10 Mistakes Your Servers Shouldn’t Make (6 through 10)

Here is a list of the second 5 (out of 10) most annoying server errors as related by diners who have suffered through them. Most of these mistakes are caused by a lack of attention and most have easy fixes, but you be the judge.

6. Inappropriate pacing of the meal
Diners don’t like to feel rushed, nor do they want to have to wait too long between courses. Even if the server nails the beginning and end of the meal (getting customers seated quickly, making sure they have a drink, getting them the check as soon as the customer’s ready for it), pacing the meal in between those two endpoints is much trickier.

The cure: Servers should watch their tables and try to estimate when diners will be finished with a course to know when to fire the next one. One server at an upscale restaurant says that four or five minutes before diners are finished with their appetizers, she’ll tell the kitchen to fire the main course. How does the server know? The server watches the tables closely. Paying close attention is key to providing good service in general.

7. Sweeping, wiping, clearing dishes
A number of readers objected to bus boys or servers who sweep the floor while guests are dining, who wipe the table with the same cloth used to wipe the chair, who generally disregard hygiene or noisily drop dirty dishes into bins within diners’ earshot.

The cure: Offending bus boys and servers, clean up your act.

8. Tip games
“Do you need change?” This is a question that irked a number ofdiners. The server who rounds up change from a cash tip in his own favor, or who brings the change in big bills in the effort to land a bigger tip also fared poorly.

The cure: Just bring the change, even if you’re not sure it’s necessary. If some smaller bills are needed for the diner to leave a 20 percent tip, then by all means, include some smaller bills.

9. Untimely dish removal
Diners don’t seem to appreciate it when a server begins removing plates before everyone at the table has finished the course. The person still eating feels rushed, and the person whose plate is cleared before everyone else feels like they ate too fast. On the other hand, some diners are bothered when the servers don’t pre-bus or remove some of the dirty, used plates, bowls, etc. from the table because they clutter the table and are unappetizing-looking. So what to do?

As it turns out, it depends on the type of restaurant and on the specific policy of the management. “Some restaurants allow servers to clear plates before everyone’s done,” explains Susskind, and it’s usually the casual spots. In more upscale establishments, he says, “The standard is you don’t clear till everyone’s done.”

The cure: At one fine dining establishment, a server came up with a smart solution. “Normally I don’t clear plates until everyone has finished,” she said, when one of the diners had finished his soup. “But perhaps you’d like me to take this now?” Problem solved, though it was a mouthful for a busy server.

10. The errant wine pour
A server pours the wine all around the table, overfilling the glasses, and comes up empty before getting to the last guest. “Another bottle?” he asks perkily. It may or may not be an honest mistake, but it’s a mistake nonetheless, and in any case it can leave the diner feeling had. Of course, you have to spring for that second bottle.

The cure: This one’s easy. “You’ve got to do the math,” says Michael Flynn, a wine and beverage director at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. A bottle has 25.4 ounces, “so you do some quick division. You have to make sure you’re pouring the same amount in everyone’s glass, no matter how small that portion may be.” And if it’s just three diners, and you’re on the second round of pours? If someone hasn’t been sipping, don’t top off their glass.

Turns out it’s just like most other points of service. “You have to keep an eye on them,” says Flynn. “It’s actually being involved in service, in serving people as they need it.”

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Thanks to Leslie Brenner of the Dallas Morning News for many of these server mistakes.