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My son has been after to me to take him to his favorite Chinese place for a couple of weeks, so last nite I took him. They have a buffet with some good black-pepper-chicken and shrimp, decent sushi, and a variety of other good stuff.
So anyway, we went and ate. This place is apparently run by a family and most of the servers are young-adult children or nieces and nephews of the owners. Service can be a bit iffy sometimes, but hey it is a buffet; all they need to do is keep the sweet tea topped off once in a while.
The waitress brought the bill-tray by before we were finished eating, which is acceptible I suppose. She hadn't been especially prompt with the tea refills, but I was still planning to leave her the usual tip. The bill for the two of us comes to 22.65, and I usually put $25 on the tray and tell them to keep the change.
Now this is a buffet... I figure $2.35 is a decent tip in a place like that for two people, where all the waitress has to do is refill your tea once in a while. It's over ten percent anyway. If it was a fancy restaurant where the wait staff does EVERYTHING for you, I'd leave a bigger tip because they DO more.
We don't usually get in a big hurry, when we go there we like to enjoy it and I'm prone to linger over my last couple of bites and finish off my tea. As I was doing this, the waitress comes back, *picks up the bill-tray from our table and sets it directly in front of me*, and says "You pay now?" kind of pointedly.
I found this to be very rude, and it annoyed me greatly. It seemed like it was either "pay up and get out so I can get more people in here" (it wasn't like they were standing in line outside!) or "I'm worried you might try to skip out without paying" (we've been there several times before, you'd think...)
Either motive offended me. Hey, if I'm paying out 22.65 for dinner for two, don't freaking rush me! Nor does implying I might be a deadbeat endear you to me.
She was standing there staring at me, as if expecting me to interrupt my tea-drinking activities to pay the bill at once. I did so: I put $23 exactly on the tray, handed it to her and said "No change."
Yeah, I was annoyed.
Now SHE gets visibly pissed off, and sharply says "Thirty five cents? Thirty five cents?? I get you change, I get you change right now!" and storms off.
I told my son we were leaving. As we headed for the door, she flounced up to me with the tray, still visibily angry, and says sharply "You take you change!"
I ignored her and walked on. I stopped at the main desk long enough to briefly recount what had happened to the hostess, then walked out without further discussion.
Was I wrong? I mean dang, she was a pretty lousy waitress to start with, but she could have gotten a decent tip if she hadn't been rude and pushy about the bill.
Cultural misunderstanding? Is this some kind of Asian thing? She might be Chinese, but given local demographics she's more likely to be Laotian, Hmong or Korean.
Thoughts?
So anyway, we went and ate. This place is apparently run by a family and most of the servers are young-adult children or nieces and nephews of the owners. Service can be a bit iffy sometimes, but hey it is a buffet; all they need to do is keep the sweet tea topped off once in a while.
The waitress brought the bill-tray by before we were finished eating, which is acceptible I suppose. She hadn't been especially prompt with the tea refills, but I was still planning to leave her the usual tip. The bill for the two of us comes to 22.65, and I usually put $25 on the tray and tell them to keep the change.
Now this is a buffet... I figure $2.35 is a decent tip in a place like that for two people, where all the waitress has to do is refill your tea once in a while. It's over ten percent anyway. If it was a fancy restaurant where the wait staff does EVERYTHING for you, I'd leave a bigger tip because they DO more.
We don't usually get in a big hurry, when we go there we like to enjoy it and I'm prone to linger over my last couple of bites and finish off my tea. As I was doing this, the waitress comes back, *picks up the bill-tray from our table and sets it directly in front of me*, and says "You pay now?" kind of pointedly.
I found this to be very rude, and it annoyed me greatly. It seemed like it was either "pay up and get out so I can get more people in here" (it wasn't like they were standing in line outside!) or "I'm worried you might try to skip out without paying" (we've been there several times before, you'd think...)
Either motive offended me. Hey, if I'm paying out 22.65 for dinner for two, don't freaking rush me! Nor does implying I might be a deadbeat endear you to me.
She was standing there staring at me, as if expecting me to interrupt my tea-drinking activities to pay the bill at once. I did so: I put $23 exactly on the tray, handed it to her and said "No change."
Yeah, I was annoyed.
Now SHE gets visibly pissed off, and sharply says "Thirty five cents? Thirty five cents?? I get you change, I get you change right now!" and storms off.
I told my son we were leaving. As we headed for the door, she flounced up to me with the tray, still visibily angry, and says sharply "You take you change!"
I ignored her and walked on. I stopped at the main desk long enough to briefly recount what had happened to the hostess, then walked out without further discussion.
Was I wrong? I mean dang, she was a pretty lousy waitress to start with, but she could have gotten a decent tip if she hadn't been rude and pushy about the bill.
Cultural misunderstanding? Is this some kind of Asian thing? She might be Chinese, but given local demographics she's more likely to be Laotian, Hmong or Korean.
Thoughts?