How do you react if you're seating right next to the kitchen door in a restaurant? Do you not care? Do you ask for another table? How does host/hostess decide who should sit at what tables?

I would ask to be moved.

Wow, what an interesting and helpful question. I can't wait to see everyone's advice on how to handle this most difficult question.

Use common sense. If you don't like your table, asked to be moved. You really need people's advice on this?

Well speaking as a person who used to be a maitre d', I can tell you that seating someone in an undesirable place is not usually done intentionally. I always had to make sure that each waitperson got approximately the same number of customers. So usually if I sat someone in a less desirable spot it was because it was that waitperson's turn or I had to make it up to that waitperson because another one got a big party. I do know that in the restaurant I worked for, the wait staff knew the worst tables and generally tried to be a little nicer and more efficient for the customers that were stuck there.

I do not react well, and I won't accept it because I don't like those seats. For me, part of dining out is the ambience and relaxing and enjoying the evening, which usually cannot be done next to the kitchen door due to noise, traffic, smells, etc. If they won't move me, I usually leave--I always leave if it was a meal that I intended to linger over, I might stay if I were really in a hurry and really wanted to eat at the restaurant. I was a hostess when young and although I probably wasn't the best due to my age, the rule is that you try to even out the load on the various servers, as said above. So you seat people to spread out the load, I saved the worst seats for last, of course. In my experience, I must disagree somewhat with the above comment that seating people near the kitchen is not usually intentionally. I frequently dine alone, and as a single woman, it is quite clear to me that I am often seated near the kitchen when other tables are readily available. It is especially obvious when I refuse to sit there and then they will they seat me elsewhere, where they could have put me to begin with. Servers do this because they generally don't like single women dining alone and think you are going to be timid and will just accept it, so they then save their better tables for customers who aren't even there yet that they think are more desirable (either couples or single men). I know they do this, it's happened many times to me, often when there are plenty of other tables.

I always figure that if they're seating me at a horrible table it's probably because all the others are taken or reserved. My approach, instead of throwing a fit or complaining, is to kindly say to the person seating us that we wouldn't mind waiting at the bar for a better table. It's amazing how often that little bit of kindness gets me an immediate better table.

I always think to myself, "I'm paying for this meal, so I had better be happy with where I'm sitting". Don't be afraid to say you would like to sit somewhere else. Eating out should be stress free. Just tell them what you want. Most places are glad to make you happy.

Tom, if you don't have anything to add - just don't post - geez! I like the idea of asking to wait for a better table - works for me too.

I think it depends on the circumstances. If I breezed into a very popular restaurant without a reservation and tables were filling fast, I'd take what I could get. A wait at the bar could turn out to be very long if someone else is willing to take that table by the kitchen (personally, I think the worst tables are not the ones by the kitchen, but the ones closest to the restrooms).
However, if I had made a reservation in advance or the restaurant was only half full, I would very politely insist on a better located table. I understand about trying to distribute tables evenly to waitstaff (I've worked in restaurants myself), but as a customer, that is not my concern, not should it be...when I buy something in a store, I don't worry whether the commissions are evenly divided among sales staff.

Thanks for all the input. We did go to a restaurant that was fairly expensive that we had planned on lingering over. It was a crowded Saturday night, though there were a couple of small empty tables. I'd called to reserve a table several days before. We were a couple. The hostess walked away quickly before we had a chance to say anything, and the waitress was not extra attentive, in fact just the opposite (though I don't think I'd call her especially neglectful).

We've been to this restaurant before and had a wonderful time. The food was not as good as previously, unfortunately, either, which made the experience less pleasant more than the table's location.

I agree that being seated near the bathrooms is worse. Once at an almost empty, large Chinese restaurant that I stopped at to eat lunch, I was seated next to the bathrooms (I was a woman alone). I left. Really, I would think that a restaurant would want to make an effort not to turn anyone away, it surprises me when making a little extra effort is resented or avoided by the staff. I'm sure many restaurants do discriminate in their practices, i.e. how they treat certain customers.

I personally don't mind that table by the kitchen or even the table by the bathroom (as long as it is not where when the bathroom door opens you can practically see into the sinks) What I hate is that table right by the door. Every time the door is opened freezing cold blasts of air come in where you practically hav eto wear your coat through dinner. Either that or there is no real waiting area so that as people come in they are kind of hovering right at your table. I usually politely ask if another table is available is they are going to seat me there stating that I 'm willing to wait and maybe have a drink while waiting and I usually get a kind response. Of course the trick is to not be demamding in where you want to sit, that to me is begging for second rate service the rest of the evening!

What a bunch of blowhards you people are. Only the fodors group would feel compelled to write a 100 word thesis about what to do if your table is by the kitchen.

Tom is right - there's no issue here. If you don't like your table, ask to be moved.

I agree with Phillip.
I use to wait tables as well, and am familiar with the methods of many restaurants in my city.
People are seated in a manner to keep the load to the wait staff even.
Each part of a restaurant has zones. Each waiter/waitress has one zone.
Some are what we call hot zones, with tables that everyone wants to sit at and others are yuk zones where people generally don't prefer (for one reason or another).
So that you can have better service, we rotate. If your server were to get two tables at one time, it is only natural that your service will not be as great.
If you know what I am trying to say, we stagger to make it easier on everyone.
Of course, hostesses/hosts hate also having to offer a table near the "kitchen" /"bathroom"(as they know also that most likely you will ask to move) but they have to try.
This is what they are told to do by their boss.
It is perfectly alright to say you prefer to wait for another table, no problem.
I do not agree with the other poster above that thinks that people are seated in these places on purpose.
Yes, women are known in the business to be bad tippers but I never had a waiter/waitress say don't give me any, and I didn't put women in the worst seats either unless that was the next table.
It is just a matter of when you walked in the door, whether those so called "yuk" tables were next up.

Well, Wise-up, how do you know what we've posted here? Since you think the whole post is so dumb, I'm sure you were smart enough not to read all the posts. Or are you telling us you're not that smart? Too smart to answer the post, but not too smart to ignore it?

I think it is a great opportunity when I get a table by the kitchen door. When no one is looking, I gradually move my chair as close to the door as I can, and then when the waiter comes out and the door bangs into me, I let fly with my cup all over myself. I jump up hollering and dancing and using my napkin to get the coffee off me, and pretty soon, why the manager comes along and buys me and my tablemates a free meal. Hey, when I get a lemon, I make lemonade!!!

This question grabbed my attention, because I once had the experience where I felt that I was definitely descriminated against and given a worse table, even when more desirable tables were available.

During a gorgeous fall afternoon in DC I wandered around a busy street with lots of quaint little restaurants lining the sidewalk. After looking at the menus, I chose a french place, and asked for a table for one (single woman in town for a conference.) I told the hostess that I would love one of the tables near the front (big windows opened to the sidewalk--reminded me of Paris--one of the reasons I had chosen the restaurant in order to "people watch" while I ate alone.) She said no, those tables were reserved for parties of two (there were at least five tables free at that point) and said that I could sit upstairs near the back of the restaurant.

I was pretty miffed, but politely told her that if I would dine elsewhere then. I walked down the street, had a wonderful mean at another sidewalk cafe, and met a delightful DC native that was also eating solo, and we had a nice chat during our meals.

My point is that I do think that there is descimination against single diners, particularly women (I know we have the bad rap of being poor tippers.) I, for one, usually make sure to give a great tip if the service is good--in order to encourage waitstaff to look favorably upon having a single woman customer.

I'm 43. I've been dining out with female acquaintenances for over 20 years, in various cities in the South. It is my experience that my female acquaintenances over-tip. Possibly some desire to show that they are "equal."

I've never had a problem when I politely asked to be moved. I think often the host is just too busy to notice that other tables may have opened up. It also helps to request a specific type of table (by the window, in a certain dining room) when you make your reservation or, if you don't make reservations, when you arrive. I do this all the time and have never had a problem.

Jeannie: What do you consider as overtipping? Such a vague remark..please expound.

I am a woman who frequently eats alone and I tip generously if the service is outstanding, if the service is poor, I adjust accordingly. As for tables, it has been my experience they will seat a single person back in the corner near the kitchen unless you politely request another table.