Good Service? Bad Service? Rate Your Waiter!

NAME OF RESTAURANT: The Cliff House
Location: San Francisco CA
Your server: I forgot his name, but I want to call him Speedy, Speedy Gonzales!:)
Speed of service: 7 He was alert, precise and very polite even though the restaurant was jam-packed and so busy that Friday lunchtime.
Accuracy of service: 8 As we went the entrance door, Speedy approached us and asked if how many we are. Then he set up our tables and bar stools. Speedy got all our orders exactly what we've asked of him. Though there were some delays on the extra orders, but it was good enough.
Attention: 8 Speedy was all attention to our table. From time to time, he will ask us if we need anything else.
Personality: 7 He smiles a lot, never gets tired I guess. He's friendly, patient and very polite.
Overall rating: 8

NAME OF RESTAURANT: On the Border
Location: Waco, Texas
Your waiter: Chris, I believe
Speed of service: 6-7 : After being seated, we waited about 5 minutes for him to come over and get our drink order. Normally, this wouldn't be so bad, however, it was a Tuesday night and not busy at all. After our two friends got there, Chris came right back to take our orders. Our food only took about 15 minutes or so. It was after we got our food that the service started being horrible. We were about to physically get up and hunt him down to get us drink refills and when he finally did come back to refill, he only brought water pitcher. I asked for more tea and some more guacamole. He said he'd bring it right back. He never did bring the guacamole and I didn't get any more tea until he brought our check. Good thing we didn't need change.
Accuracy of service: 0:Our meals were ok except I asked for onions on the side, but there were none. He forgot to bring me additional guacamole and my friend never got her extra honey mustard, either.
Attention: 0: Horrible. Like I said above, he was hardly at our table except when he was forced to be (take orders, bring check). I didn't get a tea refill until I was done eating. When he did come back he never asked if everythign was ok, etc.
Personality: 0: Dry. He never once smiled. Didn't know anything about Happy Hour specials when I asked. me: "What are your happy hour specials?" him: "all the beers" me: "yeah, but how much are they?" him: "um, pretty much i think it's all $1 off almost everything..."
Aesthetic: 1: Not particularly
Comments: Normally I give servers a break because I'm a server as well...but I couldn't do that for him. He was horrible! I don't know how he makes any money being a server.

Rating: 3 the only thing keeping him from getting a 0 is the speed of our food being brought out.

NAME OF RESTAURANT: Kelsey's
Location: Mississauga
Your server: I can't remember her name
Speed of service: 5 she was very slow, however they were very busy that night
Accuracy of service: 6 she got all our orders right, except my friend ordered a coke and ended up with a Long-Island Iced Tea. Also she didn't carry the drinks on a tray, which is like one of the worst things you could do (her fingers were literally inside the glasses, so gross!)
Attention: 3 she never came to see us at all to ask how we were doing or anything.
Personality: 6 she seemed friendly but she didn't really talk to us.
Aesthetic: 7 she was cute but didn't smile
Comments: I usually love Kelsey's, and even though it's only a road-house restaurant, I do expect more from them than what I received. The food was excellent though.

Hello. I came here from waitingtables.

I work in Zizzis in Nottingham in the UK. Anyone eat there and want to rate? I'd be curious to see how my colleagues and I match up to your standards. =)

Happy New Year, everyone!

NAME OF RESTAURANT: Ru San's
Location: Midtown Atlanta, Piedmont Road
Your waiter:
Matt - as in Matthew
Keene - K - E - E- N - E
Reagan - as in the ex president is how he introduced himself. Much later, after a lot of noise and music and watching him flirt with everybody in the restaurant, from the tiny 9 month old to the 6 year old to yours truly.

As the evening wore on, though, we got to know him also as Matt-SAN and Sake BOMB!

I also have affectionately dubbed him:

• Tasty Man Sushi
  
• The Maniac Waiter
  
• The Hottie Waiter
  
• King of the Sake Bomb
  
• Yummy Bishounen Waiter.
  

He is the closest thing to a real, live anime boy I've seen in a long time. Huge brown eyes. Immense big giant brown eyes. All that alcohol made them all dialated, too, so they seemed even bigger.

Speed of service: Slow. But not Matt's fault. They were crammed tonight. And we got free cucumber mini-salads and one Saturday Night Special sushi each for being kept waiting.

Accuracy of service: Just shy of excellent. Matt remembered my Mui Bueno sushi had no mayo, but forgot I was taking the leftovers home, and thus tossed them and had to make me up a fresh batch. There's also the fact that he accidentally overdid it with the grain alcohol and strawberries, trying to impress mommyjenn and nearly set the table on fire. Not to mention his own hands.

Attention: Scale of 1 to 10? He was shooting for 20, but he made 15, easy. One too many Sake Bombs meant he kind of forgot my leftovers and our dessert, and to be a little less dramatic about the flaming dessert -- but it was fun to watch.

Personality: Again, scale of 1 to 10, he was shooting for 20, but made 15, easy. See above. Every table in the place got attention. He would stop and do a round of Sake Bombs with the bar while waiting for orders to come up. A bit of a waver, and a lot of apologizing for flaws in performance I, personally couldn't see until we realized he'd forgotten about my leftover sushi and the dessert he'd conned us into. All in all, though, it was so much fun just having him at the table mugging it up shamelessly that it was worth the price of the check and then some. mommyjenn and I both tipped him fairly generously, too.

Aesthetic: 8. See above. Bishounen waiter. The sake bombs were getting to him by the time we were ready to go, though.

Comments:

If you want to be entertained while you eat your sushi, you want to go to this restaurant on Sundays and Mondays, 'cause that's when Matt "Sake Bomb!" Keene Reagan is there. The man is a 24 year old college student who's juggling major life events as if they were flaming chainsaws, with a smile on his face the whole time.

The evening started a bit past 8, and we were sat at a cramped li'l booth by the window.

I wish I could remember all the details. They all start to blur, now. Matt somehow got the impression we were from Creative Loafing because I mentioned rating him here. I kept saying, "No, it's a blog! It's a blog!"

What the hell is a Sake Bomb? It's Kirin Beer and a shot of Sake. It's rather like the thing they call "Boilermaker" or "Car bomb." Drink it fast or the combination of alcohol will cause an explosion.

mommyjenn laid down a challenge against Matt-SAN [they yell a lot at Ru San's. They yell a whole lot!].

I think The Tasty Man Sushi only won because mommyjenn was not prepared for a challenge tonight.

NAME OF RESTAURANT: Red Robin
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Your waiter: Sarah (perky brunette)
Speed of service: 8
Accuracy of service: 5
Attention:10
Personality:10
Aesthetic: 10
Comments:
Sarah was great, she promptly greated us and was more then accomading that my friends and i are a bit slow at times :). our drinks were served fast, although the bar mistook my friends order for a drink with baileys, ice cream and chocalte blended for a mudslide - but she didnt care because she likes those too. our burgers were cooked to perfection except they put some weird relish stuff on my bun that was not mentioned in the menu so i polietly asked for a different bottom bun and sarah ran and got it. sarah felt bad for the mixups that occured during our dinner (my friends burger was supossed to have chedder but they put american) that she bought us a round of drinks. she made excellent conversation and when she found out i was a fellow server (at another restaurant here - bds mongolian bbq) we had much in common. the only thing that was bad was the accurarcy of the order but none of it seemed to be her fault. she gets an A

Name of Restaurant:

Boatwright's Dining Hall

Location:

This is the in-hotel restaurant for the Port Orleans Riverside Hotel, one of the many resorts on the Walt Disney World property in Orlando, FL. The hotel is $200/night and up, and the entrees were $12 minimum, averaging about $15, maxing out at $20. Figure that the PPA is probably $22-$25.

Your waiter:

Polly

Speed of service: [9 then 2]

Lacking. They set us up a table quickly, and had us seated in under 2 minutes. It was 6:30-ish and at the time we sat down we were the only table in that particular dining room, so the speediness here isn't saying much. But, the service after that was ... less than energetic.

Accuracy of service: [5]

Everything we ordered came out as ordered, with the exception of a carafe of regular soda that should have been diet. However, see the Comments section for a detailing of the horrendous ordering ordeal.

Attention: [2]

Barely Minimal. There was no "How does everything taste?" check-in, and in fact we did not see our server for a good 30 minutes after the entrees were delivered. Also, our server only delivered 1 of the 8 plates, the rest were delivered by someone else. Our server was not visibly busy, but the layout of the restaurant prevented us from seeing if she was busy with other tables in other sections. Another server who had several tables in our section bussed our entree dishes after we had been done for a good 10 minutes, and did the dessert suggestive selling. We declined, and a few minutes later our server came out, bussed one last plate, and again asked if we wanted dessert, apparently oblivious to the other server's efforts.

Personality: [2]

Again, minimal. We were all in a good mood, having just enjoyed a day at Disney, and our server just did not pick up any cues to try to join in on our fun. She didn't even ask how our day at the theme parks went. (Which, honestly, I would figure would be the first question to pretty much every table at a restaurant in a Disney resort.) I'm not saying she needed to join in our revelry, but she made absolutely no attempt to match or work with our mood.

Aesthetic: [8]

Very nice. No complaints here.

Comments:

I've never had a worse dining experience.

( Seriously. Read more.Collapse )

NAME OF RESTAURANT: P. F. Chang's
Location: Roswell, GA
Your waiter: I didn't get his name, and he didn't have a nametag. Neither did his receipt say anything but ToGo on it where his name should've been, but that's because I was getting the order as take-out rather than eating it at the bar, because I wanted to get home after a really, really, really, really bad day.
Speed of service: [8] Considering it was Christmas Eve and they were pretty slammed, it was still very fast. And he got the order in as fast as I gave it. It was the kitchen that slowed it down.
Accuracy of service: [10]. I'd go better than 10 if we had it to go. He got the order 100% correct, called me back when he realized something had not been bagged properly, handed me a new bag, and apologized for the kitchen insisting on including the raspberry sauce I said I didn't want on my dessert. He then asked me if I wanted caramel and/or vanilla, and went personally to get them and add them himself to my bag so he'd know they were there. He said again he was sorry, and that I could just trash the raspberry sauce.
Attention: [9] Again, considering it was Christmas Eve and they were slammed, he was very friendly and agreeable. He also made sure I had complimentary drive_ok beverages while I waited for my order to go.
Personality: [7] A little cool, but got friendlier. And his apology for the raspberry sauce, which wasn't even his fault, was genuinely sincere. That matters a lot to me.
Aesthetic: [6] He looks like he belongs on Friends. A bit too scrubbed and boy-next-door for me, but still attractive. I imagine his girl or boyfriend's parents think well enough of him. *wink*
Comments: He was treating me like I was Kwan Yin herself before I tipped him $10 off a $27 check. He deserved it. It was good service, as much attention as necessary [as did his coworker at the bar also stop to be friendly and chatty when time permitted], and it's Christmas. Tips are a big deal to waitstaffers, and he earned his. The food, BTW, is also pretty good. They have the closest thing to what I consider a correct dumpling since I've left VA or NY.

NAME OF RESTAURANT: Double Dragon [yes, I had dinner at a restaurant named after a Video Game]
Location: Fairgrounds Road, Marietta, GA
Your waiter: I did not get her name, and she never gave it, which is the only negative thing I can say about her.
Speed of service: Rapid. [10]
Accuracy of service: It was buffet type food, so all she brought us was chopsticks and drinks, but she did that quickly and pleasantly.
Attention: [10] Oh, well, here she excelled. She came over to refill quickly. She got chopsticks quickly. She asked elena23 "why arent you eating?" in this sweet voice with this vaguely disapproving expression. elena23 promptly looked guilty and chastened and said, "I'm waiting for the vegetable lo mein." She asked me what I did to my hands, and tut-tutted affectionately at me. And when we left, she called out to us "Goodbye! Thank you! Happy Holidays!" and waved cheerfully, but very sincerely.
Personality: [10] See above. She was a darling. I just wanted to hug her. The place wasn't too crowded, but she was giving everybody attention like that.
Aesthetic: [7] She is getting up there in years but my personal opinion is that she was drop dead gorgeous when she was much younger. And her personality makes her beautiful.

Comments: The waitress we had made the experience. Their food is sort of weird. Their dumplings are made with eggroll wrappers and are all mushy inside with meat and vegetables mixed up with time-delay hot spices. Not what I'm used to from Chinese or Japanese gyoza dumplings. The search continues. The sesame chicken sauce was sweet-and-sour. Also not what I'm used to; unexpected. Sweet-and-sour is something I only like when I feel like it. elena23 said the lo mein is sweet too. However, the wontons were perfect. I may go by there just for the soup at this rate. And they have real mongolian barbecue like at the Dumpling House in NY, though the setup is different so I never recognized it as such.

NAME OF RESTAURANT: Intermezzo Cafe

Location: Peachtree Street in Atlanta, GA

Your waiter: Catherine

Speed of service: 8 - Business was surprisingly brisk for an early Sunday evening, but Catherine was told we were on a time limit and did her very best to make sure we were able to meet our timetable.

Accuracy of service: 10 - Catherine took our orders spot on, even coming back to make sure that indigoskynet did not in fact want anything on top of her pasta.

Attention: 10 - Catherine checked up on us regularly, came and apologized when she felt things were running a bit slow, and went out of her way to share her favorite drinks in the cafe - Hot Chocolate Glasgow and Butterscotch Creme.

Personality: 9.5 - Catherine was really friendly and funny. The slight incremental drop is due to her not agreeing with me that Kermit and Miss Piggy are married, 'cause they are, dammit! That's what the minister was for in Muppets Take Manhattan!

Aesthetic: 10 - Catherine was adorable. As indigoskynet has said, Catherine should have played the part of Jinx in 'Die Another Day' instead of that annoying Halle Berry. I hate Halle Berry.

Comments: I have consistently found the daytime waiters at Intermezzo to be much nicer then the night staff. I think that's mainly because in the daytime the cafe tends to cater more torwards shoppers and families and groups of friends on day-outings, while at night it becomes a Principality of Yuppy-dom, and hence is more of a Trendy Cafe. The drink menu is 32 pages long and superb, and the dessert rack is legendary.