That said, for me to have an experience I call 'bad service' at an eatery says a lot. It says even more that the people I was with (two shitty tippers and my boyfriend, a good tipper,) saw absolutely nothing wrong with the situation and were actually cool with the whole thing.
This is what I call bad service, and it falls under 'Server's Attitude.'
I was eating at Bennigan's with the aforementioned people on their business lunch break (ie one hour.) They had on their work-badges around their necks, so it was obvious that we weren't going to camp for six hours.
Several minutes after our server delivered our food, she approached us and whined, "Hey. Are you guys okaaay? Do you need anything? 'Cuz...I wanna take my break."
1.)Who the hell takes breaks when you're waiting tables?
2.)WTF.
My companions said we were fine and then talked about how cool it was that the girl was upfront and told us before just running off.
I'm thinking, "Why would you even run off and take a break when you have a table? And why would you tell them that? It makes it seem like you don't want them there." I would never, never, never in a million years say that to a table, not even if I was pregnant and had a baby half-hanging out between my legs. In that case, I'd just LEAVE. Don't tell the damned table you're splitting! And DON'T SPLIT! (The baby scenario is an exaggeration, of course.) Jesus Christ, it's a dead Friday lunch at BENNIGAN'S, and your table is going to leave as soon as they eat. Why do you HAVE to take your break right NOW?
I just--whew, flabbergasted. Like I said, food taking forever? I pity that server and will tip them well as long as they don't whine to me not to blame them. Girl drops my drink? Poor thing. Super big tip. Messed up my order? Fine by me as long as you fix it quickly and keep your cool. You tell me the equivalent of, 'Uh, fuck off. I want a smoke, and I don't have time to wait for you fuckers, even though it's dead in here, and I have all the time in the world to wait for you fuckers.'
It's all in the attitude. Some other girl took care of us the rest of the time (which was not that long, Lil' Miss Break!) She was fine, except that when she dropped our bills, she grumbled, "Uh, I only have one pen. Sorry."*
Fuck it. I've 'only had one pen before,' too, but I apologized for it in an adult-like manner ('Uh, sorry,' is something you mumble to your mom when you're fifteen and you didn't make your bed), briefly made mention of the reason, and said I'd gladly hunt down another if they needed it (and of course they didn't. But you still SAY it, damn it!)It's not that big a deal, but I'm remembering the presentation not-so-fondly, so that says something.
Again, my non-waitering companions seemed to see nothing wrong with any of it. My boyfriend says I'm just used to a 'fancier restaurant,' and that people expect that kind of thing at Bennigan's. I don't see PF Chang's as *that* nice of a place. I worked at a 'yee haw!!' type of steak house for a few years, and they wouldn't condone that kind of shit, either. Etc. etc. Blah, blah.