Dining Out Sucks (and COVID makes it worse)

I personally think the constant bombardment of shit chain eatieries in this country is part of why it sucks. People being willing to die from eating in one is mind blowing to me.

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I’ve talked about this before. One of my numerous pompous grand unifying theories of American society is that these people dont go for the food they go to bully the wait staff. Because their lives are empty of all positive stimuli except punching down. The blooming onion and cheap beer is just a bonus.

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This is 100% correct. This is the real reason they were out protesting the lockdown a few months ago. There’s only so many weeks Karen can stand not ordering around someone from a lower socioeconomic class.

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I started typing out a very similar post about how many humans just relish in looking down on others, but binned it and moved on almost immediately to your post

Looking down and punching down is why we have Applebees trips during a major pandemic…Also racism ofc.
Dining at Applebees makes them feel more special.

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In my mind a person who sends their steak back at Applebees exists only in comedy sketches. It is horrifying and heavily depressing to confront the reality that this is not only common behavior, but that it is apparently taken seriously by anyone.

Part of me feels guilty for walling myself off from reality, but a bigger part of me thinks I couldn’t function if saliently confronted with the reality of this country on a daily basis.

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Can we get an “ask me about working at Chili’s” thread?

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This is a fair point. That said, there is an ocean between people who deliberately terrorize wait staff and people who politely express displeasure with their meal when out for a special occasion.

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If the order is wrong, why wouldn’t you send it back? It’s your money. And I say this as someone that was a restaurant manager for 2 years. I mean if someone orders a salad without cherry tomatoes and they get one with it, yea that’s stupid. Just take the tomatoes off. But if they order a salad with no dressing and it’s covered in Italian dressing, they should 100% send it back.

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Did anyone here listen to the latest Chapo? They talked about the food at Trump properties for quite a while and the discussion fits in well here. We’re talking about the type of person, like Trump who orders a steak well done and smothers it in ketchup. Just grotesque eating habits.

Sure but there’s more than one way to send back a salad. The people we’re complaining about are those that are just waiting for this kind of slip up so they can complain loudly and obnoxiously, not normal people that politely ask for a correction.

Ranch has been un-canceled for about five years now afaik.

I’m from the Midwest. Ranch is never gross.

Also, oddly enough, I happen to be wearing this shirt right now:

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I wouldn’t put it ON pizza, but dipping pizza in ranch is tasty.

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I waited table at Red Lobster for 5 years on and off. Good times.

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I hated serving so much. I was good because I could multi-task but fuck that shit. Bartending at a dive bar was where it was at. Even as a male. Way more relaxing, as good of tips or better usually, and the customer is not always right at a dive bar. You can tell them to gtfo anytime and they come back apologizing the next time they want in.

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We have become quite good at finding out of the way outdoor tables in the few times we’ve been out. I can’t imagine eating in a busy Chili’s or Applebee’s. I shocked myself eating inside at Panera but conditions were just right.

I’m the Dad of two sons that worked in the restaurant biz (1 still manages at Texas Roadhouse) so I generally start near 20%. I’m the guy that sneaks cash on the table when a tightwad friend pays and doesn’t tip well for some unknown reason.

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I’ve snuck back to the table and made up for shitty tips from people I’ve dined with sooooo many times. Like when the service wasn’t great but you could see the waitstaff was massively overloaded.

One of the most uncomfortable moments of my life was my dad catching me doubling his tip at a restaurant.

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I’ve always said that every computer programmer should wait tables for 6 months. 90% of them have such a shitty attitude toward clients and customers - whether it’s external or internal. Like I know what you want better than you do and that’s the way we’re gonna do it.

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I worked everywhere in the restaurant from busser/dishwasher to cook to server to bartender to FOH manager, etc. As much as I hate restaurant work it taught me a lot and I agree.