Walking out of a restaurant....

No way Im waiting 10-15 minutes for someone to acknowledge me, especially at a chain restaurant. At a nicer place that I really want to eat, I will wait a little longer if necessary.

30 sec seems short, I would say around 3-5 minutes.

quote:

---

My rule is 10-15 minutes

---

wow, if it takes them longer than 5 minutes to come and get your drink order then that may be a sign of things to come...5 minutes is about my limit

The wait time is secondary to how the staff handles the wait time.

A few weeks ago, I took the family to a sushi restaurant we've been to before. We walk in and see the dining room has only about 10% of the tables with customers sitting at them. No hostess is visible, but there's a fella behind the sushi bar with a female at his side. They both make eye contact with us then look away. The female chats with him briefly as she heads to the kitchen. So far, no one says a word to us. I'm looking around the dining room to see if there's someone else whose attention i can get. The same female comes out of the kitchen, looks at us and goes back in. I'm thinking about leaving at this point, coaching myself to be patient. I look at the sushi guy. He's doing nothing, but I bust him looking at us. He quickly turns away. I'm actually starting to wonder if something illegal is happening and perhaps I'm supposed to pick up on the cues. My sons appear far more patient than I am, so I keep waiting. After another minute that same female comes out again and finally greets us. I'm thrilled someone speaks English. Who am I kidding? I was thrilled someone spoke.

If it was just me there, I would have waited half the time. If someone had said, "Thanks for coming, someone will be with you in just a minute.", I would have happily waited 5 minutes with no impulse to leave.

quote:

---

Or maybe they were just really understaffed?

---

Why is this an excuse? You're going to reward that restaurant for being understaffed with your business?

quote:

---

Why is this an excuse? You're going to reward that restaurant for being understaffed with your business?

---

It is certainly not a good excuse to patronize a business. Catman just said the servers were bad, and by my response, I meant that maybe they were doing the best they could but had too much workload to provide adequate service (considering they did speak to him, just didn't get around to waiting on him).

You can be a good waiter/waitress but if someone else doesn't show up, it will affect the service you would normally provide to your tables.

My choosing to stay at an understaffed restaurant is not so much a reward for incompetent management as much as a realization that sometimes things happen that are beyond the employees' control, and I still might be able to have a decent meal there. However, if this is a common occurrence at the same place, I probably won't go back for a long time.

I'm not a shrinking violet. I give them five minutes to tell me it will be a half hour to wait.

If not after five minutes I find someone and speak up. It's not that hard to get someones attention. You are the customer and you have the choice of eating there and allowing them to make some money or picking a place where they actually give a shite.

quote:

---

How long do you wait before you walk out of a restaurant if a hostess hasn't greeted you at the front door?

---

Five minutes.



https://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

quote:

---

nice!

---

meh,,,, a little salt on the ketchup could have given a "glitter effect"....

Id say about 5 minutes