12 annoying situations you encounter in a restaurant

Don’t you often make plans to enjoy a meal at a restaurant after reading rave reviews on blogs or getting a thumbs up from friends who’ve been there? But often, the experience isn’t the same at all for you, leaving you disappointed. Here are 12 restaurant situations that make you pledge never to return. Read on!

1. Yes, but No

They flaunt an exhaustive menu that resembles a mini booklet, but when you begin to order, the waiter says, “No ma’am, thats’s not available today.” For at least four dishes. Worse, he disappears after taking the order and returns after 15 minutes to tell you that the dishes you did manage to order aren’t available. So you can’t try out the special aubergine rolls with spinach and ricotta, or the apricot and ratafia sponge cake, and settle for a regular pizza or burger instead.

2.  Where’s the “signature” to the dish?

When you ask the waiter for suggestions, he rattles off the most obvious dishes, things you’ve eaten a hundred times elsewhere. Sometimes, these could be as simple as a dal fry or a chicken tikka.

3.  Make a reservation just to wait!

Making a reservation for 8 o’clock doesn’t guarantee that the table will be reserved for you. You made the reservation because you invited friends, and now all of you are cooling your heels in the lobby. Or obliged to order expensive drinks at the bar while you wait.

4. That ‘hurry up and order’ signal

The waiter hands you the menu and won’t give you five minutes to decide. Stands there, breathing down your neck, until you make your choices.

5. Seated in a tight spot

The restaurant is buzzing with people. You’re excited about the great dining experience you think is coming up, and the waiter leads you to your table. To your dismay, it’s right next to the entrance to the kitchen or the rest room.

6. 15 minutes = 1 hour

It’s long past the 15 to 20 minutes that the waiter said it would take for your order to arrive. You see that everyone else who ordered after you is gorging. The waiter, in clear view, avoids eye contact. All you can do is look agitatedly at your watch. Or appeal to other waiters, who aren’t much help either.

7. Review the food before you eat

Just when you’ve had a forkful of the dish and are busy munching, the waiter chooses to jump you with his question, “How’s the food, Sir?” You’re now compelled to gobble it up ungracefully and answer, “Good.”

8. Get out and make way for others

It’s a busy restaurant, and you’ve almost finished your main course and are planning to order dessert. The waiter pops across to ask if he can bring you the cheque. You don’t get that this is a signal for you to make way for others queuing up, so you go ahead and order dessert. The waiter keeps pointing your table out to those waiting to dine, while you – now thoroughly embarrassed – have to wolf down your apple pie a la mode .

9. From ‘Wow’ to ‘Ugh’

The food on your plate is nothing like the descriptive rhapsody in the menu. The grand sounding Pan-Grilled Catch of the Day is actually just a sad-looking piece of long-frozen fish.

10. Cockroach? No big deal!

You spot a baby cockroach crawling over the salt and pepper shakers. You point this out to the waiter. Without so much as flinching or apologizing, he just swats it away.

11. The magical number in the bill

You calculate that the bill should be about a thousand bucks. But what with luxury tax, service tax, VAT, and other such add-ons, the actual bill doubled. Your eyeballs are just short of popping out.

12.Tips for tat

When your tip isn’t up to the server’s expectations, he makes sure he gets the point across to you. So much for trying to be nice.