"DiningOut" news and stories

New York Times blogger Bruce Buschel has done a great service by compiling a list of 100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do – if nothing else, he's given fed-up diners one more forum in which to vent their ever-mounting aggravations. Thanks for the break, Bruce.

Most diners and servers would stand behind the majority of Buschel's prescriptions, which include not cursing (Rule 45), opening Champagne without making a ruckus (Rule 29) and knowing what the bar stocks (Rule 81). But his list is far from perfect. While Buschel's document would make a fine training manual for butlers, it fails to acknowledge the realities of running a restaurant. Here's what Buschel apparently forgot:

Some things are beyond a server's control.

One of Buschel's first recommendations (Rule 4) is to offer a free drink to someone who's had to wait a long time for a table. "The guest may be hungry and thirsty," he explains. May be? I think it's a safe assumption that anyone who shows up at a restaurant is craving food and drink. But I don't know of a single server who's empowered to start giving that stuff away.

The same goes for Rule 23, which insists diners be alerted to 86'd items before they open their menus. Since the hostess usually drops off menus when she seats a table, cutting her off would require Usian Bolt-speed (and necessitate breaking Rule 33 – Do not bang into chairs or tables.)

Hostesses, of course, should brief diners on which items are no longer available. But often they don't, just as the kitchen often turns out the first appetizer on a ticket a full 12 minutes before the second appetizer is ready. I completely agree that servers should "bring all the appetizers at the same time" (Rule 60), but I won't let a tray of raw oysters sit in the window while a new guy struggles to properly heat a dish of crab dip.

And you thought a two-month advance reservation for French Laundry in California's Napa Valley was a big deal? Try going out in New York City. If you were lucky enough to have a hotel room at the Marriott Marquis, you made that reservation in 1983. Dinner too? The Rainbow Room was completely booked for New Year's Eve 1999 four years in advance.

It's not quite so difficult to land reservations in premier spots these days. Sure it takes some careful planning, a lot of patience, and some quick reflexes on the redial button. An article in the New York Times lists some of the slightly more difficult tables in the city -- Per Se, Mario Batali's Babbo, Le Bernardin -- and a good strategy for "getting in."

The Chicago Tribune brought up an interesting question this week: when should a server clear your plate from the table? Should a server remove plates as a diner finishes them, regardless of whether dining companions are finished? Or should the server wait until the end, when everyone has finished, and clear the entire table at once?

Some people belong to the "Clear at the End" camp, thinking it rude. It disrupts the conversation at the table, and may make fellow diners who have not finished eating, feel rushed.

Other people belong to the "Clear as You Go" camp, and according to Emily Post, this is a newer practice. The argument is that clearing plates keeps the dining table less cluttered, and in fact, many diners see this as attentive service on the part of the waitstaff. Additionally, I know that some people like to have plates of unfinished food removed because they don't want to continue to pick at it.

Source

For a foodie voyeur, MenuPages is highly addictive. The site has been around for a while as a resource for people who dine out in NY. It has addresses, phone numbers, and most importantly, scanned images of the restaurant's menu so that we can see what's available and for how much. Sure, lots of restaurant review sites have dollar signs to indicate about how much one would spend on a three course meal, tax and tip (not) included, but for me, those three $$$ mean nothing. I like to know how much certain things are. 

MenuPages has recently launched in LA. Not a few days later, MenuPix also launched its site, offering the exact same kind of resource! And to think I was going to do the same thing on my own blog! I guess great minds think alike.

Has anyone used either or both sites? What do you think? Which is better?