Pre-bussing & greeting.

I used to be a waiter. I’m old school so I prefer waiter/waitress instead of server.

Anyway, I was a waiter for ten years. I was good at my job. Made good tips, worked my way up to the best fine dining establishments in Dallas Texas.

These days, it seems rare to get good service at regular restaurants. And at so-called “good” restaurants too. Shocker, I know lol.

I still tip well, as most waiters/waitresses do. It’s a tough gig and it’s complete bullshit that to this day, at least in the USA, restaurants still only pay their waitstaff $2 an hour. I still find this ridiculously offensive.

So for bad service I’ll still tip 15%. I can’t help myself. For average service (what I consider average) I’ll give 20%. For good service it’s 25-30%. Sometimes more. And I’m definitely not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. And you have to do an extremely bad job to get a 10% tip from me. But when I go to a restaurant, I factor in the tipping into my “going out” budget. I wish more people did that, lol.

But I have 2 huge pet peeves that make me want to stiff a waiter/waitress and give a 0% tip. (I have never done that, and probably never will)

1. You need to greet me within 2 minutes of me sitting down at your table. (This was how I was trained as a waiter)
   Just a simple acknowledgement of my presence would suffice, but preferably a warm friendly greeting and asking me for a drink order.

THIS RARELY HAPPENS.

I have been made to wait some really long times before my presence is even acknowledged.

My new rule is: you get 5 minutes, then I walk.

I don’t care how hungry I am. And I don’t care how busy you are. If you’re in the weeds, just come to my table for 10 seconds, smile, and say something like “hi, welcome to ______, I’m so sorry I’m so busy, I’ll be right with you.”
Just acknowledge that I’m here and willing to give you money.

1. Call it pre-bussing. Call it policing the table. Call it whatever you want to. But please, for the love of all that is good and holy in this world, clean up the trash and detritus off of the table! Used straw wrappers, used sugar packets, whatever. And remove used plates/dishes/utensils.
   I’m not talking about using a crumber. Just remove what is not needed any more.

NOBODY SEEMS TO DO THIS ANYMORE.

And it drives me absolutely batshit crazy.

At this point if someone prebusses my table I’m probably going to give a 30% tip.

Sorry for the long rant.

Please let me know if I am being out of line or expecting too much.

A simple “hell yeah” or a thumbs up would also be cool.