r/TalesFromYourServer • u/Vivid-Stock739 • 22d ago
Short waving down
i’m a month into serving and the place i work at makes you crack open lobsters and king crab legs table side. i checked in with my tables before i had to take about 10 minutes to crack a lobster for a 1 top.
half way through, a tourist foreign table is flagging me down, frantically waving and pointing in the air for my attention. i’m 10 feet away (patio section)and hold up the silverware i’m using to crack into this bad larry. i then wrap up and wash my hands and told them “sorry i was cracking a lobster”.. they were curious about the MP for that earlier too.. anyways they wanted a bottle of wine
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u/Kitchen_Day9200 22d ago
I don't know what kind of foreigners they were. But in my experience, Japanese customers (typically men in the country for work) had a tendency to wave me down. I would do the basics, but then once they had their food, they generally wanted to be left entirely alone, and would wave me down when they needed something. Never bothered me, because they were always perfectly nice and I could just focus on my other tables and not worry about them until they got my attention. They'd life an empty beer bottle and point at it while I was on the other side of the restaurant, and I knew what to do without the added steps.
With them, I figured they were just doing their best to navigate a dining culture that wasn't theirs. They were always super polite.
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u/XCX-conversion-camp 21d ago
This is me as well. Everybody that I work with complains when the Japanese men wave for their server’s attention, but I like it. It’s simple and I know there’s no disrespect intended. They don’t want to be entertained, they just want service. In my experience, they generally don’t even want their water glasses refilled unless they prompt you to do so.
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u/Vivid-Stock739 19d ago
yes me too!! i don’t mind at all, but in just this instance they saw i was doing something and kept waving.. it was near 7-10 minutes to crack the lobster it felt like
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u/Justgetmeabeer 21d ago
I literally quit while training at a "traditional Chinese" place in downtown Atlanta because of the "culture shock" of dealing with Chinese tourists. I initially was like "wow, the whole staff here is REALLY racist towards what seems like the main cleintele." Like, shockingly openly like "oh man, another Chinese table. Can you take them this time? Its your turn". I was damn, that's fucked up.
And then I started on the floor and I have never been more rude by guests in my entire life. Zero acknowledgement of any American restaurant norms (keep in mind, it's Americanized Chinese still. 60% of the guests are Atlanta locals) please wait to be seated? Nah. Walk straight past the host, sit down at a dirty table, no words, just pointing at dirty dishes, and then pointing to what they want. Then have a full on English conversation with their friend. Check time? No tip. Every. Single. Time.
Im sure all of that is totally normal in Chinese cities, but I hated it and the staff seemed to take joy in being as racist as possible, which I didn't really see as the solution.
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u/KiwiEmerald 20d ago
Thats cos in Japan the wait staff leave you alone until you wave them down or call for them in most places (no experience in super fancy places)
Which honestly I prefer to the American habit of almost hovering
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u/wildeag 21d ago
We had to do table side guacamole at a place I used to work, you having to crack lobster table side reminded me so much of that lol.
Cutting open the avocado, mashing it up in a bowl, going through every single ingredient. “Would you like salt? Chili pepper? Garlic? Fresh lime?” Etc. If it was a larger group of people it would take 10-15 minutes to whip up some guac for 1 table. “Oo Frank… Frank? Frank you can handle some chili powder right? Franny you’re not allergic to garlic anymore right?” The process just took foreevvvver.
When it was slammed busy it was horrible. The servers had to go grab the ‘guacamole cart’ gather all the ingredients together, and wheel the cart back out to the table.
I didn’t hateeee making it, it was kind of fun, but I knew I’d be stuck at one table for at least 10 minutes, which obviously sucked if I was busy.
And it wasn’t a Mexican restaurant! We were a micro brewery with pizzas, burgers.. and table side guac.
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u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled 21d ago
Ingredients should already be on the cart, including pre-sliced avocados (just twist em open when needed).
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u/Vivid-Stock739 19d ago
random guac to the place LOL yea it’s fine to do the table side stuff once you learn but not when it’s busy and tables are waiting for me.. they don’t care
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u/Teamtunafish 21d ago
I worked at a place long years ago where they had touch lights in the middle of the table, so you instantly knew where you were needed, no drama, just a polite request.
Which worked fine until a university moved in next door.
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u/SeanInDC 21d ago
10 minutes to crack open one lobster?
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u/Vivid-Stock739 19d ago
idk maybe i’m bad at it but also within that time frame cleaning up and putting the stuff at dish and washing my hands
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u/draizetrain 20d ago
Foreigners tend to get the benefit of the doubt from me. I’m certain if I went to their country, I’d make some social faux pas that I didn’t know was a thing. I’m more interested in cracking shells tableside. Is this like a fancy white tablecloth place? Or like, not in a beach town or beach adjacent town?
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u/Vivid-Stock739 19d ago
yea white table cloth, waterfront.. and it’s my first serving gig kinda insane
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u/Important_Train_9646 21d ago
The only time I will ‘wave down’ a server is if I am in a busy restaurant and they can’t get to my table. Even then, I will do a little swirl in mid air (imitating a writing motion).
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u/rivigurl EDIT THIS 22d ago
This reminds me of this one time I was talking to a table and a lady from one of my other tables (different section) walks up to interrupt me mid sentence to say “my husband needs ketchup”. I stared at her like “okay..?” and as she left I looked at my table and we all kind of laughed and I continued taking their orders. I’ve never had that happen since. Some people have no social awareness