Comment by moralestapia
2 years ago
I had a really bad dining experience the one single time I went to Red Lobster; happened at the same place probably (Toronto, the one in Bay Street?) hence why I want to share.
I came in to the restaurant and there was no one at the front desk, but the place seemed to be operating normally so I just went on to seat at the nearest table I found. Waiters just started ignoring me; at some point I realized this was on purpose. Wtf.
Anyway, after like 20 mins. I stand up and ask one of the guys "what's going on?". He tells me that they knew I was there (!) but decided to ignore me because no one "seated me at that place". I tell him, well, do that now ... the guy just tells me they don't want to do that anymore because I should've done it when I entered the restaurant, then just like that asks me to leave the place (wtf x2).
I tell him that's ridiculous and he just says "I'm calling security" and walks away. After a few minutes, two huge guys come to my table and ask me what the problem is (they were actually quite polite). I tell them, I just walked into the restaurant, sat here, and just want to order something. They look at each other a bit confused (who knows what the waiter told them), ask me if that's it, "yes", ..., "ok, wait here a bit". After another like 10 mins., a different waiter comes up and starts catering to me.
Everything was normal afterwards, but that was super weird. Imagine getting beat up for walking into a restaurant and wanting to get some food.
Needless to say I never came back as the food turned out to be quite average, definitely not worth fighting for it, lol.
Just to explain a bit of restaurant procedure:
It sounds like you seated yourself at a section that wasn't open. "Sections" are often not obvious to customer, but they're really important to the wait staff. You don't grab tables outside your section; it can be seen as attempting to grab more tips. (A Red Lobster probably has tip pooling, but still, working outside your section is a no-no.) Eventually they got somebody to open your section.
Threatening to call security is also a no-no. He should have called the manager over. But if the host desk was unoccupied for more than a couple of minutes, it sounds like the manager was off fighting some kind of fire.
With the host desk unoccupied, the restaurant would prefer that you ask a passing waiter to find the host.
So I'm not surprised that wait staff were ignoring you. A better waiter would have figured out what was going on and signaled the host to come talk to you, and move you into an open section. But if you're waiting tables at Red Lobster, you're not being hired for your initiative.
Anyway... I hope that helps explain what happened. The upshot: don't seat yourself, but it sounds like they were being mismanaged anyway.
The wait staff may not have even realized they were waiting for service. I’ve used booths in an empty section not expecting or wanting service.
Eg I’ve borrowed an empty booth for 5 or 10 minutes in an empty section when I got paged while out to dinner. I didn’t expect any service.
I’ve also done it when I was out to eat and got bad news. I needed a minute alone, and outside the restaurant is usually very much not “alone”.
Been a while, but I served tables at RL for 4 years (in 2 different locations). Did not do tip sharing. However, we had designated sections and were prohibited from running more than 3 tables at a time; easily could be that the servers could have gotten in trouble for taking this extra table.
Same location and I also had an amusing experience, I asked the lady who brought our drinks over if she had any idea if the Canadian locations would be ok, and she said she knew about as much as I do, and then out of nowhere randomly said "you look rich, you should buy us!" - my wife almost spat our her drink laughing at that.
I think depending on staffing levels a restaurant at certain times does not have the capacity to handle all of its tables and so some are considered inactive. If you sit at a table that is not active it would be treated as equivalent to not sitting at a table at all.
It seems like once the bouncer types got involved they thought the reason you were ignoring their system might be because you were crazy or high and they might have to kick you out. Once they determined you weren’t either of those they accommodated you.
Chain restaurants especially seem to be very process oriented and the staff would not be as good at improvising as those at a local place.
My thinking in these kinds of situations is "Seems like one more business that thinks they make too much money", with the obvious consequence of not coming back except under extreme duress (like, someone in the party really insists or they are the only place open.)
Is there no awareness in that industry - at any level - that some rules are an excellent way to lose business?
A local place has (well, had) an outstanding, unusual pizza. We were big fans and went often. Soon they started ignoring the ingredient ratio in their own recipe, then started ignoring the (paying) "extra X" options in the order. We started pointing out the problem, then pointing out the problem at the time of the order, then making sure the staff knew what it was we wanted when we ordered... then obviously gave up. Some places just aren't cut out for staying in business.
>they thought the reason you were ignoring their system might be because you were crazy or high and they might have to kick you out
Yeah, that's exactly the kind of dining experience I want when I go out. /s
To be clear here, you were the one who broke the norms of the restaurant. If you had waited to be seated 99% chance of them treating you like you expect to be. As someone who worked in restaurants for years, you would not believe what front of house staff has to deal with from the general public. I find no fault with how they responded.
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You shouldn’t just seat yourself at the majority of restaurants, unless you are sitting at the bar area.