Restaurant Etiquette

I'd move if there wasn't any food.

If I'd started eating, not a chance.

I'm not sure I'd request a drink, but they might lost a good chunk of tip if they didn't deal with it well.

It would sour the evening slightly to be fair.

kd
 
[TW]Fox;23137839 said:
You miss the point. Decent people shouldn't NEED a free drink to move, but decent restuarants shouldn't expect customers to rectify mistakes the restuarant has made without an offer of something by way of compensation.
Click to expand...

They didn't expect the couple to do anything, they just asked if they would move and they chose not to. The couple were always free to turn say no and to leave, which they did...

Of course I understand the deal sweetener that is "have a free drink" but to be honest it's not really much of an issue to just get up and move, you never know the restaurant might have given them their meal for free - things like this have happened in the past to me when I haven't kicked up a fuss.
 
Zefan said:
They didn't expect the couple to do anything, they just asked if they would move and they chose not to. The couple were always free to turn say no and to leave, which they did...
Click to expand...

No, that doesn't appear to be what happened at all. They were asked to move - and refused. Then entire thing was escalated to management, and there was 'a bit more moaning' (Not sure if this was from the OP or the people already on the table) THEN they left.

Basically, they were asked to move, said no thank you, somebody then created a scene and they left through either embarrasment or irritation at being expected to correct somebody elses mistake. What a rude interuption to the evening they were having and all because somebody at the restaurant was unable to manage bookings correctly.

This was not the fault of the OP.
This was not the fault of the people who were allocated his table

Yet both of these groups of people were drawn into a conflict in a public place during what was supposed to be an enjoyable evening. All because a business was unable to manage its processes correctly.
 
If I'd been a walk in, sat down, and even without drinks was asked to move, I'd leave the restaurant.

With drinks, I'm already well into the swing of enjoying the evening. No chance would I move to another table, the restaurant staff messed up, their problem.

There is absolutely no issue with the behaviour of the people sat at 'your' table, totally the fault of the restaurant.
 
I'm not saying the restaurant wasn't to blame, you seem to be stuck on that point a little bit!

What I'm saying is that it makes sense to me to move without making too much of a fuss. In my experience doing things like this turns out well. I've had free meals before from being messed around like that. I didn't expect it, I just got it because I didn't throw my teddies.

:edit: Just in case you misread what I'm saying Fox, I'm not saying they should have moved, I'm just saying what I would have done.
 
If they were good seats then I would not move, i was sat there buy the staff, the can give the person who booked it them free drink, not my problem.
 
Conanius said:
If I'd been a walk in, sat down, and even without drinks was asked to move, I'd leave the restaurant.

With drinks, I'm already well into the swing of enjoying the evening. No chance would I move to another table, the restaurant staff messed up, their problem.

There is absolutely no issue with the behaviour of the people sat at 'your' table, totally the fault of the restaurant.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this. I'd have walked out before agreeing to move.
 
There is no right or wrong way with this one. A mistake was made, and it's up to the restaurant to decide how best to handle it. A customer is a customer and all should be treated the same.. and trying to force someone else to move is not a particularly brilliant idea.

Sounds like they tried, and the couple refused (within their rights to me it sounds)... and then you should have accepted a mistake was made, and try to work it out. I would certainly expect some sort of apology in the form of wine/discount/extras for their mistake though.

Would I move with just having drinks? Yes, most likely... but only if the restaurant apologised (verbally).. should I be expected to move? No.

Was there any REAL reason to have only that seat, other than you booking that one? Any history behind it?
 
It depends on a few things, but mainly I think it would be the time I had been seated, I don't see my having a plate in front of me or not being the deciding factor. I can often go for quite some time before ordering the meal (not always by design) and if I had been quite settled I wouldn't be happy about being asked to shift, especially if there weren't any decent tables to be reseated at, and if there were, I would already be taking a dislike to someone coming in and on discovering the mistake, demanding that I be moved from 'their' table rather than them accepting the restaurant's apologies and getting on with their evening.

I reckon that if someone had come in here saying that they had gone into a restaurant, been seated at a nice table, got some drinks in and were enjoying their evening out, then a while later the waiter came over to tell them that their table should have been reserved and that the people who had just arrived wanted them to move, and that after asking why these people couldn't just accept there had been a mistake and be seated elsewhere, the people with the reservation demanded they have 'their' table, and so on...

We'd see the same white knights saying how unreasonable the people who had booked the table were.
 
The exact same thing happened to me a few years ago - except I was part of the group seated first.

We were given a seat overlooking the band, on the balcony, and had only been seated three or four minutes when the manager walked over and told us we'd been seated there by mistake and a booking was due. The girls didn't want to move, but we got offered a free bottle of wine and were offered a different table - so we moved. If food had been on the table, they wouldn't have found it quite so easy - we hadn't even ordered drinks yet!
 
I had this on a plane before where I specifically paid for an emergency exit seat due to me 6'3 frame not being to comfortable in a normal economy class seat on a 13 hour flight. Turned up to find a family of ugly dwarves planted across the seats, one of them in my seat. I politely asked the guy to move. He pointed at his haggard wife and child and said he needed to sit with them as the child is sick. I said then move the child to your seat as this is my seat and I'm sitting there. He then offered to pay the difference at which point I got annoyed with him and quite pointedly asked him to bugger off my seat. Air stewardess came over and ask him to move too. He then 'demanded' an upgrade to first class for him and his family or he's not moving. Finally when the stewardess explained that the plane won't leave until he moved, he buggered off in a huff. Shortly after the wife had to move too as she was in another tall guy's seat. Weird people.
 
I don't think it's unreasonable to book a specific table in advance and expect to be seated at that table on the night - nothing wrong on the OP's part.

The other couple WERE a bit unreasonable (although quite within their rights) not to move if they only had drinks - we probably would have done as I'd have no wish to ruin someone else's evening - but had they been eating by that stage, then no way.

It was the restaurant's balls-up, not that of the OP or the other couple at the table, so they (restaurant) should have been hit in the pocket. At worst, free drinks for both couples or ideally, a sizeable discount on both couple's bills at the end of the evening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom