7 things we really don't like about the service
Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: 7 things we really don't like about the service
Some restaurant guests don't know how to behave: once. But sometimes the service in the hospitality industry also shows a strange side. A quick round in the editorial office yielded seven points that we think: not cool, just don't.
From all sides, we hear stories from hospitality staff that make your hair stand on end. People who put shrimp in their mouths with the shell on, ask if there are gluten in the mint tea, and – the topper – order a Hawaiian toast without pineapple. On the other hand, things sometimes go wrong: nice restaurant guests encounter the strangest behavior from staff. And because we thought that might happen accidentally or unconsciously, we made this list with the friendly request to the service: please don't do that. Additions are welcome!
#1 Daycare tone
Editor-in-chief Sharon was for a change not working in the editorial office, but somewhere in a coffee shop. The ordered cake turned out to be not okay, and before she fell over from hunger while waiting for the next order, she took a few nuts out of her bag. ‘Suddenly, a girl from the service stood next to me: ‘I don't think it's very nice of you, madam, to eat your own nuts here!’ It was just a few nuts, you know, so it wasn't like I was devouring a packed lunch – and then that tone! As if I was being called to the mat like a little kid in a daycare.’ The request: no tone as if you're talking to toddlers, thank you (and just give Sharon some delicious cake if she get hangry is, that helps too).
#2 My colleague will be with you shortly
Scene: you're sitting on the terrace, someone with an apron walks by and you think: great, I can order. So you make eye contact and wave, and then you hear: ‘My colleague will be with you shortly, this is not my area.’ Quite a bit annoying. How you handle things administratively doesn't seem to be the guests' problem. Not nice!
#3 ‘Thank you’ is not that difficult
Delilah: ‘I hate it when I pick up coffee and pay with a card and say: ‘Make it four’ and the barista or the person at the register doesn't say thank you and doesn't even look at me. Then I want to say: ‘You know what? Just give me back that euro. You figure it out.’ So what you really must say as service when you have a normal person in front of you: thank you.’
#4 Not so jovial
Of course, everything is informal and relaxed in the hospitality industry, especially on a cozy terrace or in the pub, but to immediately call the guests ‘sweetheart’ and ‘darling’? No, I'd rather not.
#5 It's already 2021
Some service seems to have been born not in 2021 but in 1921. How do you notice that? Try paying the bill as a woman, and you might hear some comments that seem to come straight out of a creaky Polygoon newsreel. ‘Wow, lucky you!’ your table mate hears from the waiter. With such a disgusting wink, if you're lucky. Hello, the last century called, they want their traditional gender roles back.
#6 Automatic date
Since we're on the topic: a man and a woman sitting together at a table is not automatically a date. What's up with that, Lauretta? ‘I was having a drink with a friend, and the girl in the service asked if we had a nice date.’ Maybe she was checking if the man in question was available? Or is that also sexist?
#7 Prefer no Pepsi
Let's take a poll: who can taste the difference between Pepsi and Coca-Cola? ‘You order a cola and the service asks: ‘We have Pepsi, is that okay?’, isn't that a bit strange? No one can taste that difference when you're as dehydrated as the Sahara.’ But no, there are plenty of people who would rather drink nothing or the murky water from the flower vase on the table. What do the readers think?
