An interesting lunch date

Today I went and had a lunch date with my hubby (sans baby). It was nice to not have to worry about her eating/throwing food. However, our server was clearly new to the job. I’ve waited tables before, so I know about the training time and how long it takes to learn, etc., so I’m very sympathetic. However, he was a little too new.

After sitting 5 minutes (really, not an exaggeration) I finally caught the eye of another server who called to to hostess to see who our server was. After she told him, he said, “okay, I got it” and then walked right passed our table. Thankfully, somebody had already brought us some water. When he finally came to our table, did he greet us, offer us another drink, no. He said, “so have you looked at the menu, do you know what you want?” Sort of abrasive. I asked what ingredients came on a certain lunch, and said “I’m new, can you point it out to me?” so, I did and he proceeded to read to me that it came with a greek salad and fries. Well, fortunately, I already know how to read, so I knew that…what I didn’t know was what came on the gyro. So, he walked over to a waitress and asked her and when she saw that he clearly didn’t get it, she walked over and told me.

So, we ordered, and amazingly, it almost came out perfect, we were just missing salad dressing for our salads, no biggie!

He did a pretty good job checking on our water, but never asked how the food was. Thanksfully, it was good.

During our meal (which this is a HUGE pet-peeve for me) he put the check down next to hubby and didn’t even say anything. Hubby gave his credit card and the waiter came and took it and processed it and brought it back. He proceeded to dig through his apron and presented hubby with a pen….and then STOOD there! I was thinking, maybe he only has one pen, so I saw “hubby, I have a pen, why don’t you give him his back.” The waiter says “no, it’s okay, I just need a signed copy.” Was he waiting to see right then and there what tip we leave? I was totally dumb-founded. Hubby, being the nice guy that he is, didn’t say anything. I said “we’ll be sure to leave it on the table” at which point he finally left. It was very awkward.

I felt really bad for the guy because he just didn’t get it (and I don’t think he ever will). He went back to a neighboring table about 5 times after they ordered to verify their order. I’m sure he won’t last very long.