When did it become my job to scour Facebook in search of restaurants with one-star reviews for stupid reasons? Is this what my life has become? Am I really that petty?
Yes. Yes, I am.
I take it as an opportunity to educate non-restaurant people to the ways of our world. We expect that customers would understand certain aspects of dining out, but that would mean that our customers have common sense and we all know that is very often not the case. Today’s offender is Bridget who left a bad review for Hose 22 in Rochester, New York:
I would love to be giving this place 5 stars right now! My boyfriend and I stopped here for drinks about a year ago and loved it! So, I planned surprise trip for Father’s Day for him and his son today. We arrive at approximately 11:15 to doors open, however get told upon walking in that they don’t open until 1130. We say “well it’s only 15 minutes”. The response we got was “you have 18 minutes”.
Now I’m sorry but that is poor customer service! At the very least you invite your customer in to have a drink and wait for the server to seat you! Not sit at your laptop with doors open turning people away.
Needless to say we are eating at Shamrock Jack’s where we were welcomed with open arms….5 minutes before opening I might add!
Your loss!
The place doesn’t open until 11:30 and Bridget showed up at 11:15 and could not understand why they were not ready to serve her. It matters not that the doors were unlocked, Bridget. What does matter is the opening and closing time. If you go there before they are open for business, it is not their responsibility to adjust their hours of operation to satisfy your eagerness to eat. That’s not poor customer service, that’s doing business. Your suggestion that they invite you inside to have a drink and wait the 15 minutes is also ridiculous, because who do you think is going to serve that drink? A server, that’s who. And that server is still not in the right frame of mind to serve you. Those last fifteen minutes before the restaurant opens are precious to us. That’s when we eat our breakfast, talk to our co-workers, check our cell phones before we put them away for the entirety of our shift, and question our life choices. It is not when we suddenly decide to start work earlier than required.
Imagine, Bridget, that you are at your overnight shift at the meat processing plant and your shift is to begin at 1:00AM. At 12:45, in waltzes a whole brood of chickens who are ready to be turned into chicken nuggets. You’re all, “Hold up, hens. My shift doesn’t start for fifteen minutes, come back later.” And the chickens are all, “Bawk, bawk mother fucker, we’re ready to be processed now. Pluck me, bitch!” I know what would you do, Bridget. You would explain to the chickens that if they want to be processed at your factory, they’d have to wait fifteen minutes and if they didn’t want to wait they could head on down to Shamrock Jack’s Processing Plant where they would greet those needy chickens with open arms.
Lesson of the day: Pay attention to the hours of operation. They exist for a reason.
Wonder Waitress
My sister and I once went to go eat at a restaurant we’ve never been to. Arrived around 4:30, was told they didn’t open until 5. Did we whine? Did we complain? Did we demand that the world revolve around us and our plans? No. We went and killed an hour window shopping and then went back at 5:30. How hard is that!? Too many people were never told “no” when they were a kid and now they’re entitled adults. No business on this Earth has to serve you before opening or closing times. Period. Period. Period. Do not post shitty FB reviews because you couldn’t read the posted hours on the door. I really wish that FB would let us delete reviews that are obviously absurd or over exaggerated. I once managed a page for a friend’s restaurant and I had to report a review at least once a week from either a foul-mouthed customer, someone who obviously never been to the restaurant (they complained about the tacos, yet we didn’t have any tacos on our menu nor did we even have tortillas), or an employee who was fired and was going to ‘make us pay’ by posting lies. Do people not think anymore!?
Mellie
I know what you mean, people just feel so entitled to everything right now. Last night my husband and I went to a tasting room/brewery and walked up to the bar at the exact same time as a couple (twenty-somethings) and when the bartender looked at us first my husband pointed over at the couple and said, “get them first”. You would think they would say, “Oh thanks” or smile or something. They were just such a-holes, acting all entitled, as if “of course, our bad selves should be going first”. I’m just over this group of young adults/millennials. I’m sorry if I’m judging everyone, I know they are not all this way, and I hope to hell that I have taught my own 20-something daughters better than this, but this younger generation appears to be annoying as selfish as fuck.
JT Salinger
“You’re welcome to have a seat in the lobby and as soon as we’re open I’ll show you to your table. (And, if the hostess has a minute) May I get you a glass of water while you wait?” This is why Chipotle and Moe’s is crushing Chilis and Applebees–because the service is the same and one is way faster and cheaper. Served for 7 years. It sucks. People are rude. Servers are over stressed and over it. I get it, no one should have to have that much patience to bring someone food, but that doesn’t mean, in this scenario, there isn’t room for improvement on the hostess’s side. This, of course, assumes what the patron said was entirely accurate.
Jessica
The problem with seating them, even in the lobby AND offering water is that if more people wander in early they’ll want the same. I worked at a restaurant with open door patio seating in the summer. If someone walks in and they’re allowed to sit early, EVERYONE does the same. People used to show up early when there’s a blizzard and expect to be let in. If I let you ALL in, it’s going to be crazy. Usually I only have that last ten minutes to eat something before a double. Show up when we open. Period.
Willow
Yep, this happens all the time where I work. We open at 11 and I get there at 10:30 when I work open to close. So 2 wks ago I come strolling in at about 10:30ish(to a dark dining room, I might add), glance over and see a table of 7 DUMBASSES waiting to be served. I walked right on past, straight to the kitchen to get the 411. Turns out they’d been there since a little after 10. The owner went out and told them that we didn’t open till 11 and they still had about 45mins. Their response was, “ok, we’ll just wait.” Freakin idiots. So I had to awkwardly set up the dining room with them watching my every move. I seriously don’t understand people sometimes.
We have the opposite of that happen on a nightly basis. We close at 9 and we have ppl come in at 8:55. It irks me to say the least. I had a whole family come in and actually sit down at 9:25 just last night. That’s waaaaaaay to late, so I asked them to leave. I’d just like to know what goes through their minds? It was obvious we were closed. The chairs were flipped, the music is blasting, and I’m standing there with a broom. Do they just say, “hmmmmmm the open sign is off, the chairs are flipped, there’s no customers, but I’m still gonna go in and see if they’ll feed me?”. I just dont get it. Probably never will. I dont know what pisses me off more, ppl sitting at a dirty table. Or coming in 5 mins b4 close.
Dear customers,
Please don’t go into a restaurant any later than 30mins b4 closing time. Bc we can’t tell you no, so don’t put us in that situation. We all wanna go home after our shift. Not wait an extra 30mins before we can even start the cleaning process that generally takes 45mins to an hour by itself.
Thanks,
You’re sweet server?
Mensa58
Bridget needs to be told the world does not revolve around her. So she got to the restaurant early? Her problem, *not* the restaurant’s! Opening at 11:30 means just that — any reasonable person would realize that before that time they’re setting up and prepping for customers. Oops, I forgot that I said “reasonable” and Bridget doesn’t seem to fit that criterion.
Jules
Plus the fact that, 18 minutes before opening, the restaurant might not be ready yet. There might not even be a server who has arrived yet.
Jamie D
Hmmm… wonder if they got a 5 star review a year earlier when they “loved it”???
Kittylouise
Had a customer call me at 6:45pm in a panic about wanting a specific plastic cake topper they needed (I’m a cake decorator at a grocery store) then it turned into them wanting a decorated cake right away, can’t do since I leave at 8 and we need more time then that (hello, I don’t just stand around waiting to decorate last minute orders, there is a whole slew of thing we have to do including cleaning up for the night). I told her I could write on a pre-decorated cake for her that she can pick out of the case when she comes in. She then asks when we close, the store doesn’t but I am out at 8 (damn me for being honest) and the only one who can write on the cake for her. She tells me she’s going to go get dinner first. Guess who calls at 10 til 8 saying she is going to be there at 5 after. I tell her I’m running a few minutes over so she should be ok. Why, oh why did I say that? Shows up 5 minutes later. Takes 5 minutes to pick out a cake then asks me to spray it different colors, okay…..Then asks me to add flowers to it. NOPE! Really, you know I’m over my shift, cleaned up and trying to go home, you should have shown up earlier if it was soooo important to you! UGH, ppl suck
Jason
That lady really grinds my gears. Her priority was to make sure her feed hole was all taken care of and not get her tardy ass down there at a reasonable time.