They waiting for your tip!

Most of waiters/waitress live with the tip they collect because the salary is usually around 5000 baht/month or little more...

I remember once such instance where, many years ago, my colleagues and myself went to a restaurant nearby our office for lunch. We ordered a number of dishes, but after 40 minutes, only a few basic meals turned up. When we asked where the rest of the dishes were, the reply....


"Sorry sir, the Chef is on his lunch break"


*facepalm*

This is going back 15 years but anyway.
I sat down to eat with my friend at Madrid in Patpong. I ordered a chili dog and my friend ordered a burger. My chili dog was ok but my friends burger seemed to be infused with hair. the first couple of times he cut through the meal, all that was attached to the fork was meat, bun, lettuce etc. As he neared the middle, the burger became more hair and less burger. At that point he pulled the burger apart, and I kid you not, it had a large clump of hair in it, and I mean a handful. I was glad that I had already eaten my doggie as seeing that nearly made me retch. What's worse is that he pulled out the hair (as best he could) and continued to eat the burger, which was some acheivement as it is not easy to seperate meat, from a hair clump of that size. This was despite my protests that he should send the fur-burger back as I cannot imagine any chef in his right mind refusing to take that hairball back. In the end, he left 1/3 of the burger and all of the hair on the plate. The waitress did a double take when she collected the plate, but didn't say anything.
Needless to say I never went back, but amazingly, my friend did. He did comment that he never saw a burger as furry as that again.

the double pricing always looses my business...

thier was this thai bbq place and always went with Thai friends, very cheap and the food was great, went by myself the food was still great only the prices were 3 times more.... That was that, never been back since, even refuse to go with thai friends....

Happened at a great seafood place as well. I will never knownly pay 2 - 3 times more because my skin is white.

Other than that the misshaps (wrong order, food order never relayed to the kitchen, says fresh not really fresh...) all that is so common here I don't even give it a second thought it used to drive me crazy and lead to I am never coming here again thought.... The problem was after a while their will be no restruants to visit. Infact in my several years here I can not think of one restruant that I have been to that has not had a misshap at least a couple of times, it seems par for the course

I don't go for the "farang gets served last" rule, keeps me away from a place. Big with the hicks from Issan, but hardly ever get it south of Bangkok.

Only two cases that i can think of at the moment.

the first was at a place that my family and i ate at on a regular basis. One of my kids knocked a water glass off the table and broke it. They put a 100 baht charge on the bill for a 10 baht water glass. When I questioned the price they said it cost avlot for gas to drive to town to buy another.

The second was at the next place my family and i became regulars at. I always ordered Singh beer since the choice was between Singh and Chang. The first beer they served me was a singh as usual. Then the brought me a Chang. i sent the chang back and told them to bring me the singh like always. When the bill came they insisted that I pay for the Chang since they had already opened it.

Both places lost 4 steady customers by being a little greedy.

Gads. I'd walk out of a place if there were just this many whiney customers!

As for the waiters waiting for the tip - I make a habit of not opening up the change thingy until they leave the area. Record was 6 mins at a bar that I won't mention here. Let em squirm I say. What's the rush, do you think you will change your mind and not tip if they don't grab it there and then? Do they think it will magical dissolve if not recovered in less than a minute?

Another thing that drives me up the wall is waiters / waitresses who are rude - pushy. Recently at a nice italian restaurant on soi 33, my wife and i arrived for an early dinner at 630pm. Probably about 7 waiters standing around. As we sit down one comes up and says "would you like a drink" to which I replied "yes may i see your drink menu". She came back with a menu and stood there for a minute while we decided.

Off she went with our order (heineken and an ice tea). She returned back a minute later and asked what we would like to eat. I said "in a moment please, we haven't decided yet, could we have our drinks please". So she walked away in a huff and returned with our drinks a minute later. We then placed our order. Don't think we were being too demanding?

Now I don't put it all on her, but if the management refuses to ensure their staff have a clue about tact and politeness to go with the so-called upscale persona and prices of their restaurant - I would rather not visit again. Too bad, cause the food was very good.

I realize they are waiting for the tip and I do tip but I always let them put the tray down and I continue my conversation or reading my paper till they go away. I hate when they stand there. same with the menu, i tell them to come back in 5 minutes as they hand you a menu and expect you to order immediately.

that being said it is sure nicer to pay a fraction of the cost in a western country restaurant so i will let a lot of things pass

Can I use these space to speak about coffee. When I order my Latte it will often come with sweet water already in, sweet milk (or even worse sweet powdered milk) and they just can't resist putting a sprinkle of chocolate on top as well. Once all this 'I don't take sugar in any form whatsoever business' has been sorted out I actually (usually) manage to get a nice cup of coffee.

O and may I add that if there is anyone reading this who thinks they drink coffee but its actually '3 in 1' they should be led out of the door and shot (in the stomach).

The brightest "golden flash" moment for me was when whilst eating at a country restaurant for the first time a drunken local mafia guy came over and started talking quite unpleasantly to me and the missus. Whilst the local Godfather was on stage singing karaoke, we told the waiter that our order was 'to go' and we legged it.

Not directly the restaurant's fault, but the thought of getting shot whilst tucking into my tom yam didn't inspire a return visit

This post has been edited by Jim's_a_Thai_Fox: 2009-02-18 17:23:04

If any place in any country tacks on a "service charge" then I assume that is the tip. Also, televisions are fine in sports bars and informal eateries, but they do not belong in upscale expensive restaurants.

This post has been edited by Groongthep: 2009-02-18 18:21:24

OK, here is another one.
A place I had been going to regularly, and had a friendly (or so I thought) feeling with the owner. We had shared pleasant chats.
So I got a dish I had eaten there several times.
This time it was all wrong, it was very overcooked and really disgusting.
So I did mention it to the owner saying this is really soft and overcooked, and instead of what I reasonably expected as a regular (oh, sorry, I will replace it or some kind of compensation) he tried to make up some lame excuse about the way it was cooked, and that what I was eating was proper. In other words, I felt like he was saying I was stupid for not knowing how it was supposed to taste (this from a dish he had not tasted). This was an odd one because I didn't realize my rejection of the place at that moment, but I haven't been back and when I think of that place I think of that ruined dish. There is probably a pattern in my rejections, if I feel I have been dissed by the people of a business, they can diss somebody else next time! Cheers!

This post has been edited by Jingthing: 2009-02-18 23:06:57

That used to bother me when I first got here, but I couldn't give a hoot anymore. I now assume that it's something they do to assure good service, and I chat with them while they stand there. It aslo gives me a chance to ask questions about the items on the menu.

Here is something that gets me, though I sometimes still come back..

Take the Villa Market restaurant ...they have a "grandma's turkey" with a picture on the
wall showing turkey and COOKED VEGETABLES like brocolli..
When you get it you will get the Turkey but only a small salad with dressing on the side...
In the west we would call that misleading advertising...

Come on dude (although i'm not a big fan on Villa since they forgot my turkey one year), if you believed you were getting everything in every advertisement picture you'd be pretty disappointed all the time.
Unless the sign actually said "Comes with cooked vegetables" then assume that you are only getting the product specifically named in the advertisement.

I'm still wondering why my car didn't come with a hot babe inside.

I've never been served latte or other espresso-related coffee in Thailand that was already sweetened. Curious as to where you were served pre-sweetened latte? Unless it was iced latte, which the Thais usually do sweeten before serving.

But they almost always sprinkle cinnamon (not chocolate) on the top, so I've learned to tell them in advance, 'no cinnamon.'

DUH!! I know they are waiting for their tip! I would leave some change anyway - I do not think standing there ready to grab it is helping any. Most places the tips are shared between all staff anyway and goes into a box or whatever. I just find it annoying that they are hovering over me. Then again I hate it when they follow me around a shop and I end up walking out.

Went with a large group of more than 30 people to a chain "Italian" restaurant in the Lao Phrao area. I cannot stand feeling rushed or pressured to decide from a menu, but have been resigned to live with it in LOS. This time, when I suggested to the waitress that I needed more time, she "punished" me by bringing my salad long after the other 30-odd dishes. And I mean long after, as in when more than 30-something people were served elaborate meals and had actually finished. It was definitely intended to be a smack-back.

That's OK, though, because the next time I just steered my 30-odd friends to another establishment forever after, and they appreciated my business so much they learned my name and would often give me free treats from the menu.

True but in Thailand sometimes this reaches to the point of ridiculous.
There was an Indian restaurant in town (always empty, sadly counting the days till closure) with a big ad board outside the restaurant filled with pictures of some wonderful Indian dishes. Some of the pictures looked great and represented dishes I would like to eat. So I talked to the owner.

Do you have this?
No
Do you have that?
No
Do you have that?
No
Do you have that?
No
Do you have any of the dishes on these pictures?
No

Ba Bye!

This post has been edited by Jingthing: 2009-02-19 12:26:12

Jing --- haven't you been banned from at least one business? Apparently businesses here have 'golden moments' in dealing with you too!

Yes, one business in my entire life. Not a bad record really. It was Simon's Fish and Chips in Jomtien. I have coped with the trauma. It was mutual though, we both had "golden moments" simultaneously. Kind of when the boss says You're Fired at the very moment you say I QUIT! BTW, did it occur to you it may have been their fault?

BTW, WE are the consumers. We have the cash. We are the bosses in deciding whether to grant continued business or not.

This post has been edited by Jingthing: 2009-02-19 14:46:47

Troll Party of 1 your tables ready......


This post has been edited by MyphuketLife: 2009-02-19 15:11:00

Restaurants in Pattaya? The best and the worst. Pattaya is just a typical tourist town that -for the most part- isn't too worried about repeat business. You usually get what you pay for but sometimes not in Pattaya. Some of my most delicious meals have been at typical Thai Mom and Pop restaurants. They seem to appreciate your business and can't do enough for you.

Sometimes the staff in "farang" restaurants are a bit brusqe-you order, they nod and off they go. They usually stand in the back and yuk it up with co workers but when they meet customers they are somber and unsmiling. Often no thanks or acknowledgement for your business. In fairness, that seems to be the Thai way; they seem to be just as curt with fellow Thais.

When I am out of Pattaya, I immmediately notice that people are more polite and appreciative to have you for a customer. Pattaya is just the typical hard core tourist trap and they are here to take your money; its just the way it is

This post has been edited by Lancelot: 2009-02-19 15:44:55