Lessons From The Back of the House

I've learned many things while working in the restaurant field. And I'm not even working in a REAL, full-blown restaurant. It's a cafe that has a full kitchen and serves hot food. But it can get very hectic and stressful when things are busy and every worker is just trying to have everything run smoothly and be polite and helpful to the customers.

Things I've learned that will change the way I dine out:

1.) Try to verify my order a couple times if possible with the waiter/waitress taking the order.

2.) BE PATIENT.

3.) Be friendly to the server. They are dealing with a lot. If you have worked in a restaurant at all, you know that things can get ugly in the back of the house (restaurant term for kitchen). I've no idea what could have just been hurled at them right before they came to our table.... either verbally or physically. :-P lol. We (servers) are very often caught in the middle.

4.) If the food is a little behind, dont shoot the messenger. Most likely, it truly isn't the server... it's the kitchen because if we come around lunch time or dinner, they are bogged down with orders.

And if I see the server running around, they are obviously very busy and who knows! this may be their first or second day.

5.) IF AN ORDER COMES OUT WRONG and I've been waiting a while, TAKE A DEEP BREATH. Just breathe. I promise, we're not gonna die and if I work kindly with them, they will do their best to improvise or change the mistake.

Now if someone works in a restaurant, I've got a whole separate list of things I've learned. That's another can of worms... Looking at things on the flip side!