Because People Need to be Told...

As I've been employed as a waiter for a number of years,
I'll share a number of things you should and should not do while dining out:



  • The biggest crime: coming in to eat near closing time!!! The folks who work in restaurants have lives too. It's just evil to hang out when clearly, the restaurant is closed and the staff wants to go home after a long shift. Would YOU like someone to selfishly keep you at your job when you're ready to go home? Why, just because someone works in a restaurant, should they be treated differently?

  • If you have children and they made a terrible mess - CLEAN IT UP BEFORE YOU LEAVE! Why should someone else have to clean up after your kids just because you're a lazy parent? You're raising your kids to be like you!!

  • You're expected to tip a minimum of 15% of the total bill. (If you had bad service, tell the manager).

  • NEVER include pennies in your tip. EVER!!!

  • Knock it off with ridiculous special orders! A normal substitution is fine, like "I'm allergic to nuts", or "I don't eat bacon", but reinacting a scene from "When Harry Met Sally" pisses off the kitchen crew (and you don't want to do that!)- there's a menu for a reason, and you're not that special. Then there's the hated "I want half sweet tea and half unsweet"...augh! Just thought you should know you are hated in every restaurant you visit.

  • Realize your wait person has other tables besides yours. Let's go already with your order.

  • When you leave the table, would it kill you to push your chair back in?

  • So it's your friend's birthday. Great! Don't expect your waitperson to be a trick monkey and sing and jump through hoops! Be happy with your candle.

  • Yes, your waitperson can see from the menus set around the table that you have people joining you. Good thing you have all these extra menus, then.

  • Women who talk through their husbands because the wait person is too low class for them to talk to directly: "tell him I want the salmon".

  • Don't be that person who chugs their drink so the waitperson has to refill it every 3 minutes.


  • Remaining at your table a long while after you've paid (especially during lunchtime!). This is what's refered to as "camping". The waitstaff makes only $2.13 an hour and rely on tips to pay the bills, not a paycheck, so, in essence, what you're doing is stealing money out of their pockets. You've prevented another seating of that table, thus, preventing the possibility of money making.

  • Unless you know your wait person well, don't grab them in any way physically This means hostesses and bartenders too.

  • If you order white zinfandel and/or a blender drink, your wait person expects that you won't be leaving a decent tip.

  • YES!! we have decaff, and yes, we have a dessert menu. Don't ask dumb questions - get out more often. We have a restroom too! Imagine that. Who knew?

  • Don't ask "is it fresh?"   Do you really think you'll be served old spoiled food?


    For more info, check out The Stained Apron.Com, a site written by and for restaurant workers - chock full of stories (some of them revenge stories!).
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