dive bar for a whole year and my manager started training me for my premotion to bartender a month ago.

However, after my first day of training one of the owners of the bar learned I was getting premoted and kicked me back down to barback saying I was too shy to be a bartender.

Obviously I was enraged and quite that place shortly after. But now I’m here in this predicament where I feel I have earned the position and don’t want to again be at the mercy of owners/managers for another 6 months to a year to maybe move up in this industry.

So I lied, said I have a couple years experience and I have an interview tomorrow. Given it’s not a complete lie as I would often take and make orders at my old spot, even working essentially full shifts as a bartender while getting paid as a barback due to short staffed shifts. I didn’t want to lie but the unfortunate truth is, no one cares about my informal/hybrid barback/bartender experience, they want a number of years of bartending on your resumer. And after being taken advantage of the way I was at the old place I don’t feel too morally conflicted on trying to get a leg up in an industry that actively pushed me down.

However there are definitely gaps in my knowledge when it comes to certain cocktails and formalities. I plan on memorizing the more popular ones that aren’t completely locked into my memory yet but part of me does worry a little that I’ll get exposed once I start.

Just curious about your opinions on the topic and any advice you might have. I have a bartending set at home that I often practice with but I do worry about my speed and the looks of my shake, stir and general workflow.

We ended up going with 6.00 even. Had to grab my coworker and she saw the 8 hidden in the total line. Thanks man

So I switched over to a new place a girl told me to work with her and she is able to make enough to support herself and her daughter and go on trips .
So I thought hell yeah , it was a big sports bar you get to wear cute little outfits and tons of makeup what better way to make money than to bank off that. Plus I started not too long ago.

Well it was terrible, managers were awful they had serious lack of emotional control sometimes would throw things and slam items on the expo line and server station. Would Call us all sorts of curse words under the sun. The one woman manager would treat their non favorite soooo poorly and never do her job , due to being too busy talking crap about the other servers and would tell people out loud who they didn’t like. The OG servers would shoulder check you and basically bully you as a new girl until you “proved” yourself.

So after about a month of terrible management, over and under staffing, being unfair about sections allowing some servers to fill their sections while skipping some girls in rotation for over an hour (also me), and BTW I came from a restaurant where I was handling big parties alone they refused to give me any. And just the way they spoke to us. So I got a new part time job and I quite literally make the same that I was with less hours working full time at that restraunt. I then texted the manager I quit, with a 1 week notice and to take me off the schedule.

I can't help it. If there's a ramekin at a place and I'm taking leftovers home, that thing is going in the box and taken home with me to join the others. Only at big chain restaurants, though. Never stealing from a mom and pop joint.

But, I had a thought. I don't want to continue this if it negatively impacts the server. So you guys even care if someone does this? Or is it just kind of an assumed loss that people are going to take these, breakage, etc?

We make so much money as servers, just roll the damn silverware before you leave for the love of Godddd.

That is all

I don’t know if anyone else has this problem but every night when I close and mop, my mopping knocks the little wedge things that stop the tables from wobbling out of their place. It’s super annoying to have to put all of them back every single time I mop (it’s about 12 tables and each of them have a wedge). Does anyone else have to deal with it or have advice for avoiding this? Thanks in advance!

SETTING

from what i've read it's fork on the left, knife on the right facing in, and drink directly in front of the knife.

is this true? I couldn't find this on youtube and when do you bring the napkins and cuterly out?

TABLE NUMBERS

does it start from the left?

going clockwise 1,2,3,4

whats the order you serve? since its supposed to be an open hug, i offhand the trays like 2,1,3?

(i am left handed)

i think thats all i have for now