Restaurants - pet hates

My pet hate is in bar restaurants where the customers have to help themselves to cutlery/napkins from a communal table. The cutlery is often packed tightly together and almost impossible to just touch what you’re lifting.

I haven’t been in any of these places since easing of restrictions but hopefully it’s now regarded as poor hygiene practice.

Slates? That’s a new one, hope it doesn’t come here ! I agree with phones and also lukewarm food. I always ask for extra hot coffee, too . I don’t care about their safety rules. Warm coffee is warm coffee. Euuugh.

My pet hate is people using their phones and not comunicating with who they are with,especially families.
And it`s ignorant not to look at the person serving them to say thank you when their order is placed in front of them.

I dislike undercooked food. The family eat steak in various stages of cooking. DH eats his steak ‘Bleu’.
I can live with that, but pink pork, oozing lamb, and a slice of beef from a joint that looks as if it saw the oven for a few minutes, once upon a time and has been waiting around in a warm atmosphere? No thank you.
Another dislike is fiddly bits that are added by hand. I hate the thought of my food being touched and messed about with. If you can’t add a garnish with tongs, don’t add it.

I dislike incredibly long menus as it must mean they have a huge variety of food pre prepped and frozen ready to pop into the microwave.
I don’t serve microwave ready meals at home so why go out for one and pay huge amounts of money for the privilege.

The overuse, imho, of the word ‘enjoy’ seemingly used by whoever is serving you something to eat. It’s almost a command lol.

Six of us ate in a very pretentious celebrity-chef restaurant one time. A waiter circled our table constantly.
My husband took a sip of water and put his glass down. The waiter immediately stepped forward and moved the glass by an inch, presumably to the "correct" position.
We found it intrusive, overbearing and rude.

My pet hate in restaurants is loud music

OH lived and worked in Albania for a couple of years. I would visit during my holidays. The food was plentiful and tasty but… if you ordered, say fish,salad, bread and chips, it would arrive over the course of about an hour. Maybe chips and bread first followed by fish when you had nothing left to eat it with. Salad might arrive just before the bill. I think there was one restaurant we went to which got it right. But if we ordered wine the waiter was dispatched to a nearby supermarket to buy a bottle.

Yes, Lucca! I always think it’s stupid serving food on top of a napkin. It inevitably renders the napkin useless. Don’t know who originally thought this was a good idea! ?

haha, getting my language mixed up. Yes, your crisps, my chips.

When drinks arrive after the food!

Canadiangran- that's crisps to us!
Chips are what you call 'French Fries'!

I always checkout the menu online before we go too.

I do not like slates I ask for a plate I ask for a clean glass if there are watermarks on my glass. I don’t like gravy or sauce poured over a meal. I like a little jug of sauce or gravy so I can pour it on my meal myself. I don’t like a mound of food on a plate it’s off putting.
If it’s just me and DH I do not like being sat at a table for four. I refuse to sit near the toilets. I don’t like going upstairs to eat as I am not good on stairs.

CanadianGran that could be a new quiz!???

Mollygo, you made me laugh with the deconstructed crumble! Which leads me to think of pretentious menus.

Thinly sliced pommes-de-terre fricaseed in hand pressed oil of locally grown canola. In other words: chips.

Not a hate (because really isn’t hate a bit strong for a bit of a niggle ,…). But I find it weird when a sandwich for example arrives on a plate but sitting on the napkin which is then often covered in Mayo for example and therefore useless.

Esspee

Another pet hate is brioche buns. They are cake. Why oh why do they think we want cake with burgers?

Disagree .. I love brioche buns with burgers

I dislike salads served to the table with dressing or sauce already on it. I want a fresh crispy salad and the sauce/dressing separate so that I can add as much or as little as I like.
I can’t abide soggy salad.

Imagine being in a restaurant and surrounded by half a dozen very polite waiters... each time one of us spilt the tiniest crumb one of them would rush up with a miniature dustpan and brush and sweep it up. And yes, everything was served on slates or boards. Delicious meal though.

I hate it when they serve everything with rocket. There really is no need. Is there a glut of the stuff somewhere which must must be got rid of at all costs? What is this obsession with rocket?

Deconstructed anything! If I order e.g. Apple crumble I don’t expect 3 piles
apple, crumble and a scoop of icecream

Sarnia agree, out of control children and sometimes if outside both children and dogs. No problem with ordering on an app.

Restaurants are my pet hate! I now refuse to eat worse than at home with a frozen meal and pay ridiculous prices for it!