How long would you wait...

[Bibs]

in a restaurant until your order was taken after being seated. We lasted 20 minutes last night and walked out.

[Rick Edwards]

you showed remakable patience. I would expect a drink order to be taken as I sat down and then food order when the drinks were delivered!!

[arbell9]

It depends on what is being cooked and if you expect it to be prepped from scratch or reheated/ partial cooked.

I expect to have drinks orders taken immediately, be allowed 5-10 min to choose, then order. Most starters even fancy ones with pastry cook in about 10-15 min so form the point of order 20 mins for starters to arrive is about the max. Mains should be cooked whilst you are eating strarters and so can follow 10-20 mins after that, i hate being rushed to eat my food.

If you only ordered mains then >20 mins form the point of order is not unusual depending on what you ordered.

Alex

[Bibs]

This is just for a waiter to turn up Alex, not the food...

[Advantage]

Depends. Who's paying?

[molemot]

Being ignored for 10 minutes would do it for me.....That's my limit before I walk. The current TV series with Michel Roux junior, where he's trying to train front of house service staff out of deadbeats, is revealing as to how it SHOULD be. Haven't met Junior, but I did have breakfast with his Dad, once....

[Bibs]

This is only a chain restaurant, just to clarify - Nobu was fully booked... to add insult to injury, Laura called early to make a reservation which they said wasn't necessary. When we turned up, 3 others turned up after us and were seated first!

I've reminded myself, I'm going to call them now and highlight this to the manager.

...

which I've just done. Matt the manager wanted all the details, where we were sat, who seated us, how busy it was, a timeline from arriving to leaving etc. He's asked that I contact him personally next time we eat there (if we do) and to encourage us to try again we're getting a free meal. He did sound genuinely concerned rather than just reading a customer service script.

As they say, it's how you deal with problems that count!

[Advantage]

They'll spit in your meal, y'know.

[Kimbers]

Or worse!

My fave restaurant is tiny, like eating in someones front room. Maybe 20-25 covers. But because of that we have the opposite problem. They try and speed you up. After asking them to wait a few times between courses and give us time to read the menu at the start they know not to rush us now.

To answer your question, I'd have waited 10 mins max...and then being my fathers son made a huge and very loud complaint to the neareast staff member. If there isn't one there it would be going into the kitchen to find the little darlings to tell em what I think of their restaurant followed by a swift exit.

[cjtpb13]

Eating out every night, which if you have the normal home life sounds great but really it is not, I have only walked out of a few restaurants ever because of the wait time. Both came near the 25 minute mark. I never really noticed since I get engrossed into reading my Kindle or emailing. ( most meals are by myself so not being rude )

Though I have never stayed in a location long enough to have the restaurant attempt to correct the issue for me...

I say go back...and give it a go...never know...but I do have the tendency not to go to chain restaurants...the service and food seems to be better in most mom and pop places...more attention and customer care...

[Paul C]

If i've waited a while for an order to be taken i'll go to the bar, get a drink, and say "we're ready to order" putting the drink on our tables bill.

Then if i leave i've had a free drink while i wait.

I'd never walk straight out though, we've walked out after waiting too long for food to come, complained on the way out we 'had run out of time' and got a free meal there another day.

(we had three courses and drinks free, not bad when our original order was just sandwiches and soft drinks).

I figure when you walk out they know you are going to rant to your mates about it, so it's always worth a "we're off!" to see what happens, they can't stop you going but can offer something or other free.

[mayevora]

We lasted 20 minutes last night and walked out.

It wasn't a buffet or self service establishment was it? - just kidding!

Must admit, 20 mins would just about do it for me too. Does sound like the Manager is doing his job a bit more seriously than the staff. Think I would take up his offer of a return trip.

Only problem we've had in the last six months was a a Restaurant where we had requested the bill three times and it still did not arrive. When we stood and put hats and coats on and left the table - as if by magic, it was thrust at us.

[Laura]

We were out for the night having bought cinema tickets for an hour and a half after we turned up the eat. There are three chain resteraunts (and nothing else but the cinema for some distance) all next to each other so they are all battling for custom. I'm normally one to put up with poor service and not complain but 20 mins without so much as a "we'll be with you in a minute" is unacceptable in my book.

Complaining there and then would have been better but there was nobody to complain to, we were against the clock and very hungry so we simply left and went to their competition for a very nice meal in just enough time to catch the film!

[mr.oogieboogie]

Last time we went out on my birthday had a meal for 4 including starters and deserts and 2 drinks each ended up paying £4 they screwd up every order on all courses but waiting more than 5 mins for someone is enough

[rogerch]

The most pi$$ed off I have ever got was after the event.

On arrival at the restaurant, an appropriately uniformed valet parking attendant took over the car at the main door.

Later, when I came to leave I asked for the car, whereupon I was handed the keys and informed it was I would find it in the adjacent car park somewhere. The parking attendant had gone home !

I confess I did not respond well, I made the head waiter go and get it.

[Scotty C]

25 minutes

you must have been a shadow of yourself

shi7 service really gets on my wick

[esprit22]

Wierdest restaurant experience for me was in the Norwich Dunstan Hall Hotel.

6 of us in the main Restaurant, good service and food untill the waiter (French ) asked us for our desert choice. When asked I said that I fancied an orange Sorbet, the waiter said that there was lemon Sorbet, strawberry sorbet etc, but no orange, I said that in that case I would leave desert. The waiter seemed most perplexed by this and stormed off.

Shortly after he returned and told me again the flavours of Sorbet he could offer, I said again that orange was the only flavour that i wanted and that as it was'nt available then I did'nt care for anything else, not a problem. The waiter started ripping pages out of his order pad and cursing in French, he completley lost it! Not knowing what the fool was on about, I found it quite amuseing. When we were walking out of the restaurant, my wife stopped me and asked if I had heard the waiter calling me a "fu#cking English roast beef" as we walked past him.

I had'nt so I walked up to him fast looking him straight in the eyes. I stood in front of him and raised my arm back still looking him in the eyes, he put his hand over his face but I has no intention of hitting him, I just reached and removed the gold pen from his breast pocket, he done nothing as the place was busy and he knew that I would give him a thump if he tried to take the pen back.

Still have the pen now, spoils of war! What is it with the French and orange Sorbet...am I missing something?? Maybe there was a French Town or Fort called Orange Sorbet that Richard Sharpe captured??