r/Waiters

Never been in the industry. I want to see if I can find some kind of weekend gig or something. Are there particular restaurants that are more newbie friendly?

A girl was trying to get me a job at her place but I thought it was a bit too fancy. A bar and grill. I guess I see iHop and Dennys as more entry level? Does that sound true at all?

There is an evil horrible monstrosity of a group of people that genuinely curse the industry. I need not speak a single word and you already know who I’m talking about. I hate waiting on them so much

It’s genuinely so bad. No matter what shoes I wear I’m so stiff and in pain. Stretching only helps a little bit. Any advice?

Is it fair to take away a third of a server's tips for not meeting a quota of reviews from their customers? A server can only encourage a customer to leave a review, it is ultimately up to the customer to make that decision. Gyu-Kaku requires servers to meet a quota of one review per shift mentioning the server's name from their customers. If you have 20 shifts per month and you only get 19 reviews for that month, they will penalize you by taking away 25% to 33% to 50% of your tips until the number of reviews reaches the number of shifts worked. I could understand if they cut some of my hours as punishment but to make me work 40+ hours just to take away 33% of my tips seems unreasonable if not illegal. In Texas, servers only make $2.13 an hour. Tips are essentially my entire pay. What should I do? Is this legal?

I am new and have only worked ten 4 hour shifts. I open by myself and have never been trained. the first day when I should have been trained, my trainer was awful. Every question I asked, she just shrugged me off. Didnt show me how to do anything. I would ask can I do this and you watch me to make sure I am doing it right. She’d do it herself anyways.

The second day she left early and me and another new girl who was as new as me had to work by ourselves at night on a Saturday. we did decent

I am barely trained and I have had to train myself. I know I’ll get better but here’s what is really bothering me.

They make their own ranch. last week i did get. This week I messed up so bad one of the customers told my boss whoever made the ranch needs to be fired.

we have a group chat and they were talking about it in it. I spoke up and was straight up and said it was me. That i messed up pretty much. I said I made it last week had no issues I said I must be stirring it too much. I don’t know why I got it wrong. I told them the measurements I was using. They ignore me. They complained more making snide comments.

like instead of telling me what I did wrong or help me they just kept adding to the fire. I just thumbed reacted their messages.

i feel like they’re immature. I feel like the bosses were unprofessional they should have took me to the side, showed me, or talked to me about it. Instead of posting to the whole group. Everyone knew it was me anyways i just owned up to it.

I work really hard. When everyone is sitting and on their phone I always clean. Do dishes. Organize things. I always help people the best I can. I worked at way bigger restaurants. I would make five gallon buckets of ranch with no complaints. I know I am new and itll get better.

my feelings are hurt because I don’t talk about no one there. I am not rude or mean to anybody. But im not a doormat either and I don’t hide behind a screen. If I have something to say I’ll say it to their face

i think about how they act like I committed a war crime. how dramatic they act. I think about how my sisters coworker got fired because she accidentally OD’d and killed her patient. I think about how this one guy i know of who works with a relative of mine cut a tree into power line. Yet somehow what I did is the end of the world. I wish I could share screenshots.

what was your biggest screw up?

I’ve tracked every Texas Roadhouse serving shift I’ve worked over the last ~11 months. I’m a full-time insurance sales rep during the week, so this has mostly been a Fri/Sat/Sun side hustle with occasional doubles and occasional weekday pickups.

I usually work around 8–12 shifts per month and typically make somewhere between about $1,400–$3,100/month depending on season, schedule, and doubles picked up.

For context: my store is a decently busy location, but probably on the lower end of the volume spectrum for our market compared to the busiest Texas Roadhouses nearby.

I do upsell and ask for appetizers/drinks/desserts, but I don’t hard push people. Most weekends I’m usually aiming to sell around $500–$800 depending on whether I double or not.

OVERALL STATS

- 132 shifts
- 893 hours worked
- Gross pay: $23,391
- Actual take-home: ~$20,400
- Total sales: ~$132,000
- Average tip %: 19.43%
- Tip out: ~3% of sales
- Effective take-home tip rate: 16.43%
- Average hourly: ~$26.19 gross
- Average shift pay: ~$177
- Average shift length: ~6.8 hrs

Best shift:
- Christmas Eve
- $505 in 8 hours

(Important note: I removed that Christmas Eve shift from Wednesday averages because it massively skewed the data.)

PAY BY DAY OF WEEK

Monday
- 10 shifts
- 48.5 hours
- $20.19/hr
- $98 avg shift

Tuesday
- 7 shifts
- 35.5 hours
- $22.27/hr
- $113 avg shift

Wednesday* (Christmas Eve removed)
- 6 shifts
- 31.9 hours
- $23.75/hr
- $126 avg shift

Thursday
- 21 shifts
- 118.5 hours
- $24.55/hr
- $139 avg shift

Friday
- 21 shifts
- 149.8 hours
- $27.55/hr
- $197 avg shift

Saturday
- 31 shifts
- 246.7 hours
- $28.83/hr
- $229 avg shift

Sunday
- 35 shifts
- 255.1 hours
- $24.34/hr
- $177 avg shift

SECTION SIZE COMPARISON

10-seat section
(typically a 2-top + 4-top + 4-top)
- $25.85/hr
- 18.19% avg tip
- $172 avg shift

12-seat section
(typically a 2-top + 4-top + 6-top)
- $25.51/hr
- 15.82% avg tip
- $163 avg shift

14-seat section
(typically two 4-tops + one 6-top)
- $28.52/hr
- 16.62% avg tip
- $208 avg shift

The jump from the 12-seat to 14-seat section was surprisingly large. Replacing the 2-top with another 4-top increased average shift earnings by about $45 and hourly by roughly $3/hr.

I also tracked a lot of other variables:
- restaurant volume by shift
- sales trends
- party size trends
- guests per hour
- section turnover
- tip % by day
- sales/hour
- section performance
- seasonal differences
- doubles vs single shifts
- etc.

Curious how this compares to other Texas Roadhouse locations or other restaurant concepts.

Hi,

I am supposed to be at work in about 4 hours. I have been dreading to do this and I need some advice. Yesterday, I found out through my PEERS, btw,They were saying they felt bad for whoever was working by themselves tomorrow night. About 3 servers have quit throughout the week and the other one has been MIA due to personal stuff.

At first that statement confused me because I was working the next day in the evening shift. I quickly realized that server was me…

I am particularly worried because we have big sections and by big, I mean, each server gets 8-9 tables for their section. 3 sections total in the main floor.

At the end of the night, one of the managers asked if I “knew about tomorrow night” I acted dumb and said no. He sorta explained the situation and claimed that the managers working that night might be working on that. The general manager is aware and he miiiight take on a section. The one other server besides is serving an event upstairs and they might or might not tell her to take tables with me instead. It’s all hypothetical.

I have been in the position of being the only server during a rush, barely getting any help from the gen manager. I ended up breaking down in front a table. The manager told me “you could asked for help” true but I didn’t know where he was and I was doing about 5 things at the same time.

At this restaurant, management is heavily disorganized. Ends up putting us servers in a tough situation multiple times. Lately I’ve been going home upset and angry. Just due to the stress, no matter how much money I’ve made.

I just have the feeling I am not going to get the support I need to keep things running smoothly tonight.

One of the managers told me about the situation so they are probably aware that I know. It will be suspicious and might even face consequences if I do call out. Which is something I have never DONE. I always try to find coverage if I can’t work a shift.
I am so stressed out.

Yesterday my bartender and I were about to close the bar, but a customer was still there , as the clock hit 11 pm we stopped the music but his dinner was not finished then he came to us and said "play the music, what do you think of yourself, we are rich man, we just come here for enjoyment, we don't hesitate to pay, take 1000₹ until my dinner ends play the music...... " Then he left to his table but he said these words in the local language in such a bad way, we felt, we r not employees but his servants 😭..... Still we didn't play the music as it was after 11pm........ If u were at our place how could you have responded???? To the customer......????

I just did my interview for a waitressing position last week and I’ve got no experience in this type of industry so they gave me a trial shift last week (1 hour and 30 minutes ) and I was trained a little bit but now they’re giving me another “shift” tomorrow from 5pm-9pm to “see how I do” by myself (they’re open 4:30pm-9pm). There’s still a lot to learn / get the hang of….

But yeah….I don’t know what this means…are they going to potentially hire me or?

Any advice / tips would be great!!

the pay is pretty shitty Icl (I’m in Au) so it’s definitely illegal to be paying me below minimum wage but I kinda don’t really care I just need the job for the experience as it so fucking hard to get work here right now and I need anything I can get right now..

For those of you who work at "luxury" establishments.....

Do you get tipped well?

I’ve been curious about serving. Recently had a chat with a waitress. I’m wonder if it’s possible to get a part time job, after my full time job? Maybe start my shift around 5:30-6pm? It would also be my very first job in the industry. Then weekends?

I’ve thought about iHop, maybe chilies? Idk if there are places that are more entry level.

I’m 28 with no kids living in upstate NY and my goal is to eventually move out of state and save up for a house. I do travel a lot and take about 3-4 vacations a year and travel home to another state around Christmas time and usually one other time throughout the year. I have previously worked in retail, the veterinary industry, sales, cleaning, and was a hostess for 3 months as a teenager.

I’m currently working as an in-home caregiver and I feel like I’ve hit a dead end in my career and it is not for me. I was a receptionist at a vet clinic beforehand and I don’t miss the industry, but I miss human interactions, moving my body/multitasking, and dynamic environments. I recently went on a trip to Florida and went out to restaurants practically every night and was honestly jealous of the servers bc they all seemed to be happy for the most part. Also serving jobs are everywhere, so if I get my foot in the door, finding a serving job in another state will be easy. I also would like to work outdoors and I feel there’s so many different opportunities with serving.

I’m making $22 an hour right now to practically sit around all day and watch tv with my patient, but I’m bored out of my mind. Is it possible to make this much money serving? Also, I have some health issues, so I’m wondering, what do most servers do about health insurance? I’m really lucky in the sense that my current job offers free health insurance coverage and reimburses my dental and vision, but again I’m miserable. Anything else to consider with the serving industry?

We worked the same shifts for a year before anything happened.

Kept it quiet at first, but it got messy fast when things ended.

Wrote the full story here if you want the details:

https://medium.com/@ndumioa/i-dated-my-coworker-for-8-months-it-destroyed-our-work-and-saved-our-relationship-3f4361a4f2a6

Main thing I learned: keeping work and dating separate is harder than it sounds.

So I’m currently a new server (1 week) at rock n toss and I made $400 on a double (12hrs) and I only had 10 tables. The host told me he couldn’t sit me with big parties as I was new and he would get yelled at by managers. The most I’ve taken so far is 5. I was a little irritated because I see everyone else getting parties while I’m stuck taking 1-5 tops. We have auto gratuity on tables 4+. I worked at red lobster for 3 years so I have serving experience just not at that restaurant. I know comparison is the thief of joy but to hear everyone talking about how they had 15+ tables and made 5-$700 had me a little down. How would you feel in the situation and do you think it was worth it considering it was a double?

I know this sounds so out of touch but I’m genuinely asking. I am a waiter at nice restaurant. I am a good looking guy and nearly every table I have freaks out and tells me how attractive I am, some creepier than others. mind you I have a girlfriend so I don’t flirt back with anyone, so it almost always makes for an awkward interaction where I just laugh and say thank you appreciate it, things like that, then try to move on. I need a good Segway or comment to make after so it doesn’t feel so weird after. don’t know how many others deal with this lmao help me

My wife and I are both servers out in Wilmington NC on the East coast and personally we are tired of it, we’ve lived in NC for our whole lives (28years)
I work at longhorn steak house and she does primarily breakfast and lunch places. we just had a baby, so we’re trying to find a good place to settle long-term in the next few years before he starts school.

Looking for:
Decent cost of living. $1,900-$2,000 would be max.
Safe suburb with good schools
Strong, steady restaurant scenes
Area with solid foot traffic and consistent business
Tourist areas are okay too
Everything within ~30 minutes (work, groceries, etc.)

Not looking for:
The South (lol)
Big cities or very busy cities unless I have to work in them and not live in them.

We’ve been considering:
Salt Lake suburbs
Northern Colorado
Maybe northern Virginia
Idaho
Maybe Washington state/ Oregon.

Main goal is just to find somewhere stable, family-friendly, and busy enough to stay consistent in the industry.
If you’ve worked in restaurants in any of these areas? How is your day to day ? Is the money decent?

So tell me why the guy clicks 20% on this 85$ tab… signs for it… sends it through… and then the lady actually wants to adjust my tip to $0 from $16.06. They signed and finalized it … what should I do?

Hi. Was wondering how other establishments servers tip out their bartenders, and busser/s also from where. Examples like do you tip out from total sales, total tips, total alcohol sales? What’s yall percentage if you do? Need some help as my establishment that I work at doesn’t have a tip out system and the bartenders and bussers are getting a little upset cause not all the servers are tipping out or know how too. I’m from Tx so bussers are at minimum $7.25/hr and bartenders are at $8/hr. Thanks you for y’all’s input.

So I work a job at a small restaurant , I’ve worked with this girl a couple times and I’ve noticed that I’ve seem to always have less tips than her . I decided to ask my manager what the typing policy was and she was it was ment to be shared equally unless the employee is doing training (I’m not doing training ) so now I tell my manager that well that’s weird and that I always get less tips like for example she got 65 and I got 15 . My manager said she would talk to her but the girl lied and said that it was spilt evenly which it really wasn’t so I don’t know what to do . Also we worked the same shift .