Have you ever been asked to leave a restaurant?

[sam_gordon]

Look at it from the other side... you go to a popular restaurant, you're told it's a 40 minute wait. You accept and sit down and get comfortable. At what point after those 40 minutes is it not considered "rude" to ask when you'll be seated?

 

[larissawbb]

If you found the service rude and it would be weird to return, just don’t go back. I’m sure there are plenty other places worth checking out. I’ve been asked to leave a restaurant at lunchtime because my son was humming. There wasn’t even anyone sitting near us. He wasn’t being loud and has autism ( so it’s a tic) but the server thought it was annoying.

 

[Sparkly]

I and a friend got asked to leave because it was six in the evening and the cafe was closing once. We were chatting and slowly eating and lost track of time!

 

[Imzadi]

At about 11:05, we were seated. DS18 texted and said he was on his way, and go ahead and order.

The server came through with coffee and was nice enough. She came back a little while later and took our order.

We ordered, and the food came. I'd say it was about 11:30 by then. DS got there probably at about 11:40.

The owner did you a favor by seating you without your full party there. DS arrived 35 min later. They had no idea that DS would just order a cinnamon roll and not something hot that needed to be prepared & cooked. He still got a full 30 min to eat the cinnamon roll and finish off DH's steak and eggs.

The server checked on you twice starting at 12:10 and even asked if MIL wanted more coffee. As a PP said, had she said yes, there would have been no problem with your party lingering.

Yet, you complain that they ask you to please be mindful that there are others waiting? Did you stiff the server on the tip for that? You haven't mentioned what you did about the tip.

How about being gracious and thankful about being seated before your full party was there, instead of the two elderly people being uncomfortably squashed in the waiting area? How about being mindful and considerate that there are others waiting? Perhaps another party of 5-6 arrived right before DS arrived. They would have actually been seated first, had the owner made you wait for DS before seating you. You don't know how long another party of 5-6 may have been waiting for your table.The restaurant obviously didn't want to turn two 4-tops into another table for one party of 6. It may screw things up for the other waiters, depending on where their sections end. One waiter may lose a whole table.

My suggestion is: next time pick a restaurant that has a more leisurely atmosphere, since you know you have 2 elderly people who will take longer. Not all restaurants have a wait line. As others have said, some restaurants have such bad service that you end up taking quite a while even when you didn't intend on that happening. Then no one in your party will feel they are taking too long, or feel they need to rush.

 

[NYCgrrl]

The owner did you a favor by seating you without your full party there. DS arrived 35 min later. They had no idea that DS would just order a cinnamon roll and not something hot that needed to be prepared & cooked. He still got a full 30 min to eat the cinnamon roll and finish off DH's steak and eggs.

The server checked on you twice starting at 12:10 and even asked if MIL wanted more coffee. As a PP said, had she said yes, there would have been no problem with your party lingering.

Yet, you complain that they ask you to please be mindful that there are others waiting? Did you stiff the server on the tip for that? You haven't mentioned what you did about the tip.

How about being gracious and thankful about being seated before your full party was there, instead of the two elderly people being uncomfortably squashed in the waiting area? How about being mindful and considerate that there are others waiting? Perhaps another party of 5-6 arrived right before DS arrived. They would have actually been seated first, had the owner made you wait for DS before seating you. You don't know how long another party of 5-6 may have been waiting for your table.The restaurant obviously didn't want to turn two 4-tops into another table for one party of 6. It may screw things up for the other waiters, depending on where their sections end. One waiter may lose a whole table.

My suggestion is: next time pick a restaurant that has a more leisurely atmosphere, since you know you have 2 elderly people who will take longer. Not all restaurants have a wait line. As others have said, some restaurants have such bad service that you end up taking quite a while even when you didn't intend on that happening. Then no one in your party will feel they are taking too long, or feel they need to rush.

Much wisdom in this thread.

 

[gopher101]

Kind of. When we go to Florida we stop in Lafayette for the night. We have always at a cracker barrel by our hotel. We are a group of three (my Dad walks with a cane and younger sis has Downs) and not loud. When we went last time. They walked us to the back of the restaurant (despite it being dead and like 80% of the tables being empty), literally the back table in the back corner. The waitress took about 5 minutes to come over. The food took over 25 minutes to get to our table. Our waitress dropped off the bill not even two minutes after she dropped our food off. Than about 5 minutes later she came back by (This is the third time we saw her, and she did not bring our drinks like we asked) to tell us we could pay our bill up front in the store. Her tone was very much leave.
I went to go pay and told the manager we might only come here once a year on our way to vacation, but this was our last time. I left her a penny tip. We decided next time we would drive to Buffalo wild Wings for dinner.

 

[ronandannette]

I agree.

I was on the other end last weekend. We went to a local cafe for breakfast. It was full and there were a few parties waiting. While we were waiting we saw 2 tables who were done eating sit and chat for at least 15 minutes.

I mentioned up-thread that I'd been asked to leave once and I'm glad the waiter (very, very delicately) approached us because we'd TOTALLY lost track of time and many others were waiting. We were embarrassed to have been so discourteous - who among us hasn't had what seems like an endless wait for a table?

I notice the OP hasn't answered by question about how much longer they had wanted to stay. I understand them being irritated at having been asked but my guess is they were actually pretty much ready to go anyway.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I agree with this. For whatever reason, this is the restaurant etiquette that we as a society have created. Restaurants simply don't ask patrons to leave, and people can wait an indeterminate amount of time to be seated. Sure, I also like to be conscious of whether or not the restaurant needs to turn over the table, but that's my choice (though I think most people are). At any rate, that's the deal with table service restaurants.

Interesting note, McDonald's originally designed their dining areas to be just a bit uncomfortable, with the bolted-in plastic stools, garish colors, noisy atmosphere, etc., so that people wouldn't linger. They should eat their quick meal and move along, and it worked. The trend now though is the opposite direction, what with the free Wi-Fi and fancier seating and all. Now it's about having that coffee-house vibe. Stay as long as you like.

That must be another one of those area you live in things. The McDonald's restaurants around here have a 30 minute time limit, unless you continue to order food.

 

[BrianL]

That must be another one of those area you live in things. The McDonald's restaurants around here have a 30 minute time limit, unless you continue to order food.

I've never heard of an official time policy, but going way back the idea was to discourage lingering. It just went with the business model. Around here, the newer or refurbished McDs are getting that Starbucks style. In big cities, I could see the need to limit it.

 

[EveDallas]

That must be another one of those area you live in things. The McDonald's restaurants around here have a 30 minute time limit, unless you continue to order food.

Same here. I think they're trying to avoid the Starbucks thing of people ordering a single coffee and then using the free WiFi all day.

 

[okeydokey]

50 minutes is a long time to occupy a table after being served, especially if there are people waiting for a table. I would have vacated by then. I am also surprised they seated you when your son didn’t arrive until 35 minutes later. Many places ask you to wait until all members are there if it is busy.

 

[Imzadi]

That must be another one of those area you live in things. The McDonald's restaurants around here have a 30 minute time limit, unless you continue to order food.

Same here. I think they're trying to avoid the Starbucks thing of people ordering a single coffee and then using the free WiFi all day.

In big cities, I could see the need to limit it.

Yes, here we have a 30-ish minute limit too. Otherwise, a lot of homeless people here would camp out.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

That must be another one of those area you live in things. The McDonald's restaurants around here have a 30 minute time limit, unless you continue to order food.

SIde note. Local McDonald’s once took 47 minutes to get my food.

 

[RedAngie]

SIde note. Local McDonald’s once took 47 minutes to get my food.

More details, please. Drive-thru or inside?

Did you get any explanation and apology for the delay?

 

[Imzadi]

SIde note. Local McDonald’s once took 47 minutes to get my food.

Was it for a McRib? Those mystery meat sandwiches were really popular.

Did you, at least, use all that time surfing on McDonalds free WiFi?

 

[AnnaFloridaLover]

More details, please. Drive-thru or inside?

Did you get any explanation and apology for the delay?

That's what I want to know. Also, free coffee? Free supersize fries?

Please tell me they made it right Gumbo.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

SIde note. Local McDonald’s once took 47 minutes to get my food.

How desperate were you that you were willing to wait 47 minutes for McDonald’s food? You had just spent three weeks lost and starving in the wilderness and it was the first sign of civilization you stumbled upon?

 

[cruiser21]

I think an hour and 15 minutes is about the right amount of time to eat at a restaurant. People don't go out to eat with family to inhale their food. Those of you that said 40 minutes do you have the menu memorized. I figure 15 -20 minutes to order drinks read the menu and order food. What if you want an appetizer? It generally takes 20 minutes or more to get served your food, 20 minutes or so to eat. Dessert coffee...waiting on the bill 75 minutes sounds about right. I wouldn't go back. We rarely eat out, but if we do I want to be able to relax, talk and enjoy my meal. Not be rushed.

 

[bella77]

I'm with the OP here. It would be different if they had long been finished and were just hanging out at the table. After asking if they needed anything else, I would think they should have a small window to leave on their own before being asked.

I had a similar experience at a really trendy restaurant a couple of years ago. My BF at the time and two other couples and I were having dinner at a relatively new place in town. It's one of those places where you order a bunch of small plates and they all come out of the kitchen randomly. It took about an hour for the last one to make it to our table. One of the ladies sent a text to her babysitter as we were paying the bill (so we had a time stamp)- six minutes later we were asked to leave. We were all just about to leave, so it really left a bad taste that they didn't give us that opportunity on our own. Funny thing is, I didn't see any people waiting for tables. I haven't been back there- not just because of the server who asked us to leave. It was a bit pretentious and the food wasn't anything I had to have again. But anytime I hear it mentioned, I think, That's the place I was asked to leave.

 

[Dancind]

We are very mindful about people waiting for tables, but we do finish our meals! We've spent quite a bit of time in Portland OR, a place where brunch is a very serious activity. Once waited 1 1/2 hours for a table, watching 3 of the 4 two tops in the place being occupied long after the people had eaten. The tables had actually been cleared, and they still stayed. We quit going out on weekends, table camping seems to be a thing there.