Diners Are Fed Up With Minimal Service. Will a Little Warmth Win Them Back?
The Marte family took a risk the other night. They went out to eat.
The last time they’d gone out, things quickly unraveled. The queso arrived but the tortilla chips didn’t. Servers delivered enchiladas they didn’t order. When the family complained, their waiter shrugged.
The bill came to more than $50, before tip — a lot for working parents with two young children.
“For us, that’s why takeout is usually the better option,” Jessica Marte said as she settled into a booth at a Chili’s Grill & Bar in a suburb north of Atlanta. “The food is not the problem. Most of the time it’s the service.”
The patience that customers have extended to restaurants over the last few years is wearing thin, especially as menu prices climb and experienced workers are harder to find. A plaintive cry is rising from America’s dining rooms: Can we get some service around here?
And not just any service. Diners say they crave a night out free from QR codes, waiters who don’t seem to care and menus designed to glorify the chef and attract influencers. They want to feel like welcome guests again, wrapped in the kind of warm, competent hospitality they fantasized about while the pandemic took it all away.
Source: The New York Times
