How are you enjoying your meal?

[007craft]

Its that question the waittress/waiter asks you 3 minutes into your meal. I was wondering if anybody else gets annoyed by this? I mean I enjoy good service. I like when they come by and refill my water without me asking. I also like when they ask if I want another beer when they notice my beer getting low. When it comes to my meal however, it kind of annoys me when they come ask about it. If I have a problem with the food, I would complain... not wait to be asked about it. Ill be deep into the middle of a story, everybody listening, and then im interrupted to ask if we like our meals. arrrrrr. Such a useless question.

[eudaii]

i am a waiter.

i can answer your question.

when i ask this question to customers i don't really care if they are enjoying their meal. it's my way of saying 'i'm here, what do you want? you better say it now. don't be calling me when i'm gone'.

i hope this helps.

[mysticalinfluence]

i am a waiter.

i can answer your question.

when i ask this question to customers i don't really care if they are enjoying their meal. it's my way of saying 'i'm here, what do you want? you better say it now. don't be calling me when i'm gone'.

i hope this helps.

It's your way of saying I'm here what do you want. What I want is big tip so I'll pretend be nice but in reality I'm spiting in your food. Another reason to never tip the waiter more then $2.00.

[007craft]

i am a waiter.

Careful. Many people here on RFD will want to have a word with you. More then likely about tipping lol.

My question was rhetorical. I know why waiters do it. The thread is more about seeing if anybody else is annoyed by it.

[sandikosh]

i am a waiter.

i can answer your question.

when i ask this question to customers i don't really care if they are enjoying their meal. it's my way of saying 'i'm here, what do you want? you better say it now. don't be calling me when i'm gone'.

i hope this helps.

Do you charge extra for that service? And how much more is expected for that disturbance?

[sandikosh]

It's your way of saying I'm here what do you want. What I want is big tip so I'll pretend be nice but in reality I'm spiting in your food. Another reason to never tip the waiter more then $2.00.

When I do that, I make sure I never return. Never know what you are getting next time!

[Jimboski]

It's pretty annoying but what can you do? Tell the waiter/waitress prehand to not ask If were enjoying our food? LOL.

[sandikosh]

Careful. Many people here on RFD will want to have a word with you. More then likely about tipping lol.

My question was rhetorical. I know why waiters do it. The thread is more about seeing if anybody else is annoyed by it.

I am annoyed by it. What is more annoying is when you are devoting precious time on a date and the waiter comes in interrupting and you lose your momentum. You then have to ask your date, "Where was I again?"

[vaportech]

I was a server part time as well.

If the guests are talking amongst themselves I don't interrupt and just glance over the table and see if anything needs to be refilled.

If they are just quiet then I ask then how is everything and can I get them something else.

If it's a lone patron I usually ask how's everything and ask how their days been.

Heh I tried one week to really earn the tips, didn't get that much over what I usually get. Then another week I was a complete assholr to customers and I got bigger tips. Wtf?

[D-Roc]

Never had an issue with them coming over and asking me about my meal. Just being courteous and gives me an opportunity, if there is something wrong or something I forgot to ask for, to ask/complain.

[Conquistador]

Its that question the waittress/waiter asks you 3 minutes into your meal. I was wondering if anybody else gets annoyed by this? I mean I enjoy good service. I like when they come by and refill my water without me asking. I also like when they ask if I want another beer when they notice my beer getting low. When it comes to my meal however, it kind of annoys me when they come ask about it. If I have a problem with the food, I would complain... not wait to be asked about it. Ill be deep into the middle of a story, everybody listening, and then im interrupted to ask if we like our meals. arrrrrr. Such a useless question.

Maybe the people at your table are happy for the disruption. :razz:

[hagbard]

They usually wait till I'm mid-graze to ask me.

[AudiDude]

The worst is when I haven't even tasted the food yet. How can you drop something off and reappear within the same minute and ask how everything was before I have even tried it. All the wait staff that pulls this stunt is usually nowhere to be found for the entire rest of the meal, it's like they have checked it off their list, so they don't come back. Not even to give the check.

As a hint, I stack. I stack all the plates, knives and forks at the end of the table so it is easy to move it to the kitchen. Walk by me again with all the plates stacked and ignore me again and see what happens with your tip...

[diggler649]

The worst is if you're on a first date, and you're oh so close to getting her to agree to sex, and the waiter comes over and ruins everything by accidentally spilling some red wine on her white blouse, thus causing her to go home to do laundry instead of waxing your jimmy.

[longitude]

Its that question the waittress/waiter asks you 3 minutes into your meal. I was wondering if anybody else gets annoyed by this? I mean I enjoy good service. I like when they come by and refill my water without me asking. I also like when they ask if I want another beer when they notice my beer getting low. When it comes to my meal however, it kind of annoys me when they come ask about it. If I have a problem with the food, I would complain... not wait to be asked about it. Ill be deep into the middle of a story, everybody listening, and then im interrupted to ask if we like our meals. arrrrrr. Such a useless question.

+1

[Jazzario]

Most restaurants have a policy that states the server must approach the customer within 2 minutes to ensure their order was delivered to their satisfaction.

I can assure you that servers do not enjoy interrupting your meal because, as you mentioned, it's annoying. An annoyed customer is less likely to leave a good tip.

Has there ever been a time when your order was missing an item, not cooked properly, or cold? This policy gives the server time to correct any of those problems immediately instead of the customer having to wait to flag the server down.

There are also cases where a customer will wait until the end of the meal to complain that it wasn't "good". This protects the restaurant from having to comp food. Although these instances are rare, companies put polices in place to protect their bottom line.

Personally, I would rather a server take 3 seconds of my time to ask if I have everything I need than me spending a few minutes looking for the server and trying to get their attention. Which is more disruptive to your story/conversation?

[angekfire]

I get annoyed if a server DOESN'T come back to ask me how everything is, because to me, it says thy don't care if we are enjoying our meal or not.

But what annoys me more is when they give the food, then 20 seconds later, after 1 bite of my garlic bread or something, they come back and ask how everything is, while everyone's mouth is full, and then walk away without waiting for a real response. I swear it seems sometimes they deliberately come by to ask when your mouth is full. So A) I cannot reply, and B) Even if something wasn't good, I haven't had a chance to even try everything on the plate yet to let you know.

[DiceMan]

I have no problem with the question. Just smile and nod, or say yes, or no...

[iEyeCaptain]

I find this annoying when I haven't even tried the food yet and/or I have food in my mouth and I have to give a nod and a thumbs up.

[DarkMasterMX]

The worst is when I haven't even tasted the food yet. How can you drop something off and reappear within the same minute and ask how everything was before I have even tried it. All the wait staff that pulls this stunt is usually nowhere to be found for the entire rest of the meal, it's like they have checked it off their list, so they don't come back. Not even to give the check.

As a hint, I stack. I stack all the plates, knives and forks at the end of the table so it is easy to move it to the kitchen. Walk by me again with all the plates stacked and ignore me again and see what happens with your tip...

^ sounds like me.

I hate it when they come back just as the food was dropped off and I haven't even had a chance to bite into it. Sometimes it's fine if they screw up someone's order but otherwise its a quick "I'll let you know later when I take my first bite". Other than that I'm fine with them swinging by every little bit to see if anything else is needed.

Like Audi said here, when I finish my meal and a person hasn't come by once since I started I tend to just stack plates and extras at the edge of the table to make it incredibly obvious that I'm ready to go or whatever the case may be. If they pass by ignoring it or still don't come by for a long while usually their tip takes a hit and I generally tip well.

[AudiDude]

"Has there ever been a time when your order was missing an item, not cooked properly, or cold? This policy gives the server time to correct any of those problems immediately instead of the customer having to wait to flag the server down. "

Yes, and the better servers would have refused to deliver the food that I was to receive. I got burnt ribs. You know the ones cooked by the 16 year old kid in the back, while talking about what stickers he is going to put on his Civic, as the flames licked the ceiling?

The ribs smelled like burnt hair, but the server delivered them anyway. I've had many a good server come to me and tell me the food wasn't quite right so they didn't want to bring it to me, or even pull a u-turn at the table with the food and return to the kitchen to correct an issue they saw on their walk over.

I've had other servers pretty much say "I wouldn't order that if I were you" without using those exact words. These people got the big tips. The other places ending up trying to give me a free dessert. I say trying because I refuse to accept a bribe in lieu of sloppy service, I just don't return.

[mrperfect]

Haha - cant believe no body mentioned this yet.
My biggest issue is with small (Indian & Chinese) restaurants with not many customers. The owner always comes out and sits at one of the tables. Its really irritating when they stare at you or get into non stop conversations while Im in the middle of eating my food.
Not sure if this happens to others too but it absolutely drives me nuts and I have stopped going to places with no existing customes inside.

[LostInTruth]

Haha - cant believe no body mentioned this yet.
My biggest issue is with small (Indian & Chinese) restaurants with not many customers. The owner always comes out and sits at one of the tables. Its really irritating when they stare at you or get into non stop conversations while Im in the middle of eating my food.
Not sure if this happens to others too but it absolutely drives me nuts and I have stopped going to places with no existing customes inside.

+1

[stealth]

I dont mind it, but often wish they checked a little later, usually they do it about 5mins after the food arrived and then once youre done. somewhere in the middle would be nice so as to get drink refills etc.

[Ottomaddox]

They never ask me anything. Well, maybe 'Do you want fries with that?'.