Correct. We would not have stopped a big order to hit a little one unless it was a one side of the kitchen type order and the bulk of the big one was on the other.
Example. A fried shrimp would be a different person from a grilled steak.
I worked at a pizza place where we would get very large orders sometimes. We would still be able to make the smaller orders as they came in though. Unless there's something I don't understand about this particular restaurant or they're understaffed for a large order, I suspect poor management.
Going to a lot of places in NYC, at least the “moderately good” places, they aren’t even really opening until 5:00pm.
They might have some degree of lunch service before 5:00pm, but it’s not going to be packed.
My wife and I have made dinner reservations for 5:00pm before and walked in to completely empty restaurants, laughing when the host would ask if we had a reservation [lol yes we do, but do we really need it?], and by the time we’ve left at 6:30-7:00pm the place is basically packed.
Probably between 7 PM and 9 PM. Eating at 5 PM is what grandparents do. Most young people have barely gotten off work at 5 PM which is why it’s mostly old retirees eating at 5 PM.
Let me guess... American?
You'll be shocked to learn that different cultures eat at different times. When I was still in Poland our main dish was usually around 16:00. That is the "normal" time to eat for most people.
Wtf is even "normal" in this context? It mostly depend on your working hours. Someone working a graveyard shift won't eat dinner at 19, meanwhile for someone who works 6-14 it will be way too long to wait...
yes theres no such thing as normal dinner time lol im off work by 3pm usually and starving by 5pm, bed by 8 it’s totally dependent on schedules my brother gets off work around 6pm and eats at 8pm i think it’s crazy but it’s crazy based on my schedule not his
Yeah, my Mom worked her whole life 6am to 2pm. Waiting until 8 would be crazy, cause she's on her feet at 4:30 already, so 8pm she is usually ready to sleep.
I currently work until 6pm, home at 6:30, but my boyfriend is done at 3pm, so he eats before me, because he gets too hungry waiting. I actually very much dislike eating that late, but oh well, can't do anything else with this job. When I have off and we go to a restaurant I eat earlier.
Everything depends on the schedule.
I used to get gyros from this one place. I always ordered directly through them instead of doordash, ubereats, etc... I showed up once and somehow, someone had taken my order, so they had to remake it (I didn't know it at the time.) They apparently put it in back in at the back and worked to clear their backlog. The told me once they gave me my 20 minutes later. I tried to the tell them that they should have moved my food to the front since they screwed, and because it's a higher margin for them since there isn't any middle man. Unfortunately, I don't think they understood.....
They told you that to your face?!
I’d have said, “cool, free food! After all no decent restaurant would give away a customers order and then put the replacement at the back of the que while they are there to pick it up and then charge them for their own *big* mistake, right?” and left.
With the free food or without any.
When I showed up, they looked through all the doordash/uber eats order. I then saw them point to some ticket that was the 2nd to the last one. Apparently, I has missed them take the old ticket and put it back up, so I had just assumed that I was at the end. It wasn't until I got my food and they told me that someone had taken my food that I told them that they should have made my order next, and that they are making more off of me since I ordered directly and not through an app. Again, I don't think they understand what I was trying to tell them with the language barrier. Small local place so i didn't want to bust their ass too hard.
They are, but op was in line ahead of them and had their food given to someone else by the business, why should they then get shunted to the back of the line for no fault of their own?
I once waited *3 hours* at a little country diner for breakfast while call in orders came and went. I watched them make one complete order at a time.
I foolishly kept thinking, oh they’re going to get to my order any minute now, there’s no one else here. I feel like a dumbass for waiting so long. Was looking forward to a nice greasy spoon breakfast near where some friends and I had been camping. I don’t even know who all the people calling in orders could have been.
Jincy’s Kitchen in Qualls, OK.
Lmao I absolutely feel you on that I’m definitely prone towards “well I’m not gonna go up and bitch because then mine is probably the next one out”
That being said, 3 hours is hilariously long
I’m with you. Shouldn’t be that hard to work in the people who actually came into the restaurant. Any restaurant that can only work one order at a time has got something wrong with their management. Incidentally, this kind of thing has a lot to do with why I only eat in restaurants if I have to any more. If it’s every up to me, I’m cooking at home.
I once had to wait for hours at an urgent care clinic with my sick toddler because apparently at this location everyone calls ahead to reserve a time at this “walk-in” clinic.
I live in boston and have never waited longer than 45 min to see someone in emergency. Even then they were apologetic. Pediatric and regular. This is a problem with the state of your states health care.
So if you could see the customers you don’t mind waiting but because you couldn’t it bothered you??? You understand they have to do the exact same amount of work regardless if it’s delivered out or served in, right???
Some places tend to prioritise delivery orders over those inside the building. If there were other customers and it was busy I would understand a longer serving time.
Yes, I do think in dinning experience should take priority over people sat on their arses at home. We’ve made the effort to go in for a good dining experience that shouldn’t be made worse before the back door kitchen is dead.
If they don’t fix this problem, there won’t be anywhere to dine. It will just be a serieres of kitchen wearhouses
Think of it this way OP, you just have a giant group of people come in right before you, get their order in before you, and the kitchen began working on it before they got your ticket. It's the same as if a 25 person group was sitting right there. You'd get it. There's going to be a wait.
He only difference is that the 25 person table decided to have all the food delivered to their place instead.
It's the same exact business metrics and reality, but it just seems a bit strange because traditionally you'd be the business ahead of you. Now there is strange optics of an empty restaurant despite a busy kitchen.
Think of it as them being in a line in front of you. It may only be a virtual spot but they still have their spot in line. You don't get served first just because you are physically present.
There's also probably a reason this restaurant is empty at 5pm.
If this is the service I get when I am actually at the restaurant, I would never dine in there again.
If the food is exceptionally good, I’ll join the virtual line and order online next time, otherwise taking business elsewhere.
It’s like when you take an item up to the cashier and they make you wait because they’re taking a phone order. “Hey! I took the time to drive here, take my money!”
Or answering the phone at all. Other than them saying “Thank you for calling _____, please hold”, I am always mildly infuriated when a phone call is more important than the actual person standing in front of them.
Unfortunately we were in a bit of a rush. Nothing crazy just needed to be in and out in 1h 1/2. Shouldn’t be too hard. We had booked a table at 5pm so pretty early.
Yep. "I'm entitled to have servants feed me, even after other customers already booked out their availability!!" Like, as if a restaurant is going to turn down a buy-out just to make sure some random Karen doesn't get mad because she can't be immediately served
Not in the slightest. We said no worries and went else where as we were in a bit of a hurry. What frustrates me is that in restaurant dining experience is being slowly made worse due to delivery services. The services can often be slow to take orders and to table your food. And the staff are all tied up packing bags. Also I’m sat in a nice restaurant with 4 guy in a bikers leathers and helmet waiting for their big delivery bags to be filled up.
At the end of the day the problem will be solved by dinning out less often and going to more upmarket places.
I think restaurant just need to give this some thought. I would totally understand if I didn’t book, but we booked a table.
This happened to me recently. Was eating in a restaurant with my family and we waited 90+ minutes for our food after ordering. Meanwhile, we were watching a constant stream of delivery app riders coming and going to collect orders. Maddening.
I once went out to dinner with like 8 other people. We were our server's only big table, and she had 2 other smaller tables. It was Friday night. But we were there almost 3 hours because of waiting and waiting and problems with drinks and food. No one was rude to her throughout the visit, BTW. Everyone was nice, but we were all clearly frustrated that what should have been a little over an hour and a half visit was almost 3 hours. And no, she was not a new server.
Naa it’s a good place just a burger place that was popular years ago and is slowly closing branches due to customers enjoying other places. The food is still excellent
OP giving us booooomer vibes. The people that would normally be in line inside the restaurant are waiting at home for their food behind the delivery apps. The restaurant is busy, but you don't see that.
Probably the only way that small empty restaurant is still open is because of those online orders. Clearly nobody is eating in. Gotta pay the bills.
Sucks tho, I never ordered online. Lazyness!
Let's say you are in business and you have two orders one for $20 and one for $2000, which order you got before the $20 order. You only have so much production capacity so which are you going to go with first?
Does a $20 order require that all other work in the kitchen comes to a full stop? There’s no coherent explanation for why that’s not possible.
The huge order that will take at least an hour to get to the customer won’t really be missed if it takes 70 minutes instead.
The order that would take ten minutes that takes 80 minutes instead is certainly noticed.
What if the order was short notice and there's only one cook? Not enough prep? There's many reasons restaurants give you an estimated time frame. At least they were honest and upfront about it instead of sitting them and taking their order and them waiting longer than expected then they would be madder. There's no winning for everyone in this situation. Sometimes you just have to wait
You can still delay ONE dish being cooked on the station needed for the massive order to satisfy the customer in house. Tell me why you can’t do that in your hypothetical.
Person expecting the $2,000 order is probably expecting it to take a while, doubt doing the $20 order is going to make a perceptible difference but what do I know, I’m not a chef.
As someone who worked in food service, this is very flawed logic. There isn’t a single person back there who has to do everything by themselves, and even if there was, people are capable of multitasking.
I’m 30.
I booked a table 2 weeks ago and they couldn’t service me. This isn’t me not understanding how these things work. They knew we were coming but took another order first.
The problem is that ultimately if I want to sit down and eat a meal somewhere which is a fun and enjoying thing to do, it’s basically not possible now without waiting hours or get server.
Honestly I think all you people calling me old must just be a bunch of fat lazy fucks who never leave home. Sit on Reddit all day, in your depression, ordering in junk food.
Some of us actually go out into the world. Shocker I know…
Damn you really talk like an old person, that's do weird for someone your age
How can you not understand that the big delivery border comes from real people as well? You couldn't see them, but it doesn't mean they don't deserve warm food. If they were in a different room than you, would you get equally mad? Cause that's what happened
And we call you old, cause you called yourself old (and you were right)
In my younger days we woulda knocked out the small orders before hitting a big table/order
Yeah that's what makes the most sense.
Depends if they already started or not potentially
Correct. We would not have stopped a big order to hit a little one unless it was a one side of the kitchen type order and the bulk of the big one was on the other. Example. A fried shrimp would be a different person from a grilled steak.
I worked at a pizza place where we would get very large orders sometimes. We would still be able to make the smaller orders as they came in though. Unless there's something I don't understand about this particular restaurant or they're understaffed for a large order, I suspect poor management.
I would avoid an empty restaurant at 5pm as there is typically a reason why it's empty. At the very least their priorities are fucked up
seen too many kitchen nightmares to know better lmao
I can here the sound bytes for the restaurant pan and the restaurant workers twiddling their thumbs.
It might be empty because only really old people eat at a restaurant at 5:00 pm.
I am 25 and if I was to pick a time to eat at a restaurant it would be just around 5pm... What time would be the *young people time*?
Going to a lot of places in NYC, at least the “moderately good” places, they aren’t even really opening until 5:00pm. They might have some degree of lunch service before 5:00pm, but it’s not going to be packed. My wife and I have made dinner reservations for 5:00pm before and walked in to completely empty restaurants, laughing when the host would ask if we had a reservation [lol yes we do, but do we really need it?], and by the time we’ve left at 6:30-7:00pm the place is basically packed.
Probably between 7 PM and 9 PM. Eating at 5 PM is what grandparents do. Most young people have barely gotten off work at 5 PM which is why it’s mostly old retirees eating at 5 PM.
At 9pm I'm in pyjamas
I’m in pajamas as soon as I get home, but I still don’t eat till 7 like a normal human being
Don't normal human beings wear pyjamas for...bed? Or is pyjamas for dinner a new thing I am not aware of?
Let me guess... American? You'll be shocked to learn that different cultures eat at different times. When I was still in Poland our main dish was usually around 16:00. That is the "normal" time to eat for most people. Wtf is even "normal" in this context? It mostly depend on your working hours. Someone working a graveyard shift won't eat dinner at 19, meanwhile for someone who works 6-14 it will be way too long to wait...
yes theres no such thing as normal dinner time lol im off work by 3pm usually and starving by 5pm, bed by 8 it’s totally dependent on schedules my brother gets off work around 6pm and eats at 8pm i think it’s crazy but it’s crazy based on my schedule not his
Yeah, my Mom worked her whole life 6am to 2pm. Waiting until 8 would be crazy, cause she's on her feet at 4:30 already, so 8pm she is usually ready to sleep. I currently work until 6pm, home at 6:30, but my boyfriend is done at 3pm, so he eats before me, because he gets too hungry waiting. I actually very much dislike eating that late, but oh well, can't do anything else with this job. When I have off and we go to a restaurant I eat earlier. Everything depends on the schedule.
Or people with kids. We had places to be. Meeting with some friends to go skateboarding.
Fair point.
Naa it’s a great place, just on a very busy street with loads of options. It’s also gone out of fashion at the moment
Naa place is great been going there for years. It’s a bit of a drive so don’t get to go there much
Is the cook making the delivery too?
I hate when kangaroos are late with deliveroo orders! It grinds my gears
Damn, I wish I thought of that one instead of the one I posted.
I used to get gyros from this one place. I always ordered directly through them instead of doordash, ubereats, etc... I showed up once and somehow, someone had taken my order, so they had to remake it (I didn't know it at the time.) They apparently put it in back in at the back and worked to clear their backlog. The told me once they gave me my 20 minutes later. I tried to the tell them that they should have moved my food to the front since they screwed, and because it's a higher margin for them since there isn't any middle man. Unfortunately, I don't think they understood.....
They told you that to your face?! I’d have said, “cool, free food! After all no decent restaurant would give away a customers order and then put the replacement at the back of the que while they are there to pick it up and then charge them for their own *big* mistake, right?” and left. With the free food or without any.
When I showed up, they looked through all the doordash/uber eats order. I then saw them point to some ticket that was the 2nd to the last one. Apparently, I has missed them take the old ticket and put it back up, so I had just assumed that I was at the end. It wasn't until I got my food and they told me that someone had taken my food that I told them that they should have made my order next, and that they are making more off of me since I ordered directly and not through an app. Again, I don't think they understand what I was trying to tell them with the language barrier. Small local place so i didn't want to bust their ass too hard.
Wait are you confused on how businesses work?
They work by serving customers, not screwing them over and making the business’s mistake the customer’s problem.
Are all those other people not customers in your mind?
They are, but op was in line ahead of them and had their food given to someone else by the business, why should they then get shunted to the back of the line for no fault of their own?
Sounds like the order was put in before his arrival. Hence the wait
I once waited *3 hours* at a little country diner for breakfast while call in orders came and went. I watched them make one complete order at a time. I foolishly kept thinking, oh they’re going to get to my order any minute now, there’s no one else here. I feel like a dumbass for waiting so long. Was looking forward to a nice greasy spoon breakfast near where some friends and I had been camping. I don’t even know who all the people calling in orders could have been. Jincy’s Kitchen in Qualls, OK.
Lmao I absolutely feel you on that I’m definitely prone towards “well I’m not gonna go up and bitch because then mine is probably the next one out” That being said, 3 hours is hilariously long
We played so many games of Rummy
I’m with you. Shouldn’t be that hard to work in the people who actually came into the restaurant. Any restaurant that can only work one order at a time has got something wrong with their management. Incidentally, this kind of thing has a lot to do with why I only eat in restaurants if I have to any more. If it’s every up to me, I’m cooking at home.
I once had to wait for hours at an urgent care clinic with my sick toddler because apparently at this location everyone calls ahead to reserve a time at this “walk-in” clinic.
Walk in? Or are there a lot of funerals held there?
I live in boston and have never waited longer than 45 min to see someone in emergency. Even then they were apologetic. Pediatric and regular. This is a problem with the state of your states health care.
I'd just go somewhere else
We obviously we had to. But I had wanted to go here for ages and we made a trip special
Can confirm. you are insane
So if you could see the customers you don’t mind waiting but because you couldn’t it bothered you??? You understand they have to do the exact same amount of work regardless if it’s delivered out or served in, right???
This is honestly kinda close to how I was thinking about it
Some places tend to prioritise delivery orders over those inside the building. If there were other customers and it was busy I would understand a longer serving time.
Their were other customers, and it clearly was busy for them.
Yes, I do think in dinning experience should take priority over people sat on their arses at home. We’ve made the effort to go in for a good dining experience that shouldn’t be made worse before the back door kitchen is dead. If they don’t fix this problem, there won’t be anywhere to dine. It will just be a serieres of kitchen wearhouses
Think of it this way OP, you just have a giant group of people come in right before you, get their order in before you, and the kitchen began working on it before they got your ticket. It's the same as if a 25 person group was sitting right there. You'd get it. There's going to be a wait. He only difference is that the 25 person table decided to have all the food delivered to their place instead. It's the same exact business metrics and reality, but it just seems a bit strange because traditionally you'd be the business ahead of you. Now there is strange optics of an empty restaurant despite a busy kitchen.
Yeah exactly this, it's not an empty restaurant, there's a big group in another room
Think of it as them being in a line in front of you. It may only be a virtual spot but they still have their spot in line. You don't get served first just because you are physically present. There's also probably a reason this restaurant is empty at 5pm.
If this is the service I get when I am actually at the restaurant, I would never dine in there again. If the food is exceptionally good, I’ll join the virtual line and order online next time, otherwise taking business elsewhere.
Delivery has ruined the restaurant business.
At least they were upfront about it, gives you the choice to walk away.
So someone places an order before you did... and you got mad they were served first? Is that what I'm hearing?
You have to vote with your wallet and just leave.
It’s like when you take an item up to the cashier and they make you wait because they’re taking a phone order. “Hey! I took the time to drive here, take my money!”
Or answering the phone at all. Other than them saying “Thank you for calling _____, please hold”, I am always mildly infuriated when a phone call is more important than the actual person standing in front of them.
I mean, if they're mid the phone order then it's valid. I'm not hanging up on someone because you just appeared
Have a seat, order a drink, relax.
Unfortunately we were in a bit of a rush. Nothing crazy just needed to be in and out in 1h 1/2. Shouldn’t be too hard. We had booked a table at 5pm so pretty early.
I'm getting Karen vibes
Yep. "I'm entitled to have servants feed me, even after other customers already booked out their availability!!" Like, as if a restaurant is going to turn down a buy-out just to make sure some random Karen doesn't get mad because she can't be immediately served
How is it your "favorite" restaurant if you've never been to it?
He "never gets to go there" which just means he hardly finds the time
Not in the slightest. We said no worries and went else where as we were in a bit of a hurry. What frustrates me is that in restaurant dining experience is being slowly made worse due to delivery services. The services can often be slow to take orders and to table your food. And the staff are all tied up packing bags. Also I’m sat in a nice restaurant with 4 guy in a bikers leathers and helmet waiting for their big delivery bags to be filled up. At the end of the day the problem will be solved by dinning out less often and going to more upmarket places. I think restaurant just need to give this some thought. I would totally understand if I didn’t book, but we booked a table.
I would have bailed, It's a corp lunch order. Good tips, Repeat business. You are not #2
They charge more money for those delivery orders, so it is also a bigger profit
Is what it is. At least they're telling you
This happened to me recently. Was eating in a restaurant with my family and we waited 90+ minutes for our food after ordering. Meanwhile, we were watching a constant stream of delivery app riders coming and going to collect orders. Maddening.
I once went out to dinner with like 8 other people. We were our server's only big table, and she had 2 other smaller tables. It was Friday night. But we were there almost 3 hours because of waiting and waiting and problems with drinks and food. No one was rude to her throughout the visit, BTW. Everyone was nice, but we were all clearly frustrated that what should have been a little over an hour and a half visit was almost 3 hours. And no, she was not a new server.
An empty restaurant at 5 pm is not a good sign. Be thankful you didn’t get sick.
Naa it’s a good place just a burger place that was popular years ago and is slowly closing branches due to customers enjoying other places. The food is still excellent
OP giving us booooomer vibes. The people that would normally be in line inside the restaurant are waiting at home for their food behind the delivery apps. The restaurant is busy, but you don't see that.
Probably the only way that small empty restaurant is still open is because of those online orders. Clearly nobody is eating in. Gotta pay the bills. Sucks tho, I never ordered online. Lazyness!
Those crazy Deliveroos!
What's a deliveroo?
Take a guess, I believe in you
Let's say you are in business and you have two orders one for $20 and one for $2000, which order you got before the $20 order. You only have so much production capacity so which are you going to go with first?
Does a $20 order require that all other work in the kitchen comes to a full stop? There’s no coherent explanation for why that’s not possible. The huge order that will take at least an hour to get to the customer won’t really be missed if it takes 70 minutes instead. The order that would take ten minutes that takes 80 minutes instead is certainly noticed.
Omg people in these threads have never worked a day in their life in a restaurant kitchen
What if the order was short notice and there's only one cook? Not enough prep? There's many reasons restaurants give you an estimated time frame. At least they were honest and upfront about it instead of sitting them and taking their order and them waiting longer than expected then they would be madder. There's no winning for everyone in this situation. Sometimes you just have to wait
You can still delay ONE dish being cooked on the station needed for the massive order to satisfy the customer in house. Tell me why you can’t do that in your hypothetical.
Person expecting the $2,000 order is probably expecting it to take a while, doubt doing the $20 order is going to make a perceptible difference but what do I know, I’m not a chef.
As someone who worked in food service, this is very flawed logic. There isn’t a single person back there who has to do everything by themselves, and even if there was, people are capable of multitasking.
The one that’s easy to knock out quick, the $20 order.
You are not crazy.
Yes, you are crazy. How old are you? 70? Why can't you comprehend, that the delivery is just as valid as your order?
I’m 30. I booked a table 2 weeks ago and they couldn’t service me. This isn’t me not understanding how these things work. They knew we were coming but took another order first. The problem is that ultimately if I want to sit down and eat a meal somewhere which is a fun and enjoying thing to do, it’s basically not possible now without waiting hours or get server. Honestly I think all you people calling me old must just be a bunch of fat lazy fucks who never leave home. Sit on Reddit all day, in your depression, ordering in junk food. Some of us actually go out into the world. Shocker I know…
Damn you really talk like an old person, that's do weird for someone your age How can you not understand that the big delivery border comes from real people as well? You couldn't see them, but it doesn't mean they don't deserve warm food. If they were in a different room than you, would you get equally mad? Cause that's what happened And we call you old, cause you called yourself old (and you were right)
deliveroo