Ikky's Webden for the Criminally Insane

Fight the world and win.: You are not entitled to "good service."

fighttheworldandwin:

Any time you go into a restaurant, you need to be keenly aware of what’s going on: You are walking into someone else’s building, sitting down, telling them what food to cook for you, having it brought to your table, and shelling out money for the privilege. It’s a great system, except when you…

I have to disagree - restaurants in my opinion offer more than just a product, but a service in which going to their restaurant is a pleasant experience. Going to a restaurant with rude, disinterested or unfriendly staff is a definite turn off and I won’t go back to those places. Customers should try to be polite and respectful towards those serving them, of course, and having worked in hospitality myself I have seen the unreasonable douchebaggery that is possible by customers who are fuckwits.

I live in a city where there are more than 5000 restaurants in the greater metropolitan area and CBD. In the local area around my university there are probably a hundred small restaurants which are all very similar in terms of quality and price. The only means of differentiating between products is the experience of dining at these places. While the very finest restaurants have food which justifies coming back again, most restaurants have to rely on building a good relationship with customers. Part of that is having staff who are attentive and polite. If your staff aren’t, that may be the tipping point for me picking one of the 4999 other restaurants in Sydney.

Part of the job of being a waiter or bartender is being polite to customers and not act as though by serving them you are doing them a favour. The customer could go somewhere else and that waiter wouldn’t have a job. While the customer shouldn’t act with undue entitlement, neither should the server. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Indeed, being nice and attentive to customers probably means they will spend more money and keep returning to your restaurant. In build in the cost of the meal is the experience of attaining it - the surroundings, the decor, the service, etc.

The tipping thing is a cultural nuance I think - the US minimum wage is ridiculously low and completely insufficient to actually have a basic standard of living. Servers need tips to make their rent. In Australia the minimum wage is double that of the US, and as such, tipping in my view reflects the quality of the experience and food offered. I never tip unless I feel the restaurant has deserved it.