Comment by giantrobot
2 years ago
> Restaurants, at the end of the day boil down to food. You serve food.
To expand on this a little, restaurants serve food in a building brought to your table by people. If the building/table/environment is dirty or just uncomfortable people don't want to be in it. If the people preparing and serving the food are doing a bad job people won't want them doing it. If a restaurant drops the quality of the food, environment, or personnel they are going to lose business.
As you say it's the value proposition. I go to a restaurant because I want to just pick a food, eat it, and leave. The "hard" parts of cooking and cleaning are someone else's job. All restaurant patrons are willing to pay some premium over the cost of the raw ingredients to save their time and effort. But as the experience gets worse that value proposition starts to erode.
For me and I imagine many people the experience doesn't need to be mind blowing. It just needs to be not shitty.
What I don't understand is the value people place on waitstaff being enthusiastic to serve you. I don't care, as long as you they take my order and check on my drinks.
That value proposition is typically that the experience be enjoyable. What makes it that varies, hence a variety of restaurants to choose from. If I am inconvenienced and have to chase down wait staff then that nudges the experience to the 'non-enjoyable'. If I run out of something to drink while I am eating, that nudges the experience. If we are sitting and having after dinner drinks/coffee and talking, and are surrounded by dirty plates, that nudges. If we just boated to a restaurant after a day on the water enthusiastic comes to play (we want a happy fun experience). If it's a business dinner, enthusiastic could be a detriment.
Glad to be of assistance my friend.
> and are surrounded by dirty plates
AHA! IT'S YOU!
You're the person who has encouraged this bizarre behavior where waitstaff come to pull away my plate the second they think I'm done. No! Leave it unless it's completely empty, I've asked you to take it, or the next course is about to arrive.
I feel uncomfortable when people make me feel like a jerk for consuming their service, and I would rather opt out of the entire dining experience.
But you clearly care about the staff's enthusiasm to serve you?
I really don't care if they're smiling and bubbly as long as they do their job.