How To Get Good Tips

[MineralMan]

Bad service has been rare in my 40-something years of eating out. I'm a good tipper, unless service is execrable. However, there have been some occasions when service has been just terrible. So, in keeping with the threads on restaurant service:

How To Get Good Tips

1. When a table has been seated in your area, wander over there soon. Greet the table. Have a smile on your face unless the restaurant that employs you wants to have an air of excusivity. Then, you may scowl at your customers, under the assumption that they are not of the standard the restaurant expects.

2. Distribute menus, ask about drink preferences, answer whatever questions may come up, then off you go to the bar to put in the drink order. Do remember that you have placed a drink order for your table. When the drinks are ready, bring them over. Nothing's worse than an Old-fashioned in which the ice has all melted. When you bring the drinks, please be prepared to take the table's order for starters...or for the entire meal if that's what they want. Keep smiling. If some guests still have their menus in their faces, they're really not ready to order. Take the starter orders to the kitchen and remind yourself that the table has not ordered their meals. Glance over once in a while to see if the menus are down. Please don't be annoyed that someone is slow to decide and leave the table unnoticed.

3. If guests have questions about their choices, don't just murmur something about a choice being "terrific," unless it really is. Not everything is terrific every time. If the mussels didn't arrive that day and the mussels are half open and already starting to spoil, advise the guest that there might be something better today.

4. You may get special requests from some guests. Please don't roll your eyes if someone asks for Ranch Dressing on the caesar salad. Perhaps the person has an extreme aversion to anchovies. The kitchen can deal with that. Don't huff at the guest who asks that the rack of lamb not be quite as pink as it is usually served. All those things are for the kitchen, not for you.

5. Once the entrees and the wine are on the table, glance at the table from time to time to see if you're being signalled. Take note of the table's behavior. For example, if a nice couple is raptly gazing into each others eyes or having an argument, your "How's everything tonight" chirping might not be all that welcome. Wait a bit. Don't interrupt people who are either obviously enjoying themselves or disagreeing with each other intently.

6. When the meal's done, and never before everyone's stopped, visit the table to inquire about dessert and after-dinner beverages. Don't leave a table with forks down, staring at the congealing sauces on their plates. It will cut down on their afters order.

7. Finally, when the table has finished everything, you'll notice that they're looking around and not eating anything or drinking anything. Time to bring the check. Not time to hang out by the bar flirting with the new guy. Once you bring the check, the table will be eager to leave, so keep glancing over until you see the check-holder hit the table. Go snatch it up and run the card and hurry back. Your guests want to leave today.

Oh, yes, did I mention smiling? Smiles are money. Attentiveness is money.

Sounds like common sense? It is. And yet, every one of those things gets ignored in many restaurants, and tips suffer.

[Obamanaut]

1. On another thread I spoke to getting good service by my behavior

(along with Miz O) upon our arrival. Everyone we come in contact with - greeter, server, etc - we try to establish at least some degree of rapport, treating them as people, with courtesy. We have not had bad service in a very long time. A very long time.

We leave at least 20%. The places we go to more than once usually has at least one person who remembers us, and will come to our table even if we're not in their section, just to say hello.

Eating out for us is a fun experience that we enjoy more often now that we are retired.

[Yunomi]

2. This is sad

You have done an excellent job of outlining the basics of decent food service. That so many waiters/bussers/hosts have no idea what you're talking about, or no clue that these things are necessary for good service, is a sad reflection of, well, everything. A good staff is a joy, both for the customers and fellow workers.

[monmouth]

3. Great post and every word true. Should be posted in the galley of

every restaurant. We were in the business many years go, kids came there after school if no sports were on the schedule to learn to do "prep" work. Youngest one is still in the business, makes great, great money because of the above-listed qualities. Leave your problems, angsts and worries at home, they're not your customers problems. The mentioned son does have to go to therapy once in a while for a knee injury resultant from the job but that's the downside. Shame in a way though, he has a degree and could teach in school, working in a private club just pays better. Go figure.

[damntexdem]

4. Good tips on how to get good tips?

Also, if in a restaurant where wine or other alcohol is served, it doesn't hurt if you help get the tipper tipsy.

[TexasObserver]

5. Well said. Good service makes for good customers.

[evolve45]

6. Also

If there is going to be a delay - explain and offer to change their order if they do not want to wait so long.

[MineralMan]

10. Excellent point. I meant to include that, but

forgot it along the way.

[Stephanie]

7. jesus christ

Take your condescending crap somewhere else. Maybe move to Dubai, I hear the slave labor is cheap there.

[MineralMan]

11. It seems that others don't agree with you.

What about good service and pleasing customers do you find condescending? The staff in a restaurant is largely responsible for the experience the diners have. That reflects directly in their tip.

As for me, I'm always a friendly, polite customer, with a ready smile and a "thank you" for all good service.

[yawnmaster]

14. I would also like to know...

what you feel is condescending.
If one does not want to "serve" customers, one should not take on a wait job.

[Laelth]

16. I had the same reaction.

Sounds like advice from a man on how to be a "good" housewife (always smiling, loving, and supporting your husband, having his dinner ready when he gets home from work, keeping the children "out of his hair" so he can relax ... condescending is the right word).

It may be good advice. I don't know. It has been a long time since I've been able to take my family out to a restaurant where any of this would be relevant. And I'm not waiting tables, myself ... not yet, anyway.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Rebubula]

17. LOL WUT?

OK....the food service industry (at least as it applies to food servers) is a SERVICE. When you are waiting on someone, you are their servant for the time being. You cannot make it long in the food server business without being able to be a bit subservient to your guests.

You have to suck up pride sometimes to get paid properly. I am not saying you have to take abuse, but you need to recognize that you are not these people's friends and you are not dining with them. You are there to get food, drink and make sure that they have everything that they need. That is the business.

I am one of the most aggressive people that you will ever meet (Certified Internet Tough Guy), but when I was waiting tables, I would don the butler persona and take care of my tables.

There are few other professions like waiting tables. It requires a lot of knowledge and a dash of humbleness and ability to be someone's butler\servant for an hour or so.

All that said...I am farking glad to not be waiting tables anymore.

[AllieB]

8. Good common sense recommendations.

But what you're describing is someone who treats the job seriously or as a career. In some restaurants (primarily chains), there is a less professional and more casual attitude toward waiting tables and bartending. We were out with my parents one night, and they always get the same thing at this particular restaurant. When my mother mentioned that her side of cole slaw was waaay spicer than usual, the waitress said "I love spicy food" instead of saying "I'll tell the kitchen". When you wait tables (as I did for 10 years), the focus is on the customer, not you.

[MineralMan]

12. Well, you're right, of course. Chain restaurants aren't my

favorite places, frankly, and largely for that reason, along with the factory food they serve. I'd much rather visit an old restaurant with a career staff and a pleasant menu for about the same price. It's almost always the superior experience.

There's a great old family restaurant near me. Really reasonable prices, great staff (mostly family, from grandma to this generation's teens). A few of their dishes are outstanding...others are OK. But, it's a great crowd of regular patrons there and a fun spot for a meal.

For fine dining (something I can rarely afford), the Twin Cities offers many, many choices. So far, except for one well-known place, recommendations have led my wife and I to many excellent ones. The exception served up lousy food for very high prices, but the staff was good.

[Mari333]

9. also, dont wear underwear

and make sure your skirt is short. a little breeze and WOOT, theres 25%.


well, makes as much sense as anything else I read.
( I just remember what it was like to be in an UNDERstaffed restaurant with a shitty boss and rude customers who wanted you to be PERKY.)

[MineralMan]

13. That wouldn't get good tips from me and my wife

would be even more ticked.

As far as working in a shitty restaurant with a matching boss and rude customers goes, I'd not be there, anyhow, so you won't be able to take out your frustrations on me. If I did happen to be in there, I'd be as polite and friendly as I always am in a restaurant...at least until the waitperson snarked at me. I'm never a rude customer and am never responsible for the behavior of other patrons.

Even then, I'd just immediately ask for the check and go somewhere else. No doubt after just ordering a drink. I never order a meal until I've had a look around an unfamiliar restaurant. If it's an unfriendly dump, I pay for my drink and go elsewhere. You can usually assess a restaurant while having a drink and looking at the menu.

[blaze]

15. I waited tables at a coffee shop

for almost eight years and *loved* my job!!

We opened at 5am and Bud and Bill (father and son) always sat at table eight and Bill *always* had oatmeal and whole wheat toast... so I would have everything set up and ready to go before the restaurant opened. They were shitty tippers. I mean a *DIME* under the saucer. BUT!!! For Bill's lousy tip, there was always an Owen... who always tipped a buck for a cup of coffee. We had lots of regular customers and it was an enjoyable challenge to try to meet their expectations.

I used to sit down to visit with my customers all the time and my manager would walk by and grab me by the collar of my uniform and gently lift me up to get me back to work... the customers would always chuckle.

I prided myself on greeting my tables quickly and was careful to watch for low levels of coffee or water and think I was pretty sensitive to tables who wanted extra attention and tables that just wanted to be left alone. It's really just a matter of being attentive and caring about your job.

On Halloween, I dressed up as a clown and would "trip" while setting down a full cup of coffee... which was actually filled with confetti. (One customer told me the next day he got in trouble with his wife because of the spare confetti that fell out of his clothing when he got home from work... :) )

And one time I was "hired" by a regular to provide REALLY BAD SERVICE to his table. He brought a co-worker to the restaurant for his birthday, it was a table of eight people I think, and we had SO MUCH fun with that!! The manager was in on it... I waited on three or four other tables after they were seated.... the cook undercooked the birthday boy's food... I spilled water while refilling glasses.... oh it went on and on.... I was a huge success at being a lousy waitress! :rofl:

I'm almost 55 now. In 10 years, the good lord willing, I will be able to retire.... but I think I would love to go back to my coffee shop. :)