Restaurant Timed Dining Etiquette
By mailxpress
Restaurant Tips
Should there be a time limit during peak dining hours?
If you dine out regularly, have you found yourself waiting a lot longer for a table than anticipated? Have you had a reservation at your favorite local restaurant and when you got there had to wait an extra 15 to 20 minutes or longer before you're sat? When this happens do you realize it's usually the patrons who are already sitting holding up your evening? Not to many people realize that many patrons linger after they have had their meal, coffee and dessert.
I'm a server at a local restaurant in the area I live and I'm here to inform you that many patrons overstay their time. I've had tables sit for an extra hour to shoot the breeze during prime peak dinning hours. The people who made a reservation are the patrons who in many cases get angry that their table is not readily available and I don't blame them one bit. Waiting 15-minutes during peak hours to sit down even if you have a reservation is understandable and acceptable but having to wait 30 minutes or more is not. The restaurant is usually to blame but most of the time it's not restaurants fault.
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Different Rules For Different Restaurants
Fine Dinning Should Not Have A Time Limit
I watched a news clip about this topic recently and found it to be very interesting. The news reporter interviewed three different types of restaurants.
The first restaurant they interviewed was a Fine-Dinning restaurant located in New York City. The manager was asked if he felt the need to put a time limit to dinning at his restaurant and he replied absolutely not. He explained that people who dinned at his establishment came out to dine for the evening and that a typical four-top spent about $500.00. OK, I can understand why he would feel uncomfortable putting a time limit at his restaurant and I would think many of you would agree. The restaurant is known for their patrons to dine for hours at a time.
Should Restaurant Chains Have A Time Limit During Prime Time Peak Dinning Hours?
I feel placing a law into effect during prime time dinning hours is a great idea.
The second restaurant the news reporter interviewed was a popular restaurant chain located in the New York City area too. The news reporter asked the manager would she support putting a time limit law into effect during prime time dinner hours? The manager said yes and felt a two hours limit was reasonable. She explained that the restaurant loses money when people sit past the etiquette time and do so without ordering coffee or dessert, they just sit and chit-chat and the restaurant loses money when they can not turn the tables over in a reasonable amount of time.
I've never worked in New York City but NYC is known to have a huge population and I can understand the need to put a time limit law into effect during prime time dinner hours.
Small Town Restaurants
Do you have a favorite local restaurant you enjoy dinning at? There aren't that many good local restaurants left to dine at anymore. They seem to be disappearing like mom and pop shops that no longer exist.
I work at a local restaurant. It's not a Fine-Dinning restaurant but it's not a TGIF either, it's a quaint restaurant in town that serves delivered daily fresh good quality food and we cater to the patrons. I feel with this kind of restaurant a time limit law during busy peak dinner hours would benefit and help the restaurant stay in business. The restaurants capacity limit is 80 people.
It's a Saturday night and most of the restaurants in town start to fill up between 6:30 - 7:00 pm. There have been many times when a table would sit and chit-chat until 10:00 pm and that table sat at 7:00 pm. The customers finished eating their entrees with coffee and dessert but sit until 10:00 pm or later. This does not help the restaurant in any way and the people who made a 9:30 pm reservation do not get to sit before 10:00 pm and those patrons get angry at the host, hostess or manager in charge. The patrons are aggravated and annoyed before they get to sit down and now they are eating dinner much later than they planned. When a customer is annoyed before they sit, usually their dinning experience is not as enjoyable as it would had been if they were sat at 9:30 pm.
Would you support a time limit dinning law during peak hours?
See results without votingHave you left a restaurant after waiting longer than a half an hour to be seated?
See results without voting- Dine In and Take Out Tipping
This articles topic is about tipping in North America and the reason why I point this out is because in other countries such as the UK, Australia, Japan and New
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Comments
There are a lot of good, civilian solutions that can be done without the need to criminalize the patrons. Getting the law involved to itervene when a guest overstays their welcome should be reserved as a last resort option. The server can ask to "cash out", which usually gives most people the hint that it's time to leave. Frequent stops by the server, continually asking, "is there anything you'd like to order?" Would be a secondary hint. Having two servers have a staged conversation within ear shot of the loiterers about patrons leaving because no tables are openning would be a third hint. If they still don't get the hint, the manager can come by, ask if they anjoyed their meal, thank them for coming, and saying, "Please come back again." As a final polite action, the manager can ask how much longer they plan to be so that they can provide better timing for the patrons with reservations that are still waiting.
Those actions should free up a table more than 90% of the time. The remaining 10% should be rare enough as to not really be an issue, and if they happen to be, they can always be politely asked to move their conversation to the bar. Worst case, just tell them to leave.
No need to get law enforcement involved unless they refuse to leave, at which point, they're now tresspassing and there's already a law for that.
Absolutely not. While yes it is true that people linger after dinner there are also others who have children. If you have a reservation and there is not a table reserved for you when you get there it is the restaurants fault not the patrons who got there before you did. Do people forget that we are in America, the home of the Free? What the heck is it with wanting to inject government into every aspect of our lives. First its dictating, how to school our kids, then its how to spend our money, then its what we can eat (NYC with the trans oils) now you want some one to have a law limiting how long someone can eat? Do you watch the economy? Are you aware that it is crashing and now you want to take away more jobs from people who work in restaurants? No I am not a server I am a stay at home mother, who takes my kids out to eat, it takes me longer than the normal person to eat, usually because my kids are eating and it takes them longer to eat.. I suppose your one of those people who are against breast feeding in public too? wow. Yes please turn our free country (what is left of it) into a complete fascistic society.
Hello Jennifer, In my article I write "I watched a news clip about this topic recently and found it to be very interesting".
I thought it would be a fun idea to write about this topic but also wanted to learn how others felt about time limit during peak dinner hours. I would approve a time limit in major cities during prime time dinner hours not all day long.
No, I'm not against breast feeding in public if done tastefully. Does not bother me a bit.
Thanks for commenting. I'm sure many people agree with you.
stayingalivemoma 9 months ago
good hub..good information