Service is so important

Service or lack there of will keep me from coming back to a place much more than the food.
My family in general is shall we say all on the plus size, and my son before bariatric surgery was extra large.Many times we went into places with many tables empty mind you and were sat in the corner by the kitchen. out of the way , out of view. Talk about bad service. And if they only thought...we generally ordered well, and tipped very well for good service cause it didn't happen too often for us.

I don't think this is an answerable question, but then, I expect you knew that

No, Robin. I did not. Hence the reason I asked in the first place.

I have been following this thread a bit, and that's to Stephen's rather eliquent rant on the subject (again, bravo Mr. D.) I felt it necessary to put in my usual .02 worth.

Service will break a place in my opinion. No question, no joke, on muss about it. If I get poor service, I will definatly thing twice about going back, no matter how good the food is.

Case in point. Several years ago, I loved a place in Nashville called Cafe 123. It was down in the "Bottoms" of of Lower Broad, which was an up and coming tready part of town. When it first opened, it was definate 3.5 star. Good food, wonderful service, grand atmosphere.....

Forward a couple of years later, after I had moved back to Louisville and went down for a visit. I made reservations for dinner with a couple of friends, and arrived on time. Was asked to wait in the bar, we had drinks and about 45 minutes later, I went up to the desk to ask about my table and was rather rudely told "well, we looked for you but we thought you were gone".....I showed her the bar tab that I'd run up, and made it a point that no, I wasn't gone, and I had done what she had asked, and she was the one who lost me. For those of you who know me, I'm not easily missed. One good laugh and you know I'm in the house

Well, we got our table, and a very nice server. Ordered appitizers and nice wine to go with it. Well the wrong appitizers came out, and the wine never made it, and couldn't find a server or manager in sight.

Once the server finally did materilize, I asked for the check, explained my displeasure and assured her that I was not every going to darken their door again.

I have since heard that the place has met is fate in Dining hell, as well it should have....goes to prove that

My rant is over.

So Ronnie, were the elderly ladies with the business men?

I ask this because I'm trying to paint the scene...

I served tables for many years and I when the information I get about unattentive service includes "was seated numerous times" but doesn't involve "I saw my server slacking", I tend to want more about the story. Elderly women do not tip well on average, but they can certainly slow you down. That is a general statement, not a rule, but the previously mentioned tipping assumption is why I note this.

I've given horrendous service to the best of the best customers before because they don't demand as much as others. And thank god for people like them (you/us/me).

Jackie, no, the two tables were separate, and my wife has corrected me, the ladies were not elderly, they were merely "older" ladies (than my wife and her friend), probably 45-50 and very well dressed. Both tables were in the same section as my wife's table. According to my wife, they had to flag the server down for just about everything, she never managed to find their table on her own. Drink refills were taking upwards of 30 minutes, tables seated after hers had their orders taken before them, plates cleared at other tables, but not theirs, etc.

I've given horrendous service to the best of the best customers before because they don't demand as much as others. And thank god for people like them (you/us/me).

I keep coming back to this paragraph, and it makes it sound that I'll get horrendous service if I'm not a demanding customer.

Am I understanding this correctly?

[Robin Garr]

I've given horrendous service to the best of the best customers before because they don't demand as much as others. And thank god for people like them (you/us/me).

I keep coming back to this paragraph, and it makes it sound that I'll get horrendous service if I'm not a demanding customer.

Am I understanding this correctly?

Jackie can answer for herself, but I took her to mean that she's grateful to her friends/best customers because they recognize when she's in the weeds and give her some slack.

Jackie, no, the two tables were separate, and my wife has corrected me, the ladies were not elderly, they were merely "older" ladies (than my wife and her friend), probably 45-50 and very well dressed. Both tables were in the same section as my wife's table. According to my wife, they had to flag the server down for just about everything, she never managed to find their table on her own. Drink refills were taking upwards of 30 minutes, tables seated after hers had their orders taken before them, plates cleared at other tables, but not theirs, etc.

If this happened to me, I would get up and refill my own drink. Maybe they would take a hint.

Jackie, no, the two tables were separate, and my wife has corrected me, the ladies were not elderly, they were merely "older" ladies (than my wife and her friend), probably 45-50 and very well dressed. Both tables were in the same section as my wife's table. According to my wife, they had to flag the server down for just about everything, she never managed to find their table on her own. Drink refills were taking upwards of 30 minutes, tables seated after hers had their orders taken before them, plates cleared at other tables, but not theirs, etc.

If this happened to me, I would get up and refill my own drink. Maybe they would take a hint.

as would I, however my wife does not possess the same sass and bravado that we share!

she reserves her sass for at home...

I've given horrendous service to the best of the best customers before because they don't demand as much as others. And thank god for people like them (you/us/me).

I keep coming back to this paragraph, and it makes it sound that I'll get horrendous service if I'm not a demanding customer.

Am I understanding this correctly?

Jackie can answer for herself, but I took her to mean that she's grateful to her friends/best customers because they recognize when she's in the weeds and give her some slack.

Yes yes yes, thanks Robin. Sorry if I sounded snarky in my comments!

I was always embarrassed by any bad service given, and I know that's not what this thread is about. Subtle hijackie? But to answer Steve A., do what you think is right.

Do people not dine at a restaurant for the first time or stop being patrons because of a negative experience from another person? I've always wondered this...If so, then which circumstances?

I discovered that a new restaurant was opened near my parents and looked to be busy in the evenings, so I googled it like I do everything else. Most reviews said the food was pretty good and it was some of the better BBQ in town...but then it's Knoxville and it's not hard to be "good" there when everything is a chain and there's only 2 locals doing BBQ worth having. However, almost all the reviews said the service was horrible, rude, slow, and nonexistent so I opted out of going and did ribs on the grill the next day. Service is pretty important if I'm going to take time to sit down somewhere, otherwise I'd just call in an order to go.

I've been real lucky and can honestly say that I've gotten very good service whenever/wherever I've gone out to dine as a single, middle-aged woman; no one seems to have pigeoned - hole me into any sort of tipping category. I will say that the times I did get bad service wasn't when my server was in the weeds because the restaurant was busy, it was because the restaurant was slow and the server was amusing themselves with other staff or buddies. I don't think they had gotten "emotionally invested" in their job for the evening. (Did that make sense?)