James Silverton wrote:

>
> This is a topic that has been discussed from time to time over the years
> and I suppose a *complaint* to the waiter for slow service, as the
> nearest representative of the restaurant, is in order. If waiters have
> any sense they will apologies to the patrons but they don't deserve
> berating for something that is probably beyond their control, even you
> are tempted and I'll admit it is hard to resist. The berating should be
> reserved for the manager!

In some cases, yes - but lemme tell about a friend of mine... We met at
work and became friends; very nice guy, until you got him into a
restaurant....

We used to go to for lunch/dinner fairly often; didn't matter if we had
booked a table or not, about two minutes after we were seated, he'd say
to the server, "I don't like this table, can we please move to another
one?". If it was possible, the server would move us to another table.
If that was not possible, he'd call for the Manager... Once we were
seated to his (dis)satisfaction it was time to peruse the menu. He'd
*always* ask for something that wasn't on the menu - and demand to see
the Manager (again) so he could demand *why* whatever he wanted wasn't
on the menu... And of course they never had the wine he wanted on the
wine list, or the soft drink he wanted, and the service was always too
slow, etc. etc.. The thing that finally ticked me off completely was the
arguments we had about how much to tip the server. I always ended up
'slipping' a decent tip to the server myself (with an apology for his
behavior) - sigh. Do you get the picture now?

Anyway, eventually I refused to go to a restaurant with him unless he
"behaved himself". He was indignant when I told him this ("Who moi?
Difficult?"). <lol> But I had some "peaceful" meals with him after that...
--
Cheers
Chatty Cathy

Food is an important part of a balanced diet. - Fran Lebowitz