Service in America sucks (but don’t blame the servers)

Nina and Tim Zagat are best known for their eponymous guides. For 30 years now, the two have been reviewing restaurants across the country and editing many more people’s reviews. They have learned a thing or two about dining trends and so when they say service in America sucks, it sucks.

Writing in The Atlantic, the couple says that 70 percent of all complaints they get have to do with service,

The average rating for food on our 30-point scale is usually two points

higher than the average rating for service. Given the fact that

identical people are voting, and that there are hundreds of thousands

of them, this deficit is dramatic.

Considering that Americans (the ones I know at least) are very tolerant of mediocre service, that must mean a lot of meals with horrific service.

While cuisine has improved dramatically in the past 20 years, service has lagged. According to the Zagats, the problem is that the media glamorizes the job of chefs and so all the talented people end up working in the back of the house. “When was the last time you saw a show that focused on waiters or maitre d’s,” they ask, “and how many [culinary] schools pride themselves on teaching service skills?”

The couple has a point. We understand that chefs are to be rewarded for their flare and uniqueness but we don’t expect the same from maitre d’s. There’s no reason not to. At many famous restaurants — Four Seasons, Le Cirque — the owners often act as maitre d and treat the dining room as if it’s their house. Even if the owner is absent, many fine-dining restaurants have someone working the front who will effortlessly take care of special requests and remember even sporadic guests. But at mid-level restaurants, such an experience is virtually non-existent.

I usually don’t mind. But I do get irked when restaurants are under-staffed, when the server doesn’t have the slightest clue what the daily special is or — I’ve noticed this one a lot lately — a different server comes out with the entrees and places them in front of the wrong people. Servers don’t have to go to an expensive school to learn these little things, they just need to be trained right and that job falls on the restaurant, not the servers themselves.

(Image via Flickr: Glamhag)