Recently I met a friend for brunch at a local restaurant. We decided to sit and enjoy our coffees for a moment before ordering. When the waitress came over to take our order, she abruptly cut us off, took the breakfast menus, and dropped two lunch menus on our table. We asked what time lunch started, and she said noon, which was in 15 minutes. At the moment, breakfast was still being served. She said she would come back to take our order.
Despite our attempts to get her attention, she didn’t come back for 20 minutes, at which point we were famished. I was happy to order off either menu, but my friend had her heart set on a dish that was only available on the breakfast menu. The waitress told her that the dish was no longer available and that we had to order lunch. When my friend pointed out that we had been waiting quite a while to place our orders, and that lunch service had only started five minutes ago, she simply shrugged her shoulders and said she was sorry. She explained that the kitchen was too busy and “didn’t have the time” to accommodate the order.
The funny thing is that my friend simply wanted yogurt and granola—hardly a difficult order. If time was an issue, wouldn’t it be faster to essentially pour this all in a bowl rather than fire up a burger?
It wasn’t until my friend politely asked for a supervisor that the woman agreed to take the order. As my friend pointed out, she would never dream of ordering off a different menu if that service had passed, but the waitress hadn’t even given us the opportunity to order breakfast when we were ready.
Next time I have my heart set on a time-specific dish, I’ll arrive a little earlier or make my request known to the server as soon as I sit down. But I also hope that next time the customer service is much better and more accommodating!