Touchy subject

[browneyes]

I make it a conscientious effort to NOT try to "handle" the waiters/waitresses when I go out to eat. If they hand me something, I try not to bump hands, etc (I consider it polite to keep from doing that, I respect his/her space). Today, I went out to eat and I finally had to stop reaching for stuff the waiter gave me. Not once (I figure that would be accidental), not twice (I would think maybe I imagined it), not three times rolleyes: ), but FOUR times the waiter bumped my hand rolleyes: ).

Is it polite or impolite to keep your hands to yourself when you go out to eat? (well, if you're on a date, I know that might be a different story )

 

[JasonLyons]

if the waiter or waitress touches you twice, they want you

 

[browneyes]

Tough nookie on his part.

 

[dandave]

I try to keep my hands to myself. Unless I'm really in a corner where reaching my glass would be too difficult for the wait person, I let them pick it up and set it back down. If I'm done eating, I let them take the plate. No touchy!

 

[Jeff in BigD]

I didn't like it when people automatically reached for things because sometimes the plates are hot or it throws the balance of the plates off.

An absolute no-no is grabbing things off the trays. I realized that people were trying to be helpful, but balancing a tray is all about weight distribution. On my first night ever waiting tables I had an elderly woman grab a glass off a tray I was holding & all the other glasses spilt on the tray & all the excess water poured all over their toddler. Of course got blamed.

Occasionally there might be a situation where the waiter can't reach, but usually they'll hold the plate out & hope that you'll see the plate holding there & grab it the rest of the way.


In short answer - don't automatically grab for a plate, but if you see that the waiter can't reach the entire way then it's fine.

 

[snoopy]

Ditto Jeff's answer.

I remember once when I was a waitress, I was about 16, and this lady grabbed a soda off of my tray - she was trying to be helpful, but it threw off the balance of the tray and all the drinks and food came tumbling down on her HEAD! I was sooooo embarrassed, it was one of the most horrible moments of my 16-year old life, but it was her fault. She should have never grabbed that soda off the tray. The restaurant of course paid to have her clothes drycleaned, and she was very nice about it and took the blame, but it taught me to keep my hands to myself when I am the patron in a restaurant.

 

[jwsqrdplus2]

I will let the server put down the plate if he/she can, but I tend to move it immediately after it gets set down. Especially when the steak knife across the plate in within reach of my 18 month old. Even though there is nothing on the table near the child because we have moved it all to the other end of the table. So obviously we moved everything just so our piping hot dinner could be placed in front of the baby.

OK, sorry about the vent! Never having waited on tables, I don't know how chaotic it can get, but I truly appreciate a server who has enough situational awareness to realize that things have been moved out of DDs reach for a reason, not just to create an empty spot on the table!

 

[Chattyaholic]

I try not to touch my customers when handing them their plate of food, their drink, bottle of ketchup, whatever...although we do wash our hands often I still try to keep hand-to-hand contact to an absolute minimum when serving them.

One poster mentioned the server putting the plate with the steak knife too close to their baby, that is something I would never do. I try to be very aware of where the baby is when I'm serving food, and especially pouring coffee. One time I had a customer who set their cup down right beside the baby and if I had poured the coffee the baby could have easily touched the hot pot so I asked them to move it further away from the baby. The person finally realized that the pot would have been too close.

It's amazing how many people let their small children run around in a restaurant though. I work in a restaurant with two large dining rooms and they will even let the little ones go to the next room, without an adult following. I have bumped into many of them when going around the corners and it's just lucky that I haven't dumped anything onto their little heads! Parents, keep watch of your children and don't let them run around the restaurant unless YOU are right behind them!!

 

[Bunchkin]

I believe in keeping my hands to myself and hope that my server does the same. I'm not a real 'touchy-feely' type of person anyway.

Another thing that annoys me is when they serve the food over our baby's head as he sits at the end of the booth. The server can easily move to one side or the other, but sometimes they don't seem to figure this out.