Dining Pet Peeves

[Seven S]

what drives you crazy about the food you are served when eating out - either at friends' or in restaurants, i have a couple i can think of right now:

1) biting into a large chunk of ginger left behind in a dish, in stir fries or asian noodle dishes, they tend to use some chunks for flavor but are supposed to remove them.... it totally kills your palate from that point forward!

2) pasta that is not "al dente" and mushy with no "presence"

3) being served "bad wine" - the bottle of red wine that was opened two weeks ago where only a glass was served and saved for the next person to ask for wine

 

[Ishbel]

Overcooked meat or vegetables.

 

[sattie]

Overcooked meat or vegetables.

Agreed. Overcooked veggies are the worst!

 

[urmaniac13]

2) pasta that is not "al dente" and mushy with no "presence"

This is one of the reasons I decided not to order any pasta dishes outside Italy and prefer making them myself...

When I bite into a piece of chicken or pork, typically something like chinese sweet and sour, battered or breaded thoroughly so what really is inside is invisible, I would find a pure chunk of fat and/or gristle, instead of meat.

 

[kitchenelf]

One of my biggest pet peeves is when we order appetizers, salad, and an entree and they ALL come out at the same time - nothing gets to me more!!!!! ...but I'll probably think of more that are equally as annoying.

 

[Andy M.]

One of my biggest pet peeves is when we order appetizers, salad, and an entree and they ALL come out at the same time - nothing gets to me more!!!!! ...but I'll probably think of more that are equally as annoying.

This has infuriated me for ever. I believe it's because they want to get you in and out quickly and turn the table over for another paying customer.

I have gotten into the habit of not ordering the whole meal at once. We'll order drinks and when they come, we order apps. Later on we order the entrées. It's the only way I can be sure of controlling the tempo of the meal. I don't always do this as sometimes we skip apps or are OK with a quicker meal.

 

[unmuzzleme]

...when the waiter/waitress refills my water glass several times before the entrees come out, without asking. Maybe this is my fault, since I never say, "Please don't." I am a compulsive drinker of water, so I always seem to fill up on water and not enjoy my meal.

Also, when the waiter/waitress interrupts what is clearly an animated and engrossing conversation to ask if he/she can refill your water or something.

 

[urmaniac13]

This has infuriated me for ever. I believe it's because they want to get you in and out quickly and turn the table over for another paying customer..

Wow, sometimes we have the opposite problem in restaurants in Italy. We would finish a course and then have to wait, wait, and wait until the next course comes out finally. It can be equally annoying!!

I have gotten into the habit of not ordering the whole meal at once. We'll order drinks and when they come, we order apps. Later on we order the entrées. It's the only way I can be sure of controlling the tempo of the meal. I don't always do this as sometimes we skip apps or are OK with a quicker meal.

Clever, but a nightmare for the waiter & the kitchen!! Tip them good, Andy

 

[lulu]

Overattentive service is as annoying as bad service. If I need somethng else or its not fine I'll say, to check a couple of times is fine, but more than once per course....??? And to ask when you all have your mouths full? Or when waiting staff loitre and listen in....makes me mad! I think some people are bless with charm - these guys make excellent service staff, if you are not one of those lucky few then don't draw attention to it and be discreet in your service!

Apart from that, unless there is something glaringly wrong with the meal, I still get a buzz when I eat out, and forgive a lot , which my husband thinks is hilarious, but its part of it, that glimmer of excitement and making an effort. Whether its a local joint or a smart place I llike it, if I don't get that buzz one day I'll stop eating out.

 

[Andy M.]

Wow, sometimes we have the opposite problem in restaurants in Italy. We would finish a course and then have to wait, wait, and wait until the next course comes out finally. It can be equally annoying!!

I guess you have to adapt to your surroundings! We don't often have that problem here.


Clever, but a nightmare for the waiter & the kitchen!! Tip them good, Andy

It's the waiter and/or the kitchen that creates my nightmare in the first place!

However, I always want to tip generously because that means I've had an enjoyable dining experience.

 

[FryBoy]

Smokers.

Service that's too quick (food arrives 1 minute after you sit down, while you're still enjoying your drink, main course arrives while you're still eating salad, or in one case guacamole that came between the main course and dessert).

Service that's too slow (30 minutes for a steak?).

Service that's too friendly ("Hi! I'm Twit, and I'll be your server tonight! How's the wife and kids? How 'bout them Dodgers?").

Service that's rude (e.g., tossing the plate in front of you, forgetting the bread, ignoring the water glass).

Service that's overly attentive (I used to go to a restaurant where the busboy filled the water glasses and cleaned the unused ashy trays literally ever 2 minutes).

Service that disappears after bringing the food.

Service that promptly removes the dishes from each diner as they finish rather than awaiting until everyone is done (makes the slow eaters feel rushed, embarrasses the fast eaters).

Excessive air conditioning or heat.

Loud music.

Loud talkers.

Cellphones and the idiots who take or make calls at their table.

Rooms that are too bright or too dark (dinner only).

Rooms that are so noisy you can't hear your dinner companions speak.

Over-priced wine list (2 times retail is acceptable, 3 to 4 times or more is gouging).

Wine list with nothing of interest yet nothing cheap.

Lousy wine glasses (small, thick, clumsy).

Dirty wine glasses (lipstick, for example).

Waiters who question my assessment that the wine is bad (e.g., corked).

High corkage fees (I like to bring my own wine, as do many Californians; many local restaurants here in the beach cities charge from nothing to $5 per bottle, some up to $10; $25 is more gouging, and there's one new place in Vegas that wants $75 per bottle -- I say they can sit on my corkscrew).

Overpriced side dishes (I don't mind paying $30 for a good steak a la carte, but what's with the $8 steamed veggies and $10 baked potatoes)?

Lack of side dishes for one in up-scale restaurants (I travel on business a lot, and I often eat alone -- I don't want a pound of asparagus and a quart of scalloped potatoes with my steak, but I've encountered only one up-scale restaurant that offered to give me a half portion of each to accompany my main course).

Food that arrives cold.

Medium-rare that's medium well.

Over cooked pasta.

Over cooked veggies.

Tiny portions (didn't the "spa food" trend die with disco? It should have!)

HUGE portions with HUGE prices (no wonder older people often share -- they aren't cheap, just smart -- I don't want a 28-ounce sirloin or a muffin the size of a basketball, and I hate being forced to pay for all that waste -- and all that waist, too).

Desserts that look good but have no taste and cost $8.

Lousy apple pie.

Nothing on the dessert menu with ice cream.

Places that charge you for two desserts if you ask for a scoop of vanilla on your apple tartin.

Dirty coffee cups.

BAD coffee.


So, do you understand now why I like to cook and prefer to eat at home?

Restaurants! Bah! Humbug!

 

[Seven S]

Cellphones and the idiots who take or make calls at their table.

AAAAAAHHHHHH !!!!!!! These people piss me off so bad!!!

 

[pdswife]

Paul gets cold water
I almost always drink hot water...

The wait staff fills his up time after time...even if I ask they seem to forget to refill mine. Is it harder to carry a pot of hot water than it is to carry a pitcher of cold water?

Also... there are many times that they bring that hot boiling water ( tea water) in a water glass...how am I supposed to pick it up and drink it?? UGH!

 

[Alix]

Holy cow FryBoy, you have quite a list there.

I don't have any that haven't already been listed somewhere.

Definitely agree with the cell phone thing. Boy that irritates me.

 

[Shunka]

Hence why I almost never eat out; for many of the reasons stated above.

 

[mish]

Since the complaint/peeves topic was started a week ago, see no reason for a part 2. As I recall we had this discussion a while back. Perhaps the two can be merged?

 

[kitchenelf]

The way I see it one topic is about "dining out" - the other topic is what goes on in your own kitchen.

Technically it's not a Part II - it should stand alone.

 

[Seven S]

Since the complaint/peeves topic was started a week ago, see no reason for a part 2. As I recall we had this discussion a while back. Perhaps the two can be merged?

well kitchen pet peeves - the original - was to be things that happened in the kitchen that ticked you off... my original intention was to be broader and perhaps include the things about dining as well, but the respondents took over and all responses were basically about the kitchen.... so in this dining pet peeves, my intention started out as "things on your plate/in your dish that made you mad" but it took on a turn more along the lines of "dining out service that tick you off".... if you see my first post on both of these, you will see where i wanted to go with these... i will try to be more descriptive in my future posts as to the direction i would like them to go....

 

[VeraBlue]

Phone calls during the meal

 

[Slicer]

Parents who do not control their precious little bundles of unrestrained energy, either ignoring them completely or telling them 'NO!" over and over before going ballistic.