Great Ways to Be a Great Restaurant Customer

Going out to a restaurant is like a dance; when everything’s in rhythm, there’s a gracefulness to it: Servers make you feel good, the kitchen makes its best food, and dinner gets to you right on time. But in this dance, customers aren’t the audience; they’re the partners. Here are a few steps, both for when you’re leading and when you’re following.

1. Make Miss Manners proud

I hate to start this thing off sounding like a scold, but c’mon people, look your server/busser/bartender in the eye, and say, “Please” and “Thank you.” Please. Even I know to do this, and I was raised in a barn. And while I’m at it, here’s some grooming advice: The only cologne worse than Desperation is Entitlement.

2. Work the phones

Making reservations online is great—you can do it whenever you want, like before your morning coffee, when you know you shouldn’t be allowed to talk to people. But once you’re caffeinated, you should feel free to talk to restaurants: Give them a call ahead of time if you’re coming with a friend who has an allergy or is on a special diet; if you’d like a more private table; if you’re going to be late for your reservation; or anything else that’s going to affect how they deal with you. Most places are happy to make special arrangements if they have some advance notice. That way they’ll be ready for your vegetarian mother with an onion allergy and she won’t wind up eating plain buttered noodles. Just remember that you’ll automatically be a more charming conversationalist if you call outside of the dinner rush.

3. Remember that the menu is your friend

I once saw a woman put down her menu without opening it. Instead, she bullied her waiter into reciting every ingredient in the house so she could decide that she wanted the grilled lobster, only steamed, and served with the sauce that goes with the chicken on the side, next to the roasted potatoes that come with the steak. Only the potatoes had to be boiled. If the cooks weren’t going to mangle her food, I was going to find my way into the kitchen to do it for them.

There are places where this is an acceptable, even preferred method of ordering. But if your poor server starts recoiling like you’re a dog with a foamy mouth, you’re not in the right place for it. Remember that a kitchen, during service, is a specialized assembly line. It takes a team working like a machine to crank out 300 dinners in two hours, and they do that best when they’re putting together dishes they’re used to putting together. Don’t gum up the works. We all want food cooked with love, but you really don’t want food cooked with contempt. (Allergies, of course, are an exception, but in that case it’s best to call ahead—both for the cooks’ sanity and your safety.)

4. Consider the obscure

While we’re talking about using the menu, show a little love to the lonely. Let’s face it: Most of the time the steak is there because the chef feels like it has to be there for the people who won’t eat anything else. It’s not a labor of love; it’s an obligation. But probably the pig’s foot or the eel are not there out of obligation. Probably they are there because someone in the kitchen loves them and really wants to do right by them. You want to get in on that action.

Source: Yahoo Shine