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Out of Service

There’s a problem with the way the check gets dropped in most restaurants. The default behavior is the server sets down the check and says “I’ll take that when you’re ready.” and walks away. Even if I’m ready right now, and visibly scrambling for my wallet. What is really being said is, “I’ll come back later to take that when I’m ready, and hopefully you are too, as long is it isn’t right now, because that would be hugely awkward for some inexpressible reason.” This often leaves me sitting there a lot longer than necessary (and the server should want to turn the table, too). What needs to happen is for the server to say, “When you’re ready, I can take that.” and then pause for a beat to see if I’m lunging for my wallet because we need to get out of there.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 5:10 am and is filed under Conceptual, by Dan Waber. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Out of Service”

  1. Kristen Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 6:52 am

    Yes!

    Here in Japan usually the check is left on your table when the last item of your initial order is delivered to you. If you order something else, the check is revised and returned. When you are ready to leave, you take the check to the register. This is a good system.