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  • Children.

    Background: We are a pretty fancy restaurant. Think very highly priced food and extra sweet and accommodating service to help justify the figures at the end of the bill. The kid's menu has about three things on it and sound much more fancy than they are (chicken nuggets are "chicken goujons"), we don't have a children's dessert menu, although we claim to offer children's ice cream, it's just one scoop of any of the adult-focused ice cream menu rather than three.

    So anyway, yesterday lunchtime shift, we had a table of 20 booked. I was checking the details...it's a kid's party. 14 kids, 6 adults. (In my head I was thinking "A kid's party? Who in their right might would organise a party for children HERE? Why not just take them to McDonalds and a playpark?") My supervisor comes over and allocates me this section of the restaurant to look after. Great. They turn up, the adults are nice people, luckily the kids find their way outside and run around the garden. What made them sucky was the fact that they pre-ordered, and then couldn't remember who had ordered what, so my poor helpers and I were stood around for 5 minutes while the adults argued over who had what. Then trying to take their desert order for their children, I was stood there for a whole 15 minutes while they changed their order over and over and over, and then once more for good luck, and kept asking for things that I had told them weren't on the menu. (Like I said, we're a posh restaurant, so our ice creams are like, Honey, Green Apple, Guinness, Lemon Curd. ) I had to tell one guy 4 times, "I'm sorry, but we don't have chocolate ice cream, we have *reels off list*.
    Finally they leave, and the clean up begins. Somehow, the kids have managed to fill a wine glass with Gravy and Peas. One half pint glass has actually been turned upside down and had a pile of peas smushed onto the top. All the other glasses that had been the kid's glasses or near the kids have a mixture of peas, sausages, mashed potato, unidentifiable bits of chewed meat....you get the picture...in them. The table is smeared in mashed potato and crushed peas. We are forced to get a dustpan and brush out for the things that have been dropped on the floor (and smushed into the carpet) and are actually too big to be hoovered up...
    Ok, I know it's my job to clean up, and I shouldn't moan about it, but our furniture, our menu, even our gardens, aren't exactly made for children. I have BIG RESPECT for those who deal with children's messes all the time.
    As nice and apologetic as the main lady was afterwards, she was friends with my manager, already knew what kind of restaurant we were, and still decided it was the best place to bring kids. A group of under-6s are NOT going to want to come to a fancy restaurant for their birthday. If I'm honest, I think it was more for the adults than the kids.

  • #2
    Since it was a large-party booking, did you at least get a halfway decent tip?

    ^-.-^
    Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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    • #3
      Quoth Andara Bledin View Post
      Since it was a large-party booking, did you at least get a halfway decent tip?
      Ditto that! And might I mention Green Apple ice cream sounds lovely, but Guiness? *gag*
      A lion however, will only devour your corpse, whereas an SC is not sated until they have destroyed your soul. (Quote per infinitemonkies)

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      • #4
        Nope. They were the kind of table that think that I get paid enough to do this job.
        And yeah. We have some really weird ice creams sometimes. It just makes us look even more pretentious.

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        • #5
          Quoth bainsidhe View Post
          Ditto that! And might I mention Green Apple ice cream sounds lovely, but Guiness? *gag*
          Guinness ice cream is amazing. (Ben & Jerry's used to make a Black and Tan ice cream, but stopped after people thought it was named for the brutal gang in the Irish revolution.)

          Any place that sells Guinness ice cream would have my patronage.
          Marvin: "Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cos I don't."

          Krispy Kreme puts the "ugh" back in "doughnuts".

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          • #6
            If you didn't get a tip then the management is part to blame. I cannot name a single restaurant I have ever been to, chain or private, that did not automatically add a gratuity to the bill for parties of a certain size.

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            • #7
              Quoth TheComputerError View Post
              (Ben & Jerry's used to make a Black and Tan ice cream, but stopped after people thought it was named for the brutal gang in the Irish revolution.)
              Oh, is that where that vanished to? grrrrr.


              And I don't even like Guinness, although I do use it to cook.
              The High Priest is an Illusion!

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              • #8
                Quoth TheComputerError View Post
                Ben & Jerry's used to make a Black and Tan ice cream, but stopped after people thought it was named for the brutal gang in the Irish revolution.
                Which is a shame, 'cause it was very tasty.

                Stupid "people."

                ^-.-^
                Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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                • #9
                  WTF? Apparently these children have never been taught how to eat at the table. I guarrantee you that my 4 year old nephew could be taken to pretty much any restaurant and he would sit there and quietly and politely eat his food without any of it ending up where it shouldn't.

                  ReverendBSB - there are some restaurant chains that actually have a corporate policy against automatic gratuity. I used to work for one of those. It made large parties suck that much more. Most of the time you'd end up with little or not tipe, either because they assumed that the gratuity was included or everyone assumed someone else at the table would leave "enough".
                  Don't wanna; not gonna.

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                  • #10
                    Quoth TheComputerError View Post
                    Ben & Jerry's used to make a Black and Tan ice cream, but stopped after people thought it was named for the brutal gang government organization in the Irish revolution.)
                    Er, slight rewording needed in there They were a bit more than just a gang. Decide for yerself.

                    I wonder if they'll ever re-release that flavor under a more appropriate name, tho? What was in it, anyway? If it was peanut butter and chocolate I just might march up to their HQ myself and sit on them til they agree to rename and re-release it
                    "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                    "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                    "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                    "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                    "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                    "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                    Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                    "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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                    • #11
                      Quoth Andara Bledin View Post
                      Which is a shame, 'cause it was very tasty.

                      Stupid "people."

                      ^-.-^
                      Yeah imagine that....some people getting offended by something named after thugs....

                      Of course then again, somebody doesnt' mind naming an info service after the KGB....
                      Last edited by mikoyan29; 04-02-2010, 05:02 AM.

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                      • #12
                        Quoth EricKei View Post
                        Er, slight rewording needed in there They were a bit more than just a gang. Decide for yerself.

                        I wonder if they'll ever re-release that flavor under a more appropriate name, tho? What was in it, anyway? If it was peanut butter and chocolate I just might march up to their HQ myself and sit on them til they agree to rename and re-release it
                        I'll concede that the Black and Tans were a bit more than a gang.

                        Ben and Jerry's Black and Tan ice cream combined real cream stout swirled in with chocolate ice cream, and topped off with a foamy stout ice cream head. Delicious.
                        Marvin: "Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cos I don't."

                        Krispy Kreme puts the "ugh" back in "doughnuts".

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Quoth mikoyan29 View Post
                          Yeah imagine that....some people getting offended by something named after thugs....
                          Well I'd be a bit miffed if it had been named after thugs, myself.

                          But since it was named after a type of drink, it's a little silly to get miffed over the name.

                          Although they should have done a bit more research on it before releasing it as a St Patrick's Day special...

                          ^-.-^
                          Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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                          • #14
                            Quoth mikoyan29 View Post
                            Of course then again, somebody doesnt' mind naming an info service after the KGB....
                            ...are you serious? What a thing to do.
                            Now a member of that alien race called Management.

                            Yeah, you see that right. Pink. Harness.

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                            • #15
                              That ice cream does indeed sound nummy

                              Quoth RetailWorkhorse View Post
                              ...are you serious? What a thing to do.
                              Yup. http://news.kgb.com/

                              Their commercials are starting to get annoying, tho, clever as some of them are >_<
                              "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                              "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                              "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                              "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                              "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                              "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                              Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                              "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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