Name and Shame
Marilyn December 11th, 2006
In the UK a prominent restaurant reviewer recently did some market research on what people hate about restaurants. This was the result:
1. Double tipping (a 15% service charge is automatically included, but space is left on the bill for a further tip — not applicable in Australia fortunately).
2. Bad positioning of tables (too close etc)
3. Mobile phones
4. Tables near the loos
5. Snogging (pommie for pashing)
6. Breast feeding babies
7. Children
8. Heavy perfume (of flowers, on waitstaff, other customers)
9. Bad music
10. Being asked to pay for still bottled water
In Australia (particularly Sydney) I could add, restaurants that don’t take bookings.
What do you think should be banned?
Breastfeeding babies.
I’m not a fan of popping out the boob and sitting there in the open while the young one chomps away. I feel that this is a private time between mother and baby and it perplexes me why some women have no decorum and just do it mid restaurant anyway.
QUIET PLEASE — Leo Schofield in the January Gourmet Traveller magazine:
‘God only knows how many times I’ve had to ask for the muzak to be turned down in restaurants. And, almost as often, my request has been greeted with hostile stares and sometimes downright rejection.
… The young are accustomed to screaming at the top end of their tiny lungs to make themselves heard in trendy eateries and bars, and have abandoned the practice of conversation in favour of exchanging text messages …
I have a list of restaurants I won’t visit simply because the noise levels are intolerable.
… I have another gripe. Kids in restaurants. I love kids, but if you must take them out to dine publicly, take ‘em to a yum cha parlour where they can run amok… in a more expensive restaurant they are about as out of place as a pork chop in a syagogue.’
I think Leo Schofield’s comments about kids would be echoed by many, but I have a completely opposite view. At our restaurants we have always welcomed children, and have rarely had a problem of them disturbing other diners. I am married to a European who believes strongly that kids should learn how to behave in a good restaurant, broaden their tastes and be encouraged to try new flavours. We do not have a kids’ menu at Baguette (although we will cook simple fare for them on request) but they are encourage to try any dish on the menu — and we will only charge $1 per year for an appropriately sized meal. Since we have been business so long, it is a delight for us to see up to 3 generations of the same family still dining with us.
However when it comes to noisy restaurants — I’m with you Leo … they are a scourge on society and I will not dine at them.
Marilyn
I find it a constant source of amazement that some people are concerned by the sight of breast feeding in
public. Whether this be in a restaurant, shopping centre or other public space seems to me to be largely
immaterial. The children that require feeding have not yet developed such social graces and more often than
not, if they do not get their feed they will scream the place down. Now, one can quite easily turn ones head
if you do not wish to view a particular activity in public, but believe you me, the piercing screams of a
hungry babe leave you very few avenues of dignified escape (however, for those who are not comfortable
with breast feeding, may I suggest stuffing mashed potato in your ears). Additionally, there would also seem
to be a social double standard at play here that finds it more than acceptable for advertising and other
main stream and commercial images of women to prominantly display the ‘two chest ladies’ for decorative
purposes but draw concern if breasts are demonstrated as something that has utility.
Whilst you have, and hopefully enjoy your meal, have a thought for the baby who is just trying to do the
same.
Haughty waitstaff. This is a problem, especially in Sydney where I lived for five years. Many Queenslanders believe that Sydney people are ruder in general, but I don’t think that’s true. It’s restricted to people serving in restaurants (although I have come across some fantastic staff in Sydney restaurants). There’s nothing worse than paying for service that treats you like they think you shouldn’t be there.
And I can’t stand uncomfortable chairs. There’s nothing more disappointing than eating a delicious meal but sitting on a rock hard seat and backed chair…
I am constantly amazed at restaurants that get the most simple of all things wrong in Brisbane: ice. Brisbane has a hot climate. PUT ICE IN MY DRINK!!! In a similar vein, it should be absolutely standard that when you sit down you should be brought a menu, a bottle of cold, filtered water and a glass of ice for each diner. Ice is not expensive and neither are water purifiers. I can understand that restauranteurs would prefer you to buy a drink but chances are that someone who only wants to drink water will just ask for that anyway and someone who wants to buy a coke/glass of wine will order it even if they have a glass of water present. I can’t tell you how many places I have been to in Brisbane where I have asked for water and been given a glass of warm, chlorinated tap water. Ugh. End of rant.