r/Serverlife

I ask this as a customer. There’s a Morton’s Steakhouse location in my city that me and my fiance go to to celebrate special occasions. Usually when we go the bill is at least $250, more with drinks. Now, my local Costco sells gift cards for the parent brand, Landry’s, that is accepted at Morton’s. Costco sells $100 worth of gift cards for $80 so I will usually get $200 or $300 worth in gift cards before we go to dinner. We use these cards, then pay the difference and leave a gratuity based on the total, not just the amount we paid. Do my servers hate me?

To elaborate, my current place is getting run into the ground by the new manager and a clueless owner, and it’s affecting my income. I’ve been trying to find a gig that pays similar or more and all I’ve found is fine dining gigs.

I have 4 years experience being a server but only at casual spots. Would I be able to pull off lying about fine dining experience? I’m thinking that this is a no, but I wanted to ask you guys what you think.

flaired as rant but is also a question/discussion post.

i’ve been in my company for 3 years now and my boyfriend has been here for 6. we might GTFO soon though. corporate wants all managers to set very specific and rigid sales goals for certain products on each shift, and any server who doesn’t make their percentage or number gets a write-up. is this not insane? does a policy like this typically last, or do they realize that it won’t work and pull it back?

to illustrate what i mean, our restaurant sells their own brand of korean soju. say a manager sets the goal at 5 bottles for the shift. if you don’t manage to sell 5, you missed your quota. even if you do make that quota, if you miss your percentage for upselling the more expensive food menu, you could miss that quota. there’s also a quota for alcohol percentage overall. so that’s 3 different metrics we have to absolutely make every single shift, or we get written up.

after 3 write-ups, you’re supposed to get terminated. they definitely don’t write people up for a lot of things that they should, but the implication is that they’re expected to become a lot stricter on actually doing it. in my opinion i feel like the policy won’t last because even if they replace all the employees, those new employees won’t be perfect either and they’ll do nothing but increase their turnover. also, who will train those people? and how will they afford the extra labor on the charts for training? i’m just so annoyed lol.

so i could sell my ass off, or i could just leave. idrk but i already have interviews lined up this week just in case. i normally really like it here and don’y want to leave, but i hate that they’re threatening our jobs like this.

Started at a nice place I’ve wanted to get into a while and I’ve never heard of majority of their wines. I don’t drink it and they all just taste like wine. Remembering notes is my only slack as a server so please, I come here today, asking yall, how do you do it?

Let’s say the restaurant is average across the board in terms of business and what each job is assigned. And it’s upscale casual.

One time a table made me mad asf with the ordering process so when their food came into the window I took off one fry and ate it. They had no idea but the whole time I felt a rush of excitement because “yeah you’re not even getting your full meal because I’m evil”

Hey yall! Random question, has anyone in here worked for Gringos?
I’m trying to get a new serving job where the money is better (i currently work for olive garden, going on 4 years🫩) . It’s been hard getting an interview literally anywhere , but i just got a notification from indeed that Gringos is hiring , I live in Texas and figured texans loveee their tex-mex food so maybe it’s the right move?
Work environments are extremely important to me, and i’m curious to know how everything is set up there. The training process, the tip outs, side work, all of it 😭

i feel like im going insane. i work at an upscale restaurant and i do waters, pre bussing for coursing, bussing, and resetting, and idk if this is normal or not, because it’s genuinely not manageable for me. 90 seconds per table is not enough for me to do all that so im always in the weeds.

This is my fourth serving job and nowhere else I’ve worked has this been an issue but regularly all at once, they’ll seat me back-to-back-to-back a seven top, a four top, and another seven top and then like five minutes later two two-tops and I just can’t offer good, prompt service in those scenarios and my manager said maybe if being triple sat a total of 18 guests is a problem, I just shouldn’t be a server.

What do you guys think?

i’ve had this conversation with other servers but would like to hear your guys thoughts. i work in a tip pool restaurant and i prefer that rather than not. it’s nice not having to worry about competing with my coworkers, no jealousy on who gets better tables/sections, and i know we will all help eachother out because we’re all working for the same money. it’s also nice if my section is having a shitty night/ if i get 0 tips in cash but another server does that night, ill still be able to go home with cash.

i work in pennsylvania so i wonder what everybody else’s thoughts were. i’m sorry if this is a repetitive question i haven’t seen it here before

I would want my guests to tell me if something is wrong. Yet I feel like garbage when I do it myself!

Had a celebratory solo lunch today after a big personal win. Ordered their $6 feature lunch rose. It was a bit off, but I wasn’t going to complain at $6. My lunch comes and I order a pint to go with it.

Panini arrives, first couple bites are great. Then I notice a hair on the bread which I would normally

pull off and carry on. However, the outer cheese crust had melted it into the bread. I then also see another hair coming out of the sandwich. Not sure if it’s the same one and just the end of it. I didn’t investigate.

Server offers a new one but I was honestly put off by this kitchen and just want to go get lunch elsewhere so I ask for the bill for the drinks. The bill arrives and I realize I don’t want to sit there hungry and drink a full pint of beer. I have an internal debate about staying or leaving, or paying full price and just leaving the beer. In the end I then ask if possible for that to be removed too, I just want to leave. Server is very nice, takes it off.

I receive the bill and I still get charged the taxes on the comped items. So I pay almost $5 in taxes for a $6 glass of wine. I feel like I can’t complain again so I just pay it and leave. But now feel like garbage hahah. Why can’t I just be normal!!!

Had an older woman and her daughter(?) come in and we chatted for a minute because the restaurant was super slow. Yada yada it turns out I share the same name as her late brother and she said I remind so much of him and they came to that area to finalize his funeral and all that and it just seemed like she needed to talk to someone. One of the few times I sat down with my customer and it was a nice break for me and was probably a nice conversation for them as well. Idk I just think older people like to talking to people and I gotta remember that before I say the typical “ugh these stupid old people” because that’s lowkey rude asf 😭😭

Hi. This is my first time posting in here. I had an interview today for Texas Roadhouse. I applied for the server position. Basically, it went really well and I got hired on the spot. The issue is, she said I would have to start out as a to go specialist since I don’t have “actual” serving experience so I can learn the menu.

I told her that I’ve had years of restaurant experience and that I’ve done every FOH position including expo except officially serving. I explained that I know table numbers, how to take orders, and everything. I’ve worked as a Togo server, Servers assistant, busser, food runner, and a host. I also have fine dining experience with hosting and food running.

I told her I’d call her back and let her know. Before that, I asked when id be able to start serving. She said she doesn’t know exactly for sure, especially since a few to go specialists want to be servers. She said it depends on how quickly I learn the menu, if I’m on time, and all that. She said that it’s based off who’s first in line and if they’re a good worker basically.

It’s 7.25+ tips. She said they often average to $10-15 a night.

My issue is like, I start school in a few weeks. I’m a college student. I already work at Walmart and get paid $15.71 an hour. I don’t mind taking a lower position if I actually can move up, but I’ve been struggling so badly to find a serving job because most of them say that or they ghost (I think it’s because of bad timing since I was applying during the summer when most college students and Highschool kids already got their jobs. Im also in a really small college town in Iowa, and even the cities nearby aren’t that big.) I can’t necessarily afford to take a big pay cut if it takes awhile to become a server, especially since the job is ~25 minutes from my house.

I just want some advice on what to do. If I should take this job and pray I’ll actually move up to serving? I’m just conflicted. I just thought with my experience level it’d be a lot easier to get a job as a server, but I’m realizing I was wrong.

(Edit: forgot to add that my Walmart job is very flexible, so I planned to keep it anyways as I’ve been working there for a while and don’t want to burn that bridge.)

As people working in the industry, we know mistakes and bad days can happen. That’s why even if I don’t get “amazing service” I still tip other servers minimum 18% when I go out to eat.

I went out for dinner the other night, to treat my partner, and our server was nice…. But so clearly high out of her mind on something strong. It led to a lot of mistakes during the meal, and just an uncomfortable experience when interacting with her. I think she touched our table twice throughout the whole thing (initial order and payment), when we could even get ahold of her. Otherwise, two of the other servers did most of the work for our table, including looking in the back for and finding our server for about 10 minutes after we had been waiting for about 15 (at an establishment that doesn’t pool). The restaurant was pretty slow too, and this was nowhere near close.

I try not to be too critical, because lord knows I’ve had off-days where you just have to push through a shift after life has thrown something crazy at you, and still tipped 18%. Maybe she was having a hard time in her personal life, maybe she had a lot of side work to do, maybe before we got there, the restaurant was packed and she was exhausted. Who knows.

I feel like it would take a LOT for me to give a fellow server a bad tip, let alone no-tip (unless I was at an establishment where I know servers don’t receive the tips period). So I was curious, as a server, what is the lowest tip you’ve given another server? What made the experience lead to it?

TLDR: what is the lowest you’ve tipped a fellow server? Why?

A 2 top sat down after being on the wait list for about an hour, I took their order then they asked "is it okay if we leave until our foods ready and walk around the neighborhood?" I suggested getting it to go instead but they wanted to dine in. I told them no they can't do that because that's not how dining in at a restaurant works (I said it more politely).

LIKE WHAT???

Has anyone else ever gotten this?

I'm editing this to add since a lot of people seem to be missing this, they were on the wait list for an HOUR already and had an HOUR to walk around the pretty small neighborhood. The only things to do nearby are an ice cream shop, a knitting supplies shop (that I think was closed) and a wine bar but they weren't drinkers.

so technically i’m not a server but i might as well be one. i just started at a new job a few weeks ago for a hostess position which i get $14.00 with delivery t!ps (which barely anyone t!ps that way) and also cash t!ps at the end of the night if i help in the dining area which i don’t mind because i was a busser at my last job and yk extra money. there are also only 3 servers total that work at my job and one of them is also the manager😭. we only have two people that work in the kitchen and two sushi chefs that work in the entire restaurant (i’m also the only host that they have). so that means that we’re severely short staffed and the owner wanted me to work 40+ hours a week (which i got out of thankfully) some red flags below

* i’m 17 and they have me run alcoholic beverages to tables which is illegal

* the state i live in has the minimum wage increasing to $15.00 an hour on september 30th and when i asked if my wage will be moved up (because technically i’m not guaranteed t!ps and they said i get paid the minimum wage) they said that they won’t be moving up my wage.

* they told me if a table asks for something to try and help out the servers by putting it in the system. if i’m doing the work of a server i want to get the t!ps of a server.

* the owner up until a few days ago would get a share of the servers t!ps while not even being there and when he is there he doesn’t help in any way shape or form and just sits in the booths that we need to sit people in.

*as soon as someone opens the door they want me to drop everything i’m doing and go to the door even though they also want me to foodrun, buss tables, and sort of expo which i’m not sure if that is much of a red flag though

* the owner is constantly watching the cameras and if it’s slow you have to clean the entire restaurant including scrubbing at the baseboards which i just don’t think is very necessary for your workers to do

I have worked at a dennys for about 4 years now. serving for about 3.5 of those. I started working there when i was 16, and it has been some of the best money i’ve ever made. I use a tip tracking app and in the summer of 2024 i made approximately 10k just in tips! the restaurant is located in a truck stop on a highway and we get a lot of truck drivers, but also a lot of families and people who live in town! anyway, i only work one day a week now (sunday mornings) because im in college. I love waiting tables and it’s tipsyyy tuesday lol :)