I Reviewed Restaurants for 12 Years. They've Changed, and Not for the Better | Hacker News Reader

I Reviewed Restaurants for 12 Years. They've Changed, and Not for the Better

nytimes.com

34 pointsmikhael18 comments

A friend who worked in hospo told me “the two most important waits for customer service are the time between someone walking in the door and them having a drink in their hand, and the time between deciding they want to leave and being out the door. Keep those short and they won’t remember anything else”.

At Australian restaurants you simply pay at the counter on the way out, and I prefer it by far. The faff around with asking for the cheque, doing the tiny paperwork and waiting for your card to be returned seems like a small inconvenience but it is irritating when you want to go.

I don’t think another app that takes a cut of the restaurants earnings is what I want for solving this, though.

Funny enough that's how it used to be at restaurants in the 90s in the US. I remember most of the time we'd eat out the server would drop the check off on our table, but then my parents would walk to the counter and pay. It was easier for everyone. I am honestly not sure when this stopped being as common or why... It might even just be that there's not enough real estate space to accommodate it.

A lot of places where I go here (Ohio) are still that way.

Just tonight, I stopped in at a fairly new little Mexican hole in the wall for dinner. When I was finished, I just walked up to the register by the front door and paid my bill.

(See also: Waffle House.)

Commas are important. Please don’t eat out your server.

Why is paying a multi-step process? Back in the day you would wave, get the bill, get your wallet out, round up a bit and walk out after putting cash on the tray. Now with cards, why is the payment terminal not brought over at once? Do most people really check their receipts carefully?

I often also do an Australian: I simply walk up to the bar or whatever and ask to pay. If I know I am not having anything beside the main, I often simply ask to pay when they serve me.

Higher probability of making a final sale. Another drink, sir? Uh, sure.

> Now with cards, why is the payment terminal not brought over at once?

Is it not? Is that another US thing?

In my experience in Europe, every waiter either has a card terminal with them or grabs one from the counter on their way to you. Smaller places might ask you to step to the counter if they only have one stationary terminal, but still, no waiting or handing your card to the waiter (!?!?) is involved.

Depends on the restaurant, but no. The way it traditionally works is they'll bring you a little notebook with the receipt that you put your card in. The waiter picks it up, walks over to a terminal, and does the transaction before bringing you the card and true receipts.

That's slowly going away though.

The multi-step checkout seems to be mostly an old school remnant. I find that modern more casual restaurants are more likely to bring the terminal to you. The more expensive restaurants are not

One of my hobbies is to dress semi-formal, go to a restaurant, and put a brown leather notebook & fountain pen on the table while ordering slightly eccentrically and following etiquette to point. I then take notes on the food before the next dish arrives, letting them see that. This seems to increase quality of service.

A friend of mine worked at a restaurant when he was younger. He said carrying a food thermometer got you quick excellent service with hot food.

I bet that works great until they happen to see your notebook and it just has "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" written it over and over

Luckily that problem is easily solved by... actually writing about the food.

Related After 12 years of reviewing restaurants, I'm leaving the table (147 points, 22 days ago, 176 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40979539

https://archive.today/EnAMk

Sounds like an American issue. In Germany (at least in Berlin), things still operate largely as they did 30 years ago. I wonder how much of this is the Bay Area automation cancer bleeding out into other areas in the US. I hope the market corrects itself and it does not invade other countries.

Dumb American solutions to dumb American problems have already started invading my corner of Europe. Adyen card terminals, which I otherwise quite like, come with a tip selection screen by default and most places don't turn it off.

It turns a normal "you did your job and brought me a drink, I'll do my job and pay the price on the menu" interaction, where nobody even thought about tips, into "I have decided you don't deserve a bit of extra change and you will watch me press the NO button".

It's such a clear dark pattern, they could've just let you press the +10% button or pay immediately, but no, you have to press the zero tip button for the NFC coil to activate. </UnrelatedRant>

I just happily press no. The reason it is there is because Americans insist on tipping, even if it is impossible. They will leave cash on the table if they can’t do it on the card.

Source: ex-American and travelled with Americans

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