One of the few mistakes that diners are unwilling to forgive is an exorbitant wait for their food at a restaurant.
We've all been the table that gets the short end of the steak -- when dinner becomes a two-hour affair not because you're enjoying the company but because something is going on behind the swinging double doors.
And when customers get hungry, we tend to get irritable and take it out on the server. But in reality you want to be on the same side as your server, because you both (ideally) have the same goal of getting food to your table in a timely fashion.
The simple approach is to ask your server what has happened. The shorter the answer, the more likely that the server is trying to pacify you without getting into what is really going on. The more detailed the answer, the closer you are to discovering where your plate of food has gone off to.
There are four likely reasons you're not eating: the kitchen is slammed, the restaurant is short-staffed, the waiter waited too long to put in your order or your food was delivered to another table. Sometimes a plate might drop or an order is entered or made incorrectly in the kitchen, but considering how fast-paced restaurants are, these situations typically don't arise that often.
If so much time passes that you start thinking about paying for your drinks and appetizers and getting the hell out, start talking strategy with your server. Ask how the kitchen is doing on this night or what's the average ticket time. That will at least give you some perspective. It also will give your server the opportunity to explain where the wheels came off on your entree.
And it might make the wait bearable.
[Image via Flickr: deovolenti]
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