re: Most restaurants should be counter service these days

There's been a big trend in bigger cities towards counter service even for nicer and higher end restaurants.

I love it personally

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bullshite. We had an appetizer and meal. Half of those two hours were spent sitting there with empty glasses and finished plates sitting in front of us. Never should happen when spending nearly $300 for a meal.

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I don’t believe 90% of what you post anyway

I don’t know where yall are going where you consistently get bad service.

Eat local, interact with the staff in a meaningful way (ask their opinions on the menu).

If you don’t get good service email the owner/management and let them know your experience. I want local places to succeed. The businesses that are interested in staying open long term want to know where they can improve.

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We went to zippy's recently. When you pay, the default tip options at the register are 20%, 25%, & 30%.

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I would simply avoid a place like that.

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Not sure what you mean here. If the kitchen mistimes the food it 'dies' in the window. But it's still hot. Shitty, but hot. Because the heat 'killed' it. If it's cold the server took it out of the window and set it somewhere or it wasn't fully cooked. What am I missing? How does mistiming cause cold food unless it's pulled from the window?

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I have never seen a server take food out of the window, set it somewhere else, and leave it for any length of time. If they did, it's likely because the kitchen didn't have the rest of the order ready and someone needed to make space for another setting.

How hot do you think the window is, the same as the fryer oil or something? Do you think it keeps food oven hot?

Not fully cooked is also the kitchen's fault.

Assuming mid-range and lower, if given a choice, I'm going counter service over a waiter setup 100% of the time.

No. You said you've never seen a server do that (I have ) and asked me a question about window temp.

I never said it wasn't kitchen error. I said it could be undercooked. I asked how mistiming a ticket results in cold food. Mistimed tickets result in dead food, not cold food, unless you have a problem with your heat lamps or have it set too low. And if the food gets cold in the window, obviously the heat lamps didn't do their job.

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You gave an example yourself of how mistiming tickets results in cold food.

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Yes. Servers sometimes pull food to their trays and realizing something isn't done yet, they'll leave the food they pulled on the tray while they wait for that dish. As far as underestimating how hot most restaurants keep the window I can see a half dozen burn scars on my wrists and hands as I type this from touching hot plate stacks or the window surface by accident.

I only sought clarification for your claim that cold food is from poor ticket timing and "not because it sat in the window waiting for someone to bring it" because mistimed tickets do sit in the window waiting, but that causes "dying" not cooling. I have never once heard anyone yell "there's food getting cold in the window." I hear "there's food dying in the window" constantly.

I did not intend to have a page long debate and am pretty sure no one else gives a frick so I'll leave it here.