All posts tagged: Restaurant

8 Behaviors Restaurant Servers Immediately Notice About Awful Customers

8 Behaviors Restaurant Servers Immediately Notice About Awful Customers

We underestimate how influential rude customers are on service workers. Not only do they create more stress, but they can harm mental health and productivity. Paying for a service comes with expectations, especially in a time where spending money on a meal is becoming a luxury. But there are still noticeable behaviors restaurant servers instantly recognize about their awful customers. Restaurant servers recognize these behaviors in awful customers 1. They don’t do small talk BearFotos | Shutterstock Many of the rudest customers don’t see service workers as people, but as robots to fulfill their desires. They overlook all the basic parts of human connection, like eye contact and small talk, in favor of their own comfort. Servers can tell just how much grace and empathy someone has right away because they feel dehumanized. Customers like this don’t say hello to anyone. They don’t use their basic manners. They may not even respond to “How are you?” from a server, instead jumping right into ordering. RELATED: 10 Annoying Habits of People Who Don’t Know How To …

We’re over restaurant slop – Salon.com

We’re over restaurant slop – Salon.com

Recently, between medical appointments, I ended up at a grain-bowl-and-salad place in a suburban strip mall, the kind of sleek fast-casual restaurant that looks a little like an Apple Store decided to start serving brown rice and green goddess dressing. There were a few customers in scrubs and two self-order kiosks, both broken. The menu wasn’t posted anywhere else, except via a QR code printed on the back of several glossy takeout menus behind the register, which the cashier repeatedly warned us not to take because they only had a few. The bowls themselves were fine. Watching them come together was more memorable: the cashier held each plastic container practically at arm’s length as he scooped, two vapes clacking around in his apron pocket, with the air of someone completing a task wholly unrelated to food. What arrived cost about $14 and tasted perfectly acceptable. It was also, somehow, shockingly anonymous. There’s a word for this feeling now: slop.  It describes several overlapping anxieties about modern restaurant food, but its prehistory belongs, at least partly, …

Dylan Jones: What matters most in a really good restaurant? Where you sit

Dylan Jones: What matters most in a really good restaurant? Where you sit

Wiltons is probably the best-kept secret in London, the venerable fish restaurant which claims to be the capital’s oldest (1742, they reckon, although some of their customers I think might be older), and which many people still think is a private members’ club. I first got taken there by S I Newhouse, the Manhattan genius who steered Condé Nast to glory, back when glossy magazines were really a thing. I knew more about the power dynamics of publishing than anyone I’d ever met and made a point of taking his British editors to Wiltons on his annual trips to London because he thought it was what they deserved. To him it was the quintessential British experience, assuming all the other diners were either lords or ladies; I never contradicted him, even when I knew that most people in the room worked for Goldman Sachs. Source link

Quaglino’s reopening: London restaurant news and new openings

Quaglino’s reopening: London restaurant news and new openings

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today. Join today Already a member? Log in Sign up to IndyEat’s free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our food and drink newsletter for free Get our food and drink newsletter for free London restaurants are rather fond of rebirth. Close the doors, rip out something expensive that somebody else installed five years ago, add a bar, call it a “new chapter” and hope everyone has forgotten what the old one was like. Sometimes, though, a comeback is worth paying attention to. This week, one of London’s great grand dining rooms is dusting itself off, a Soho dim sum restaurant has somehow persuaded one of cinema’s greatest directors to oversee its makeover and the restaurant claiming to serve London’s best Sunday lunch is venturing beyond Borough Market for the first time in two decades. Elsewhere, Kiln appears to be quietly producing half of the next generation of London restaurateurs, the Kudu team have …

London restaurant news: The world’s best pizza is now in Chiswick

London restaurant news: The world’s best pizza is now in Chiswick

Sign up to IndyEat’s free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our food and drink newsletter for free Get our food and drink newsletter for free The best pizza in the world can now be found in London. To make matters worse, the awards ceremony was held in Naples. Napoli on the Road has taken the global number one spot for the first time, after three years as Europe’s best pizzeria. Elsewhere, Smithfield is starting to get interesting, Luke Farrell is taking things up a notch in Marylebone, Canary Wharf has found another roof upon which to put a restaurant and Chelsea is opening somewhere where you can have dinner in a bath. Here’s what’s new in London restaurants this week. The world’s best pizza is now in London There are awards that need explaining and others that do not. Napoli on the Road has been named the best pizzeria in the world. Michele Pascarella’s London operation took first place in the 50 Top Pizza World 2026 ranking, ahead of Una …

Burger King addresses customer backlash over ‘nugget-sized’ hand bag

Burger King addresses customer backlash over ‘nugget-sized’ hand bag

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Burger King’s new nugget-sized handbag has caused a stir among fans. The fast food chain announced a revamp to their chicken nuggets and accompanying sauces last month. As part of the celebration, Burger King then launched “Le Nugguette” — a miniature handbag big enough only to store nuggets. Retailing for $3.99, the handbag has been made available to customers in limited daily drops from September 12-16. Only 100 bags were up for grabs at lenugguettebk.com — but those lucky enough to score one also received one of four sauce-inspired charms and a voucher redeemable for a four-piece chicken nuggets order. Customers hoping to purchase a bag have been left disappointed by the rollout, as it appeared to sell out within seconds of the noon …

Carolina Herrera Brought Back Mortimer’s, the Famous Upper East Society Restaurant, For One Night Only

Carolina Herrera Brought Back Mortimer’s, the Famous Upper East Society Restaurant, For One Night Only

The owner, Glenn Bernbaum, fastidiously organized the seating arrangements: Well-known regulars got the tables along the walls, whereas up-and-comers were seated at tables down the middle. “A food critic dining anonymously at Mortimer’s once described the welcome accorded walk-ins as a greeting normally given to bill collectors,” wrote The New York Times of the restaurant. To be fair, no one really went to Mortimer’s for the food. “The professional dieters in the crowd often make a meal out of an appetizer selection, asparagus vinaigrette, say, or tomatoes basil, cucumber, and dill salad and mushrooms with fines herbes,” read a 1980 account of Mortimer’s in The Daily News. Instead, it was about vibes. Regulars included Henry Kissinger, Oscar de la Renta, and Brooke Astor—the latter of two threw a buzzy dinner for Renata Adler’s made-for-television movie Reckless Disregard. Bill Paley (CBS Chairman and husband of Babe Paley) often dined there with his daughter, Kate (the step-aunt of Belle Burden, the New York Times best-selling author of Strangers.) Farrah Fawcett dined there with Ryan O’Neal and Valentino …

London restaurant news: Britain’s largest Italian restaurant is coming to Olympia

London restaurant news: Britain’s largest Italian restaurant is coming to Olympia

Sign up to IndyEat’s free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our food and drink newsletter for free Get our food and drink newsletter for free There is, apparently, no such thing as too many Italian restaurants in London, only insufficiently ambitious floorplans. Olympia is about to test the theory. The latest arrival will have room for 500 people and ovens capable of turning out 300 pizzas an hour – because sometimes the answer to “does London really need another Italian?” is simply to build one large enough to count as infrastructure. Elsewhere, things are happening on a slightly more human scale. Romy Gill is finally opening her first permanent London restaurant, Lisa Goodwin-Allen is bringing a taste of the Mediterranean to the gardens behind Selfridges, Covent Garden is getting a restaurant whose chef genuinely does own the farm and Mayfair has found, against considerable odds, room for another steakhouse. And if none of that appeals, America is sending sandwiches. Juno, Olympia Olympia’s £1.3bn redevelopment has decided what west London really …

Major UK restaurant chains, home store and more close over 100 sites | UK | News

Major UK restaurant chains, home store and more close over 100 sites | UK | News

Several major UK businesses have taken the difficult decision to shut their doors this week. It represents a testing period for companies nationwide amid shifting consumer behaviour and rising costs. This week, major restaurant chains and well-known retail outlets have revealed closures. Pub restaurant brands Brewers Fayre and Beefeater shut over 100 locations this week as both brands wound down. Meanwhile, a well-known outdoor retailer is shutting three additional UK outlets. Additionally, a homeware retailer closed its original store. Millets Outdoor retailer Millets is shutting three UK branches as it initiates “everything must go” clearance sales. It is preparing to shut its outlets in Chippenham, Tenby and Bracknell. The retailer stocks outdoor apparel, footwear and camping gear. It operates 47 outlets nationwide but previously had approximately 120. The Chippenham outlet launched a clearance sale on September 8, with a sale already running at the Tenby branch. Bracknell’s location shuts on September 12. Millets’ outlets in Portsmouth, Ipswich, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Hitchin are among those which have already shut. A clearance sale has been under way …

Are dogs the new fine diners? The rise of restaurant pet menus

Are dogs the new fine diners? The rise of restaurant pet menus

Sign up to IndyEat’s free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our food and drink newsletter for free Get our food and drink newsletter for free At The Chalk Freehouse in Chelsea, Tom Kerridge has decided that simply letting the dog into the pub is no longer enough: now it gets its own Sunday lunch. “The Dog’s Dinner”, launched at the end of August and running every Sunday through autumn, is a complimentary roast for dogs whose owners are eating from the pub’s Sunday menu. Developed with fresh dog food brand Butternut Box, it includes pork, dog-friendly roast potatoes, crushed carrot and Yorkshire pudding. The human sitting opposite is likely to be eating 30-day dry-aged rib-eye. Nobody, human or otherwise, needs to suffer the indignity of looking longingly at anybody else’s plate. The small print adds that “cats and rabbits are subject to the manager’s discretion”, although the pub says none has yet tested the policy. Hot dog: some will be reeling from the prospect of dogs at dinner tables – …