Could do better: dining niggles
Service and food is getting better and better as Kiwis follow the international trend of eating out more. But our expectations are also soaring. We want an upbeat, seamless, lift to the day from our trips to cafes, restaurants and bars. Here are a few niggles from the Stuff Life and Style team.
Just leave us alone
‘‘Over-attentiveness is something that annoys me. They might be asking me if I enjoyed the meal three times within the space of five minutes. You get this constant interruption to conversation,’’ is how one person put it. Others made the same point. While it shows a keenness to make sure diners are enjoying themselves, constant checking becomes really annoying, really fast.
Drip feeding the water
Water seemed to be a huge issue. ‘‘You feel obliged to say thank you and it interrupts things and you get distracted.’’ One person said water glasses were getting smaller and smaller.
‘‘I feel like they are being reduced to shot glasses at the moment, down to a gulp, and you wouldn’t have over-attentive servers filling up your shot glasses all the time if you had bigger glasses. I would like to see bigger glasses and leave a carafe. One restaurant I went to had a carafe there, but they refilled our glasses anyway, topping up and topping up. Doesn’t that kind of do away with the point of having a carafe in the first place?’’
Coffee snobbery and service
Several people said they felt looked down on by some baristas. ‘‘I was mocked for ordering a cappuccino. They laughed at it. I thought, ‘like this was the original espresso coffee with milk, so it should not horrify you to the degree that it obviously does’.’’ One said she hated it when she could see the coffee been made by a barista, ‘‘but the wait staff are flirting and it is not being brought to you’’. Another said it made her angry when baristas played favourites with the queue. ‘‘I went to a place and I was queue-jumped by the barista. I’ve never been back since. The sense of injustice of it all bugs me. Someone behind the counter recognised someone they knew well and their order was taken after mine but served up well before mine. It’s incredibly rude. Their $5 is not worth more than my $5.’’ And another: ‘‘Some cafes have become a bit snobby about their milk now. I want soy milk, but some don’t do non-dairy because they don’t want to do what they see as a sub-standard coffee because it doesn’t froth properly.’’
Sharing plates
Shared plates got the thumbs down by many. ‘‘The initial idea was good when it came in three or four years ago, but then you discovered the group dynamics it created. I’ve gone home hungry, I’ve eaten pork when I didn’t want to eat pork.’’ Another said: ‘‘I have always hated shared plates. You end up spending much more money on things you don’t actually really want and you don’t get full. Meals become very competitive, and passive aggressive. ‘Oh no, you have the last half of the calamari,’ you say, but you don’t actually mean it because you know that it is rightfully yours.’’
No reservations
Having to turn up and hope for a table wasn’t liked. ‘‘I hate places that don’t take reservations. especially the really cool popular places you want to go to. On a Friday night out with a few friends, I don’t want to stand in line for a few hours. Reservations make sense because then I can show up at a time that I can eat.’’ And: ‘‘You end up asking ‘so what’s a good time to turn up with a good chance of a seat’ and they say should be fine at 5pm or something crazy like that. Really annoying. I think they just want you at the bar buying drinks while you wait for a warm seat to come free. It’s demeaning.’’
All in a big rush
Being rushed through the meal was a common complaint. ‘‘I don’t like places that say you can come at 6pm but you have to be out by 8pm. It’s like giving me a deadline on my meal. If you choose the 6pm option, then you feel rushed. I’d almost rather they don’t take bookings than give you a deadline because you know they are hustling your food.’’ Other ways of being rushed spoiled the evening out. ‘‘When they bring your bill to the table while you are still eating, that’s like them saying to me ‘we don’t want you taking up this space to chat’.’’ Another person said it was unpleasant when waiters cleared the plates away of one person while the other was still eating. This hint to get moving ended with them never going back.
Not what I ordered/expected
Out-of-date online menus were a big annoyance. Many had gone to a place because they fancied a particular dish and found it no longer existed. ‘‘That’s so frustrating. It happens so frequently.’’ It also happened with menus at eateries. Dishes appeared with items missing items or swapped out. ‘‘The other day for lunch I ordered the heirloom tomato salad. When it came out it was cherry tomatoes. They should have said they’d run out of heirloom tomatoes. You kind of feel a bit ripped off. It’s broken promises, really.’’