What is your Pet Peeve?

[vitauta]

i usually prefer eating my salad together with the entree, and almost always if it is steak. i like alternating the flavors throughout the meal--a bit of salad, a forkful of potato, a chunk of steak, a green bean or two...i will usually save most of my salad in order to be able to eat it along with my steak. of course i have to guard my salad from the waiter who wants to take it 'out of my way' before i'm finished with it. sometimes i even ask the waiter to hold my salad until the entrees are served....

 

[Andy M.]

My pet peeve--and this is a pretty big one--is when they bring the main course before I'm finished eating my salad!

Or even worse, when they bring the salad and the main course at the same time. I hate that!!!...

This is a BIG peeve of ours too. We manage that by ordering salad/appetizers. Then when we're done with them we order the entree.

 

[buckytom]

+1 greg and andy. i don't mind if salad and appy's overlap, but the entree should be timed better.

to me, that's an automatic deduction from the tip. there's not much a waiter can control, so delivery of food is 50% of their job. unless the rest of their service is excellent, we're talking 12% or less now. (to put it in perspective, average - "i know how to do my job but i couldn't care less about being here" - service gets 15%, good service gets 20%, excellent service gets 23% to 25%)

vit, you must dine at places with really big tables!

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

This is a BIG peeve of ours too. We manage that by ordering salad/appetizers. Then when we're done with them we order the entree.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one. I too often decide on both my salad and food orders, then intentionally order the salad first and withhold the food order until the kitchen is started on the salad.

Another thing I do is order the wine or cocktails before ordering either salad or entree because I want the drinks first, then the salad, and then the main course.

You sometimes wonder, if you ordered your drinks and appetizer and salad and main course and desert too all at the same time, would some crappy restaurant serve them all at the same time?

+1 greg and andy. i don't mind if salad and appy's overlap, but the entree should be timed better.

to me, that's an automatic deduction from the tip. there's not much a waiter can control, so delivery of food is 50% of their job. unless the rest of their service is excellent, we're talking 12% or less now. (to put it in perspective, average - "i know how to do my job but i couldn't care less about being here" - service gets 15%, good service gets 20%, excellent service gets 23% to 25%)

I don't agree. IMO a large part of the waiter's job is to communicate between customer and kitchen. The waiter should know the current kitchen lag times and should be perceptive to customer wants and needs, and to some degree the waiter should know when to put up orders and what to get first to appease and please customer desires.

After all if not this then what? Why is the waiter being paid 20% tip, just to move food from the kitchen to the table, and then settle the check?

Delivering food is IMO 100% of their job, and they're the ones who bear the brunt when the kitchen is not performing. After all, who ever tips the chef? If the kitchen isn't performing then the waiter better find a job at a place where the kitchen is performing. The customers will migrate to that better place too.

 

[Kayelle]

Just curious.... at home, does everyone eat their whole salad before they serve the entree plate?

Here, we serve our entree plate along with the salad plate. Are we alone?

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I serve the salad first, and don't even begin plating the main dinner until after I've collected the salad plates. I'm probably in a small minority who likes salad then main course. I don't like to mix them (I guess that's just my quirk) and I don't like the main course cold.

 

[taxlady]

Just curious.... at home, does everyone eat their whole salad before they serve the entree plate?

Here, we serve our entree plate along with the salad plate. Are we alone?

I usually serve the food in serving bowls and/or the pots they were cooked in. I seldom put a salad plate next to the regular dinner plate.

So, the salad is on the table and everyone serves themselves, when they want to.

 

[Andy M.]

We are not formal when we eat dinner at home. We don't serve a course at a time. Dinner is set up all so the salad is served with the entree and sides. That's for the two of us.

When we entertain, we serve courses in sequence. Dessert, soup, entree, salad are each served one at a time. (not in that order)

 

[Kayelle]

I serve the salad first, and don't even begin plating the main dinner until after I've collected the salad plates. I'm probably in a small minority who likes salad then main course. I don't like to mix them (I guess that's just my quirk) and I don't like the main course cold.

I serve salad as the first course when we have guests, but with the two of us we pass on formality.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Dessert, soup, entree, salad are each served one at a time. (not in that order)

No nuts???

 

[Andy M.]

No nuts???

Usually sitting around the table.

 

[Addie]

My mother was fanatical about teaching us the courses, proper utensil and manners at the table. With my kids, it was always family style. But manners were always enforced. I even taught them how to take two or three strands of spagetti and twirl it on their fork. Slurping it into the mouth was not acceptable.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Usually sitting around the table.

Touché!

My mother was fanatical about teaching us the courses, proper utensil and manners at the table.

There's just one thing I've never been able to appreciate: having a fork just for salad and then having a different fork for the main course. Yeah I can see they're obviously a bit differently shaped, although I'm not totally convinced a salad fork works any better on a salad than a regular fork. (Yes I know the salad fork is removed from the table with the salad dish when the next course is ready to serve.) Okay I'll admit if I'm having a more formal dinner I'll use both forks in the place settings, but when eating alone I'd never use separate forks.

 

[Aunt Bea]

Family style at my house, no courses!

 

[Dawgluver]

Family style at my house, no courses!

+1! Think feed trough.

 

[CraigC]

A stack of plates and silverware, foods on the stove, ready. Make your plate!

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

My question though, does anybody feel that it's necessary to have two forks? Like one for the salad and one for whatever else you're eating (whether you call it a main course or not).

I think it's silly to have two forks.


Actually I usually practice "serve yourself" too. I put tableware and napkins on the table, a stack of dishes in the kitchen, and I point out what the eats are. Then let my family or guests plate their own food. How the heck am I going to know how big a serving they want?

 

[taxlady]

My question though, does anybody feel that it's necessary to have two forks? Like one for the salad and one for whatever else you're eating (whether you call it a main course or not).

I think it's silly to have two forks.

Two forks makes sense if you are using more than one plate. Then you can leave the salad fork on the salad plate and you still have a fork when the salad plate gets picked up.

 

[Aunt Bea]

I grew up in a house where they always yelled keep your forks, for dessert, when they cleared the plates from dinner. We were a real classy bunch of bumpkins. It's still the same at my house today,only now the forks all match!

 

[CraigC]

If you're really into washing dishes or clean up after a meal, knock yourself out using as much "china" and silverware as you like! That fork suits me just fine from soup to nuts!