Daily Rant -- I Hate it When Waiters Serve the Entree Course While the Appetizer Plates are on the Table

I would like to start a school in which they teach waiters and other support staff how to serve the customers. There is a real need for people to learn the appropriate serving steps. The reason I am looking into this is because at the last two restaurants that I went to the waiters started bringing our entrees while we were still eating our appetizers.

I can understand this happening once but come on now, twice. The first time, the manager apologized and stated that our waiter confused our orders with another table. That may be, but when he already had dishes in front of us and he was preparing to put them on the table, did he not notice that there was no room in front of us since we already had plates on the table? You would think so but no.

Instead the waiter took the appetizer plate off the table with one hand and put the entree plate on the table with the other hand. I felt rushed and annoyed.

This reminds me of another issue that I have in which the chefs want the table’s entire order at one time. They say that by doing this they can prepare all the meals appropriately. I do not know about that but it does give them ability to cook all the meals and rush me through dinner. Instead of a 1.5 hour dinner, they can push for a 45 minute meal. Damn the customer is the new restaurant mantra.

I know people will defend the restaurant staff but if I wanted all my food at one time, I would have gone to a McDonalds or some other fast food option. Why do they need to rush me if I am paying premier prices for a entree? I have way to avoid this, maybe the waiter can ask if we are ready for our entree. If we want to be rushed, we can say yes. If not, they we can say we need a few more minutes.

It seems to me that either restaurants and their staff have lost control of the dining process or they are deliberating trying to reduce the meal times in hopes of turning the tables over quicker. Is this a good reason to reduce a waitstaff’s tip?