Customer Courtesy

Okay so I know that the official policy of any restaurant is "the customer is always right."  If you've ever actually worked in food service or (I'm assuming) retail, you know that this is a bold-faced lie.  That's not what we think.  You know what we think, what our "unofficial policy" is?  "The customer is always a tool."  Make no mistake, if you make more than one complaint you will be automatically hated by the entire staff, right up to the managers.  Of course, we give the nice customers their due; we love friendly customers.  But if you're one of those people who constantly complains, makes a million alterations to your order, or is always trying to find something wrong with the food because you're hyper-critical or so tight with money you squeak when you walk, the restaurant industry is a miserable place to work because of you. 

At the Deli where I work, we have a woman who comes in once a week to get a sandwich.  She orders a turkey and cheese sandwich, but makes so many alterations she winds up with a chicken salad sandwich with extra cheese and bacon.  She does all that to make it cheaper.  Every week she does this and every week she gets enraged that all of the extra she ordered--which the menu clearly says costs extra--actually costs extra.  And then, if you please, she wants us to take her to-go order out to her car because she's got two children in the car.  We don't do curbside orders and if she's really too worried about her children in the car she ought to bring them into the restaurant with her where it takes fifteen minutes to take her ridiculous order.

And it's not just the custom orders which causes the restaurant employees to sigh and roll their eyes. 

If you're at a restaurant where you stand in line to order and there is a large menu erected behind the counter, take advantage of the brief wait and read it.  If there are descriptions of the dishes which interest you, read those too.  That way, when you get to the front of the line you won't have to stand there asking the cashier, "so...what's this...? And this?"  They're busy, they're not interested in your life story, and they don't even really care about what you want.  They care about putting your order in correctly so you don't complain and getting the next person in line.  Come to think of it, that's what waiters and waitresses have the same concerns.  You're paying their check, that's all; they don't actually care.

If you need something and someone else at your table needs something as well, tell your server at the same time, no matter what sort of restaurant you've chosen.  This goes for refills as well.  They're very busy and don't want to have to make multiple trips for the same table.

We understand you're engrossed in your conversation, but take time to say "please" and "thank you" when your server brings your food.  And don't give them that incredibly imperious look as if they should be grateful they have the incredible opportunity to bring you food because you're too lazy to make it yourself.

This is the biggest one: dirty tables.  If you seat yourself, take notice of the tables.  Do some of them have something at the end, like a salt or pepper shaker or one of those little mini menus in the hard plastic (table tents)?  Is it only some of them and not others?  If so, don't sit there.  That means that the table needs to be wiped down and if you sit there they have to interrupt your conversation in order to wipe down the table.  If there are other tables available, but there's one conveniently near which is dirty, go to another clean table.  Don't hover around the busser like a vulture, waiting to swoop down on the just-cleaned table only to make it dirty again.  It goes double if they haven't wiped down the table yet; then not only have you been hovering and making them nervous, but you've got the previous problem of them having to interrupt you to wipe down the table.

As a food service unfortunate, I ask only that you treat restaurant employees with the same respect you treat everyone else.  Just because they can't get another job (because believe me, if they could they would) doesn't mean they're any less human than you.