International Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Restaurant service
Inspired by a crazy thread on another board:
How do you feel about restaurant service in your country? Any bad/good experiences to share?
Re: Restaurant service
I usually like how the Germans leave you alone unless you get their attention. When I go back to the States it drives me crazy when the server comes around every 5 seconds asking if things are ok.
I hate that you get looked at like you're a leper here if you want tap water. Not that I order it because I hate that look, but I've seen people do it or had to try to do it for American visitors. The best was when a friend tried to get tap water (for free) and they told her they "didn't have any." Um, what? They had pasta on their menu. How exactly did they cook it without water? And let's not talk about washing the dishes without tap water... (meggers- that's 3 if you're counting :-) Although sometimes I put a period after mine so there end up being 4.... ;-))
LOLz, it's called "service"?
I know the French have a bad rep for restaurant service. Since being here I've had ONE bad (if you would even call it that) experience.
- We were 2 toddlers and 3 women wanting to get a drink at a bar/cafe. The server tells us that they aren't serving any food - no problem, us moms just want wine and the kids and pregnant lady can have juice. We sit at the empty terrace. When we put in our order, we also brought out our own snacks for the kids, the server told us it wasn't a picnic area... We joked with him about making us fries or something for the kids, he rudely stated again - NO FOOD! so we canceled an left. No big deal. We went around the corner where they actually served us a whole platter of tapas with our drinks!
I guess I'm not too picky though.
Weird, they always bring us a bottle of tap water here, even before we ask for it.
I like it fine. It's a different approach than the States-- very hands-off (no "is everything ok" or "would you like the check"). But that suits me fine. Too be honest I'd rather be left "alone" to enjoy conversation with my H and/or friends than feel like I need to offer a chair to the server.
It's definitely a slower process than in the States (a regular restaurant, not fancy/expensive place, takes about 2hrs on a week night), but again, that suits me. I expect it and so I don't mind. If we don't have the time to commit, we just eat in.
My one gripe would be the late start for dinner-- earliest is 8pm, which given the 2hr minimum, is tough when your day starts at 5am. But that's not really Italy's fault-- just sucks I have such early mornings.
Not tipping just feels VERY weird to me. I usually leave a few pounds on the table just because....
I hate the feeling at the end of the meal when I don't know how to pay -- do I go up to the counter? Will the wait staff bring me a check? Will they give me a hard time for using my non-chip-and-pin credit card? After eating at the same place a few times, it's obviously not a big deal....but new places always make me feel weird.
Here in Germany they do tip, but it's usually between 5-10% by rounding up to the nearest convenient number. If a drink cost 3.80? then the server usually gets a .20? tip. If a meal was 42? then the tip is often 3?. I usually tip closer to 15% and have gotten DH on board with me.
Speaking of paying, though, here in Germany when you ask for the check they bring it, tell you the amount, and then stand there while you get out the money and tell them how much you want in return (like if you give them a 50? bill for a 42? check you either say "45" (meaning they should keep that much) or "5" (meaning you want that much back)). I used to find it really stressful to have them standing right there because I didn't have time to think about the tip and how much I should be giving them. I often ended up way over- or under-(for my standards) tipping because of the pressure. Now I'm used to it.
Actually I've never seen someone NOT tip in the UK - that is beyond rude. What you don't do is tip 20% here. The tip should be about 10-12%. And how it works is not wrong, just different...in Europe as a waiter you are taught to do the things you experienced...it's called allowing people to enjoy their meal. But I've never had a problem getting faster service if I needed it. I tell them I have somewhere to go at a certain time and that I'd love for them to come and check in on me very regularly and it happens.
I hate when people compare their experiences in the US with another country and think it's awful...it's not, just a different way, that's all. And if you want something then all you have to do is communicate it!
Hospitality is super important in the Arabic culture, so service is generally that you can sit and eat as long as you want, and no one will bother you. If you want to order/get the bill, you'll need to flag down the waiter and ask for it.
While most of the time, this is really nice, if it's hard to flag down the waiter, it can be a little annoying. Also, since the majority of staff at restaurants are Filipinos/migrant workers, language is sometimes an issue.
I frequent a local Turkish place that always welcomes me with rice pudding and tea with mint, regardless of if I am getting takeaway or eating in. People really remember their customers too, so when I call, they always know it's me!
Dave & Jennifer 10.18.08
My Doha Adventures
I love that about here too. I'm amazed that someone will greet us by name within seconds of walking into a place we've only been a couple times and either offer to get us drinks right away or just bring out our standard drink order.
In general I like that Spanish servers don't smother you or push the check. However, I hate when it takes forever to flag them down for the check or a glass of water.
Once I tried for an hour to get a waiter to pay attention to me. I was going to order another drink and something else, then wanted to just get the check but the waiter wouldn't pay attention to me. That's the only time I've ever walked out without paying...it was just horrible service!
I HATE the restaurant culture here in the US - i am European through and through and want my meal to last at least 1.5hr plus so it really pisses me off when i feel rushed.
I mean i get it, they want a quick turn over, more tips etc but it is one of my pet peeves how they bring your appetizer out and then bam before youve even finished that your entree is on the table getting cold.
I guess its something i have to get used to.
That's just a bad waiter.
ETA: Why not just tell them you'll order your mains when you're done with the starter?
That reminds me of one of the worst restaurant experiences of my life... it was a place in DC that, at the time, had generated some buzz. It was small, so you needed a reservation-- typically a week or two out. Fine. So I make a reservation for 7:30. My friends and I get there right on time and were looking forward to a good time/catching up. The server seats us and says, oh and so you know, you'll have to be out by 8:30 because we have another reservation for your table at that time.
Awesome. I tell my friends here (Italians) just to torment them... I know they think I'm making it up. But it's true. It was awful! Have no idea how/why the place was that popular!
I usually like the slow pace of service in the Netherlands, as usually going out to dinner really does mean a night out for us and I like to take our sweet time, having a drink first, then choosing courses, etcetera etcetera.
It helps that I do know a few restaurants that do have relatively speedy service in case I need a dinner that way. (And we have a couple of really good take-out/delivery places nearby.)
Once in a while I encounter incredibly bad service. Just too dang slow (like waiting 15 minutes before they take our drink orders and then waiting 10 minutes to receive them and THEN still having to ask about getting a menu. When that does happen I definitely will not tip and usually write a bad review on my blog.
Regarding tipping, in NL the standard is like the German way explained above (rounding up). It's really just to be nice though, because wages are pretty dang good in general.
Worst service experience was the one time we actually walked out without paying because they couldn't find the time to bring us our check after we asked for it 20 minutes earlier (and re-asked twice + told them we had movie tickets at a specific time.)
My food blog
What I'm looking forward to in 2012:
Eating our way through (northern) Italy on vacation
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DI guess the American restaurant culture suits my personality pretty well. I like things to be efficient and I hate waiting a long time or feeling ignored. It drives me crazy when I can't get the waiter's attention after a couple of waves. I don't enjoy being rushed but usually I don't feel rushed in restaurant situations.
That thing with "you have to be out in an hour because we have someone else booked for your table" though is just not acceptable. I've never had that happen but it would totally piss me off.
We just laugh when they tell us that. The table might be booked for 7 and we're there at 5:30. I don't know why they even feel the need to tell us that really. An hour is plenty of time for us.
Agreed with everything!