Who is to blame???

I was recently at one of my favorite Japanese restaurants with my husband when the table next to ours complained to one of the servers that this was the slowest service they have ever gotten at a Japanese restaurant.

The situation seemed to be that the table next to us ordered their dinner, but later decided that they wanted to add an appetizer which they wanted served before their dinner. So they were served their appetizer first, but were very angry that their food hadn't arrived quickly enough.

The server aplologized but explained that she told the kitchen that this table requested that the appetizer was to be served before their dinner although the dinner order was placed first and was being prepared already. She also asked if there was anything she could do or they wanted her to do to make things right, but they just said give us our food now.

So the servers started to bring out their dinner as it was done, but this also made this table angry becauce all six dinner order was not served at the same time.

As they discussed how terrible the service was, they all agreed that they were not going to pay any tip. So one lady threw her credit card at one of the servers, signed and left very angry.

I'm not really sure if they were right to blame the servers for trying to serve this table as they wished. To be fair, it was kind of busy as it was the Easter weekend, and the servers are just servers; they aren't the ones cooking.

So who is to blame and what is one to do in this kind of situation???

The table next to you was to blame. The way they ordered created a back-up in the kitchen. Most likely the kitchen tried to hold their food, but when they slowly ate the appetizer, had to toss it and remake. This scenario would cause what seemed to be a long wait.

Taking this out on the server was just wrong. If I had been eating a banana during this situation I would have "accidentally" dropped the peel at the woman's feet when she stormed out.

Flip

The next table was very loud about it and put a damper on our night out! When I was in college I waited tables to pay for my tuition (years ago!), so I do tend to be sympathetic to servers (and anyone in service industry)...

I thought they were wrong to say that it was the slowest service at a JAPANESE restaurant. So they would tolerate slow service at an Italian restaurant??? I really don't understand how they thought Japanese restaurants have faster service than other restaurants.