By the bathroom or by the kitchen...
Years ago, a friend told me that in restaurants, they try to seat you first by the bathroom or by the kitchen when they are available b/c those are the least desirable spots, but they have to be filled. I thought that was strange, but that has proved to be pretty much true. Now that I am aware, I request re-seating.
Anyone have a similar experience?
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4 Comments:
sometimes the odors whofting from the bathroom can distroy the experience. on the other hand: I like sitting with a good view of the kitchen, personally. But I could see why people wouldnt.
As an ex-foh'er: I noticed customer requests do follow this pattern. Worse? Sitting next to the server-station: you tend to hear EVERYTHING!
hungrychristel at 12:20PM on 07/24/09
When I was a hostess, I always gave away the best seats first-the booths, the corners, and the round tables. If you're not absolutely certain that you're going to fill the restaurant, then you may not even need to seat anyone by the bathroom.
michichan at 12:40PM on 07/24/09
Nope.
I read about a person who does restaurant makeovers who said that a restaurant should seat people so that the place appears to be busy. So if there's a front section near windows, seat that area first so that walk-by traffic will see that the place does a good business, which makes it more appealing. With no windows, I suppose then you'd want it to appear full from whatever entrance there is. Whether restaurants know or follow that rule or not, I don't know.
Otherwise, the policy would be to be somewhat fair about filling up the stations for the different servers, so that they get an equal number of tables, and one server isn't slammed with a bunch of new tables all at once.
When I was a lot younger, I used to notice that we often got less desirable seating, and I'm not sure why that was. It's not like I wasn't dressed properly, but maybe they figured young folks wouldn't argue about seating or maybe they just didn't want us to be the most visible patrons in the place.
It might also be that the good tables are held for people with reservations, and the less desirable are given to walk-ins. But if a place is somewhat empty, I can't imagine why they'd fill the less desirable seats first.
Someone in the restaurant business probably has a better answer, but personally, I haven't been seated in an undesirable spot in a long time.
dbcurrie at 12:52PM on 07/24/09
The bathroom and the server's station I do mind sitting there, I don't want to hear server's talking about how hungover they are yadda yadda and I don't want to hear the crapper flush along with all the other noises that come from that room. The kitchen I don't mind sitting by, I like to see the cooks do their thing plus sometimes if they are in a good mood they give you samples of something.
pjracz10 at 5:26PM on 07/25/09