Got together with a few buddies tonight and their ladies for dinner and one subject that we started talking about was horrible experiences with restaurant waitstaff we have had in the past. Thought this might be an interesting subject here as many of the stories involved restaurants we encountered in travels.

My own worst waitstaff story took place in LA. We were in a group at a crowded restaurant on Melrose and the waiter had just taken our order. A few minutes later we heard a big commotion in another room of the restaurant. Lots of shouts and then a few chairs flew by the entrance to our room and crashed against a wall! We didn't know what had happened. Time went by, 20 minutes, 30 minutes and we didn't get our food. We started looking around for our waiter but we didn't see him. Another 10 minutes and we stopped another waiter to ask about calling our waiter. He came back awhile later and told us our waiter had left 40 minutes before! And he had never put in our order at all! Seeems our waiter had been accused of stealing a big tip for another waiter off a table that had a big party at it and our waiter had shouted and thrown chairs so he was fired and left ASAP. You'd think after that the manager would give us a free meal as we had to wait over a hour then to get served, but he didn't. We never went back to that place!

Was that the waiters fault or the managements fault?

I don't want to start an argument here, but I've seen many more obnoxious customers than I have obnoxious waitstaff...

Here in the UK there is a famous Chef called Gordon Ramsay ( Before he was a chef he played football/soccer for Glasgow Rangers - this football team is not noted for it's timidity if you get my drift ). There is also a restaurant critic called A A Gill who writes for the Sunday Times. Mr Gill is also not noted for the timidity of his pen. Under an assumed name Mr Gill booked a table at Mr Ramsay's restaurant in order to review it. On recognising Mr Gill Mr Ramsay promptly threw him out of the Restaurant. Mr Ramsay is also noted for shouting & screaming at his staff in the kitchen when even the smallest thing is wrong with a dish.

Whilst dining with my whole family at a restaurant in Goa, India I asked the waiter/owner ( a very nice man ) for another beer. He brought one to the table & poured it for me. Unfortunately if frothed all over the glass, onto the table & then the floor. In order to 'make light' of this minor incident he turned to me, smiled & asked ( in front of my Wife & Children ) "Are you PISSING ?".

Oh not so funny story here, but funny a few years later.

My husband and I took a client of mine, a president of a very large company and his wife out to dinner and the theatre.

We went to one of the best restaurants in the city, (near Union Square) and as we were eating, a HUGE water bug started walking up the wall not far from out table, must have been 3 inches in length. (Yes I know it happens sometimes, but gee). I alerted the wait staff and he didn't see it and gave me the nastiest looks. I didn't want to make a big deal of it but did want the wait staff to take care of it.

About a minute later, one of the other waiters saw it just as he was comming out of the kitchen and dropped a tray full of food. That's when the "hat dance" started and about 5 wait staff started chasing the bug aound and stomping on it. It was just awful.

No one came by to appologize or say sorry, and I was surprised, and of course I paid almost $400 for dinner for the 4 of us.

I called the restaurant the next day and talked with the manager, I was of course offered dinner at as his guest with lots of appologies but don't know if I really want to go back.

That's a dinner I will ALWAYS remember.

tweedy

Figaro Brasserie in LA on Vermont Avenue. The meal and service was a disaster from the beginning. The table next to us got-up and left, as we should have. Not one order was correct. Appetizers came out with the main course, wine was opened at the bar and just poured, the waiter disappeared for twenty minutes. A disaster..as we left friends of mine entered. Their meal was the same story.

If this one had not actually happened to me I would have doubted it was real even, it was that bad. I took my elderly grandparents out for a meal with my boyfriend when we were going to Southern Oregon University in Ashland. They like "nice food", typical American stuff so I thought the golf course restaurant would suit them as it is very, well private golf course and American. My grandmother had recent cataract surgery and we were sitting outside for dinner as it was summer and still light. We ordered from a waitress who seemed not very experienced. Twenty minutes after we ordered we still hadn't gotten any food at all, not even bread or our salads and there wasn't even many people in the restaurant. My boyfriend had to go to the kitchen to even find the waitress and when she came out she asked us *then again* what we wanted as our first course (salad or soup). We told her again and waited and waited. Meanwhile it got later and darker and the patio lights came on which struck my grandma in the eye and after her recent surgery that bothered her, so she switched seats with my boyfriend. When we finally got our salads after 40 minutes of waiting the waitress complained about my grandma and date switching seats with each other. Why it was any concern of hers I don't know. After we ate the salads the waitress never came back to clear the plates. We sat there another 30 plus minutes. It had now been almost *2 hours* since we got to the Ashland restaurant and still no meals had been served us. My boyfriend again went to the kitchen and this time the owner came out. So you'd think after a 2 hour wait and no main course yet the owner would apologize? HA. He started *screaming at us*! He said the waitress was his daughter and we had insulted her (huh?). He said we were "playing musical chairs" and "doing a chicken dance" (what the h*ll is that?). He used a lot of profanity and this is to grandparents in their 80s. We were completely stunned! My grandmother started crying. My grandfather was red in the face and shocked. My boyfriend said "let's go NOW" so we all got up and left. It was unbelievable!

My problem was part waitstaff/part patron. I was about 25 as was the guy at the table behind me in Perkins. He was loud, obnoxious, incredibly foul-mouthed and seemed somewhat drunk. I told the server what was going on; response was "We really can't do anything." (People all around us were cringing.)

When I couldn't take it anymore, I turned around and asked the guy to please tone down his language. He ignited. He started yelling to the server that he couldn't eat because I was so ugly and that I should be seated over the intellectual section. (This was repeated several times.) I think the female server thought it was cute -- and once again it was "We really can't do anything."

A few minutes later when I was at the cashier, the guy walked by on the way back from the restroom and screamed, "See you f---ers later." I turned to the older, male manager and said, "That's what what's been going on here tonight." And once again it was "Well, we really can't do anything."

I realized that I could do something -- never patronize that restaurant again.

MK in Chicago. Please use your imagination here: we saw waiter doing something with his finger and nose. Besides services was terrible anyway and food...Well, would you be able to eat after witnessing something like that?

The Melting Pot in Arlington, VA. I have always loved previous trips to the same restaurant, however they were in different locations. This trip was horrendus. The waiter told us he was going to be slow because he was swamped with 2 tables (including ours!). He brought out the wrong broth, left our burner going and burned our entire desert. He didn't know how to open a bottle of wine, subsequently we had cork in every glass. Finally a meal which normally takes 2 hours ended up taking 4. Great restaurant, bad wait staff.

My family often ate at a local place and loved the oldstyle Itailan fare. One night the place was crowded and the staff seemed on edge. My father, brother and sister had been served and everyone waited to begin for my meal to arrive. Next thing we knew 2 waitress' came screaming out of the kitchen and 3 more after them, a heated conversation across the diner's heads ensued. To top it off one of the women picked up a handful of forks and threw them overhand across the room! I never did get my meal and my father promptly took us away from there. We did not return to this place for at least 15 years, and still remember the scene well.

In Albuquerque, NM: Scalos Northern Italian Grill, the artichoke hearts in a dish were very hard. When my friend complained the snotty waiter told her that they were supposed to be that way.
I've also my martini served to me in a tumbler at the same resturuant.

Court of the Two Sisters in New Orleans--we were three 21-year-olds on semester break. I still remember our waiter: No. 15 Albert, his badge said. He was rude and condescending to us throughout the meal, including arguing with us about what side dishes we wanted. We had to show him on the menu to prove that, indeed, rice was an option for one of our entrees. But the worst was when he brought our cherries jubilee dessert. He shuffled around trying to scare up some matches to light it, then just mumbled, "Can't find any matches," and disappeared. It was completely inedible without the liquor burned off! First and only time I have ever not tipped--actually, we tipped a penny, which some friend of ours had told us was the way to convey that we were outraged at his service rather than cheap.

I took my girlfriend to a very uptown restaurant in Houston for Valentines Day. The Rivoli. They had one of those set menu deals for about $60 / person. The service was TERRIBLE. it seemed that the courses were thrown on our table as the waiter was running by. We ordered about $200 worth of cocktails and wine on top of our meal. I tipped about 20-25% on the food, but not the alcohol. The waiter broght the ticket back to our table and said, "People usually tip us 15% at this establishment, sir". I said, "oh my mistake" he handed the ticket back to me and I changed the tip to $0.00.

Good one Andy. My worst was a restaurant I took my girlfriend out to for her big 21st birthday. She was so happy and excited because I picked a nice place that was well known and she expected a great meal. But the waiter was a rude clod. Very slow service and clearing of the used dishes. And the rare times he was around he was extremely distant to us and cold. My poor Kim was so sad that her big birthday was ruined like this. It's been 27 years no but I still recall how sad and depressed she was by the end of the meal. And the waiter by the way knew it was her birthday too and I told him when he first came over as I wanted a photograph of us. He just ruined a memorable date for a sweet young woman.

My cousin loves the Trader-Vic's type of Polynesian restaurant, so we went to the local version in Arlington VA (several years ago -- it's gone now). We ordered his favorite, a puu-puu platter and the somewhat flaky waiter duly fetched the little brazier with sterno (in pretend tiki head) and lit it. Once he brought the platter, my cousin picked up the skewered meat and held it over the flame. The waiter rushed over, slapped my cousin's wrist knocking the skewer onto the floor, and said "food is cooked! No cook food at table!"

Serves him right for having the nerve to ask for something called a 'Puu Puu Platter' if you ask me !

I admit, I've never liked that name, but for the record, it's pretty common at such restaurants (even at Disney) in the east. It's mainly a "combo" of appetizers, classically little egg rolls, little almost-satay skewers, little shrimp puffs, and a couple of barbecued ribs. Once in a blue Pacific-style moon you get original and well-prepared hors d'oeuvres, but usually it lives down to its name.

The most bizarre thing happened in France. Lots of things always happen in France but this was one I will never forget. We were having lunch after visiting Versailles (spelling?) myself, husband, sister-in-law, niece (16) and her boyfriend.
Our waiter decided to entertain us by demonstrating what words he knew in English. So when he took our orders and delivered them and took our picture he was injecting flithy four letter words. At first we thought we couldn't have heard right. Then we realized what he was doing.