Comments on: Service With A Scream

By: psu

psu — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 12:16:11 +0000

Union Grill still exists, and it still kind of sucks.

By: Dr. Click

Dr. Click — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 04:43:36 +0000

Mentioning Union Grill in Pittsburgh is tangentially related here, so I’ll slip my favorite rant in here.

Does Union Grill still exist? Does it still have that obnoxious footer on their menu that asks patrons to eat up in under an hour and a half to keep their prices low?

If Union Grill exists, I implore you all to spit on its threshold. Not only is it the height of incivility to badger patrons in such a manner, but the prices are not, in fact, low by any reasonable Pittsburgh standard.

A restaurants whose mere existence is an insult to restaurants everywhere.

By: Mom

Mom — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:36:57 +0000

What I’d really like to see on your blog, or elsewhere is a piece about the annoying practice of your server rattling off the evening’s specials without “sharing” the prices. When you inquire about the price, they look at you with an icy stare meant to intimidate and indicate that you really shouldn’t be dining there if you have to ask. Maybe if more people complained this annoying practice could be abolished!
Then there are those rare (thankfully) establishments that don’t even bother to print their prices next to menu items.

By: Stan

Stan — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:08:41 +0000

Proper serving technique is to present oneself for inquiry when the water glass is less than half full, so that a lady or a gentleman may signal for service by drinking water. This raises the question of protocol when the diners are masticating during their water refil. In that case, the server may pose a simple inquiry. If the response is negative, they are expected to stay or return very soon and inquire further.

By: Mark Denovich

Mark Denovich — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 14:52:31 +0000

Having recently moved here (England) I am acutely aware of the differences in service. It took us quite a while realize that we were expected to ask for the a check. Once restaurant had an advert touting their “Bullet Lunches” promising to have you out the door in only an hour.

By: ChrisC

ChrisC — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 14:24:32 +0000

Good service: you sit down at the table, and the only time you notice the waiter/waitress is when you order your food. After that, food just arrives, and appears in front of you so unobtrusively you don’t even notice (other than to delight in the yummy things in front of you). A good waitperson*is seldom noticed during the meal, because if you notice them _they are doing something wrong_. They are able to tell from looking at you whether you are happy or not, and do not need to ask you to find out.

You would think that there is not much cultural difference between Canada and the US. This is one of the differences I noticed shortly after moving to the US. So us foreigners notice it when we visit the US just as much as you notice it when you travel abroad.

* bah, political correctness

By: psu

psu — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:42:05 +0000

The food service is the same way in France, of course. It’s also the case that a meal out in France will always take at least an hour and a half to two hours. Even lunch. You might as well just accept it. It’s always a hard adjustment coming back here and getting back into a 3 courses in 45 minutes kind of routine.

They also never give you your check in France. You have to ask for it. You can sit for hours over coffee and never pay and the place will just go about its merry way.

The funniest restaurant incident we ever witnessed in Paris was this French Canadian woman going completely apeshit over not getting the check fast enough in this little 6 table Provencal restaurant right on the river. Man, that place had a really great oil-cured salmon appetizer…