Thread: More venting, this about restaurants.....

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Haha, I watched "Waiting..." last night, and I'm having flashbacks. I don't even want to know how much of that stuff is true or even based on the truth.

it was a well done movie. mike judge did a helluva job getting the jargon right ("oh, i'm in the weeds!" etc) but the actions and attitude portrayed are actually dead on. people watch the movie and assume it's a parody, but in all seriousness, it really could have been a documentary. really.

the restaraunts i worked at were nicer and did MUCH worse things to the food. on rare occasions, food was intentionally altered in a way that would make the consumer ill.

Originally Posted by jockeys

it was a well done movie. mike judge did a helluva job getting the jargon right ("oh, i'm in the weeds!" etc) but the actions and attitude portrayed are actually dead on. people watch the movie and assume it's a parody, but in all seriousness, it really could have been a documentary. really.

the restaraunts i worked at were nicer and did MUCH worse things to the food. on rare occasions, food was intentionally altered in a way that would make the consumer ill.

Yeah, I had a feeling.

Thanks for reading my disclaimer...

Forget about what they might do and consider what they already do.
I've been in a lot of commercial kitchens to fix their equipment and believe me, it's a rare restaurant that I will eat at these days! That "A" rating you see as you go into a restaurant means next to nothing!


YUCK!!

I couldn't eat out anywhere for a long time after watching Waiting simply because I knew it was true. I used to get on to SWMBO for being a difficult patron (don't put this on there, add this, this isn't what I ordered, etc) and on several occasions tried to tell her why she was making a mistake. Her biggest thing was taking off stuff from the order like tomatoes. Then Waiting came out. Now she takes the tomatoes off herself and asks for extras on the side.

I have not been able to eat mexican since watching the episode of kitchen nightmares at a mexican restaurant.

I've only worked in five restaurants in my life always as a waiter; combined table time of about 4 years and all the restaurants in Minnesota.

I never once thought of messing with someone's food. Honestly. The thought of ME getting purposely compromised food has always been so repugnant it goes without saying. If the thought sickens me, why would I do the same to someone else? Crazy logic I guess?

I also never personally witnessed or worked with anyone who told me at any of those restaurants that they altered someone's food other than a bartender telling me that he had allegedly put drops of Visine in patron's drinks that he didn't like and allegedly doing that would give a person explosive diarrhea. I would see the reverse, staff eating untouched food off of people's plates once the plates were brought back to the kitchen.

I did have some high school friends that worked at a pizza chain and they said apparently some of the employees there would spit on pizzas, etc. No offense intended at anyone here, but I had always believed that restaurant staff messing with people's food equated with a lower IQ or some other mild to moderate psychotic tendency.

Chris L

This is scary!
I always tip when I am at restaurants, even do it home in Norway.
But the problem is that I have distinct norwegian accent and since the tip doesn't come before after the meal it means that I risk people spitting or doing worse things to my food.

If I ever find anyone doing that to my food, I will spit the jerk right in the face there and then!!

He took one look at me and decided that I was going to walk the check, so he hovered over us to make sure I didn't.

VeeDubb65


VeeDubb, I had a similar experience around thirty years ago in an Automobile Dealership.
I usually showered, shaved and put on clean clothes at my workplace. On the days I would be cutting the grass, or something similar, I'd wear my work clothes home and do my chores. Then 'd shower and wear clean work clothes back to work the next day. I was headed home, in my work clothes this particular day. As I drove by a new car dealership, I spotted a pickup truck I liked. So I pulled over to the curb and walked in.
I was like the Invisible Man. None of the salesmen saw me. I began trying to flag one down. Nothin' shakin'. They wouldn't make eye contact with me.
I hadn't picked it all up yet. I finally got one stopped and told him I was interested in the blue truck on the lot. He acted like he had a really bad job ahead of him. I asked about the truck and he answered in as few words as possible. It was like he didn't want to be bothered. Then he blurted out "How do you expect to pay for a truck like that?" The light went on!
I asked him if he knew the Vice President at the First National Bank. He said he did. I told him to call the man and ask how I could pay for the truck. He started to open the phone book and I told him the number for the bank. He called and got the Operator at the bank. He asked for Mr. So-and-so, then he said "Yes I can hold." While he waited, he covered the mouthpiece with his hand and said, "We don't HAVE to do this, we can let it drop right here and nobody gets embarrassed." I told him, "No, I insist...fire away."
The VP picked up and the sales guy told him my name and described me. Then he said, "Well, he's here at the ****** Dealership and he is looking at a pickup truck. Will it be all right to continue with a sale?"
About then he sat up straighter and smoothed his hair. Then he straightened his tie. He told the phone, "Thank you, Sir." I asked what the VP had said. The salesman said, "Why he said you can afford anything we have on the lot and to let you have whatever you want...it's covered!" I stood and told him, "I am definitely going to buy a new truck, but I'll not buy the SOB here!" Then I walked out.
Another case of looking at the clothes and making up his mind.

Originally Posted by jockeys

actually, in most states in america, waiters are paid FAR LESS than minimum wage, because they expect to get tips. here in texas, waiters are paid $2.12 an hour. without tips, that's less than half of minimum wage. also, you still get paid 2.12/hour when you aren't waiting tables, eg. doing the expo line, cleaning, rolling silverware, etc. so you have to make even more during the active hours to make up and try to reach minimum wage or above.

so yeah, tips matter. i never tip less than 20% unless the waiter really screws something up. i was a waiter all thru college, and let me tell you, it's a ****ty life living off of people's generosity like that. there was always a fight over who got the foreign people when they came in, becuase everyone knew that foreigners don't tip. i've gotten burned by that, too, and even though it's a stereotype, it held true 99% of the time for me.

That might be true in the states. I'll definately take your word for it. However over here minimum wage is a legal minimum. By law you actually CAN'T pay less than that. So servers always make at LEAST that. I've worked plenty of minimum wage jobs so I don't feel sorry for them at all.

That said I ALWAYS tip unless they weren't good for me and the missus. And when I'm in the states, most people don't even believe that I'm not from the states. So I don't have that problem.

Originally Posted by ChrisL

a bartender telling me that he had allegedly put drops of Visine in patron's drinks that he didn't like and allegedly doing that would give a person explosive diarrhea.
Chris L

I have seen it in action, and it actually makes you throw up, not the other way around.