Photo: net_efekt, Flickr.
Like most servers who daylight as journalists (there are more of us than you might imagine), I'm perfectly comfortable taking notes while talking. Still, I won't break out pen and paper for parties smaller than five. That's because I believe writing down orders disrupts my eye contact with my customers and detracts from my ability to build relationships with them. Good service calls for more than mere transcription.
But I suspect my high-minded reasons for not taking notes wouldn't fly with the most skeptical guests, who like to insist I won't be able to recall their request for grilled salmon. "Are you sure you're going to remember this?," they'll ask repeatedly.
If a guest seems especially anxious, I'll make a point of writing his or her order down. But here's what I'd like to tell those nervous Nellies: Yes, I am going to remember your order. Because while the menu may bewilder you, I've been serving from it for years. It takes more than a house salad with ranch on the side and a medium-well steak to confuse me.
Science confirms my method: Numerous academic studies have shown people can generally recall four "chunks" of information, with familiar items being the easiest to remember.
That doesn't mean everyone's memory is equally good: I've been waited on by servers who didn't write anything down, but then returned to my table minutes later to confirm my order – and still managed to deliver the wrong entrée.
So there are bumblers. But, contrary to many customers' expectations, I think most servers are smart enough to handle a few orders without a notepad net.
What do you think? Do you trust your server to remember your order? Is there any good reason for a server not to write down what you want?
11-10-2009 @1:05PM Gary said... You're a journalist just because you write a blog on a food site? I dont think so...
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11-10-2009 @1:41PM instans sales system said... something interesting there.
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11-10-2009 @1:57PM Megan said... "Because while the menu may bewilder you"
Wow, talk about a poor attitude : /
"Like most servers who daylight as journalists"
*chokes on soda laughing*
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11-10-2009 @2:00PM Jen said... I would say 8/10 times my server doesn't write down our order, something comes out wrong. Why should I believe that you or any other waiter who refuses to write things down is any different than the majority. I am not impressed when a waiter doesn't write my order down, I'm annoyed. Why would servers continue to do something that almost always bugs the people they are expecting to tip them?
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11-10-2009 @2:29PM Jen said... As a former server who ALWAYS wrote down my orders, I have to admit a lack of respect for those who don't. Is this an attempt to show off? And like a previous poster, in my experience, when the server doesn't write the order down, 90% of the time they have to return to ask questions again, or there are mistakes with the order. I would really prefer that they just write it down to begin with-- I am very much NOT interested in eye contact or a 'relationship' with my server.
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11-10-2009 @2:30PM eh said... As a server I wrote down everything. I'm not there to impress people with memory tricks and I wasn't going to risk it. If you have the ability to remember everyone at every table's order, drink, substitutions, how well-done they want their steak, and special requests... good for you. Maybe you work in a very slow restaurant with a very short menu, I don't know. In my case I had to juggle many tables, people coming and going, having to run in the back to make a salad, stopping to help run food, stopping to clean the back when the manager is screaming at you that someone else spilled dressing... it is way too chaotic to memorize orders.
As a customer when I dine out I am not there to build a relationship with a server. I am there to eat and not have to clean the dishes! I would rather them write my order down and get it right than risk it by trying too hard to impress me.
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11-10-2009 @2:43PM sillyLN said... I fully support not writing down the order --- as long as you know as a server you are capable of this (without having to return to the table).
I need visual cues to remember things, and so when waiting tables my accuracy was BETTER when not writing anything down because I could be looking at the patrons. This enhanced memory allowed me to look at the plates coming from the kitchen and know instantly if something was wrong. On the contrary, if I wrote down the order I was unable to remember it without consulting the pad which wasted time and allowed errors to slip by me. In this vein, the more complicated the order (substitutions, etc) the more suited to memory it is.
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11-10-2009 @2:46PM Laura K said... Um, for those of you snarking about whether this writer is a journalist, wow, how rude can you get? How do you know who else she writes for?
But I must concur with the other commenters and say, Yes, please, write it down. Sure, your memory might be great. But your table doesn't know that, and if it bugs them don't make them beg you to write it down. Add that to the the fact that yeah, most of the time when servers don't write orders down, things come out wrong or they have to come back and ask. I no longer believe servers who say they have a great memory.
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11-10-2009 @2:46PM Areyou Serious said... As a frequent diner, let me put it to you Journalist/Servers/Actors like this: If you don't write it down, I'm going to subtract 5% off of your tip for each time you have to return to my table to ask about the order, and for each order that arrives not as ordered.
Do you still want to do it by memory? Be My Guest!
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11-10-2009 @2:47PM Matt said... I have to eat a special diet for medical reasons, and at times, that means eating in restaurants with specific instructions on orders (no dressing on this, this has to be the lunch portion and not the dinner portion because I've studied the nutrition info, this side substituted for that side—but usually not more than one of these conditions).
I've found that if it's just a side substitution, everything is usually fine. If it's anything more complicated than that, such as "no seasoning" on something, there's about a 2/3 chance the food comes out wrong if the server didn't write the order down. It's almost always right if it's written down. And since it's a medical thing, I MUST send back improperly prepared food—I literally can't eat it.
I try to tip this off by saying "I have dietary restrictions, so I have to be a little bit fussy" before such an order, and 4 out of 5 times that immediately gets the server to whip out a notepad. I like that a lot. And since I rarely eat out in parties of more than 2 or 3 people, it's not that the table orders are excessively complicated—they seem to have trouble with anything not written down that's not completely standard.
Of course, most of this is probably because I wind up eating at chain restaurants because they're the ones that publish the nutrition information I need. I can't even order a simple roast chicken at a smaller restaurant because even if they promise me it was unsalted (I have sodium restrictions), the kitchen usually has no idea if the bird was "enhanced" with a salt solution before they ever started cooking it, and many of them are. Chain restaurants mean lower-paid servers and more opportunities for mistakes, but even there the orders are remarkably accurate IF they're written down.
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11-11-2009 @10:49AM KW said... As a server I always wrote the order down with all necessary details for the kitchens benefit and so that on busy nights the manager could check my order for me if it came up before i got back to the kitchen and save me to time of having the cook fix it.
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11-10-2009 @10:54PM Bernie B said... Surprising the amount of snobbery in this thread.
I would prefer a server to write the order down as often patrons my change seats, ask to split the checks in odd & interesting ways, or perhaps say they ordered something different than they actually did.
Having the order on paper gives you something to work from if for no better reason than to CYA.
As for Hannah specifically, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the dought. I had friends from college that could recite entire Python monologues after a single viewing, so keeping track of a table for 4-5 people is certainly doable if you have a great memory.
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11-10-2009 @11:10PM Rt said... My two cents.
My order was written but the kitchen got it wrong, so I am told.
I ate the meal (I dislike sour cream and asked for the baked potato with just butter) and dislike confrontations (hence paying the bill before pointing out the problem). Of course I was offered the complimentary dessert, but I don't care about compensation - only execution.
It wasn't fatal to me and didn't affect the tip. Still, I told our, otherwise flawless, waiter to notify the kitchen of the error.
I don't care who was at fault, but someone dropped the ball.
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11-11-2009 @1:36AM catastrophegirl said... while i have never been a server and impressed with your ability, if i don't see my server write down 'allergic to onions' i'm not going to be comfortable eating the meal.
of all the times i have requested the dish be made without onions, it only gets done right about half the time. and that's almost always the times it gets written down. even then, it gets sent to me with onions once in a while, but certainly less often.
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11-11-2009 @1:37AM catastrophegirl said... err, typo, sorry that should read "am impressed with" - i mean, it's quite a skill
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11-11-2009 @10:00AM theminx said... The last time I encountered a waitress who didn't write down my food order, both my husband and I got items that were not what we ordered. I sent mine back for a correction, which required a wait. My husband just ate what was in front of him.
Needless to say, her tip wasn't what it could have been.
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11-13-2009 @12:15AM Elle said... I'll just throw in my two cents and say that I can't even remember the time a server got my meal order wrong. I don't really care how a waiter remembers my order, because at the places I go they seem to be doing a fine job. The last time anything was missing from a meal was when I ordered food online, and everything is written down there.
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11-17-2009 @2:06PM Numb said... If I have one real pet peeve with dining out - it's servers NOT writing down my order. It takes exactly ZERO extra time, AND it ensures my order is more likely to come out properly. Also, it makes it easier to split the check later, order an additional glass of whatever I happen to be drinking, or simply ask the server what the name of the entree was in case I forget. There is absolutely, no reason NOT to write the orders down. As somebody else said previously, I'm 99% certain that servers who don't are trying to show off for some reason... Unfortunately for those servers, we go out to eat for the food and the experience, not to be impressed by random inconsequential server. In my 2-3 years as a waiter (both casual and upscale dining), I wrote everything down, and almost never had even the smallest error. It should be damn-near manditory.
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