So, how long would you wait for a seat?

[KrissiK]

I wouldn't wait an hour. I think the longest I ever waited was 40 minutes or so at Casa Bonita, where you are paying for the atmosphere and not the food.

Is that the restaurant in, I want to say, Denver? I think I went there 30 years ago in high school and was completely amazed. It was like Disneyland, but without the rides.

[Word Nerd]

Is that the restaurant in, I want to say, Denver? I think I went there 30 years ago in high school and was completely amazed. It was like Disneyland, but without the rides.

Yes. They even did a South Park episode about it.

[PeacefulChaos]

I wanted to make this a poll, but couldn't figure it out. Anyhow, so last night DH and I were going to Olive Garden (a chain of Italian restaurants, good food, not terribly high priced) because we had a gift card. There's always a long line, so we decided to get there at 5:00 (on a Friday) so we wouldn't have to wait too long. It was still an hour wait to be seated. We decided to go to our favorite locally owned Mexican restaurant, no wait at all, delicious food.

 

So, the question is.... how long are you willing to wait to be seated? For us, no food is that good that we're willing to wait an hour or more to be seated. There are plenty of other good places to eat. We are willing to wait 15-20 minutes tops and then we're going elsewhere.

 

It depends on the occasion.  

With DH and the family?  20-30 minutes.  That's my usual answer.

However, I have waited longer - like an hour - on a day when I was shopping with my SILs/MIL or other friends.  We had spent all day shopping, got to P.F. Chang's and had to wait (once it was Texas Roadhouse, I think) and I'm totally cool with waiting at that time - I can just sit and chat and we've been walking around for hours anyway.  I had one SIL who was getting impatient but it was a Saturday night and by the time we drove to another restaurant and waited there, it wouldn't have been much different.  

That's not the usual case, obviously… but it's the one exception that I've experienced.

My father made a comment last month as we were waiting for our table that often restaurants want people to wait because it makes them seem popular. I don't know where he got his info, but around here if you're looking for dinner at a chain between 6 and 8 pm, there is a guaranteed wait, especially Friday and Saturday nights.

 

This just seems ridiculous.  For those whose primary wages come from tips, even if patrons don't tip well, more patrons mean more tips.

 

Now, I do know for a fact that hostesses are encouraged to estimate wait times on the long side, just to be sure.

 

And whatever happened to the idea of reservations?

[StephanieZ]

If we want to go somewhere that has long waits, we often plan to swing by, pick up a pager, and then run a quick errand nearby. Our Olive Garden is near a Best Buy, Target, Barnes & Nobel, grovery, etc. Yes, the pager will "go out of range" if we go too far, but we just stick it in the car and don't sweat it. We plan to show up back at Olive Garden 10 min or so before whatever time they told us . . . sometimes we "missed our call" and didn't hear it b/c the pager was out of range, but they will always just give you the next available table if that happens. 

 

In general, we don't mind waiting that much. We just sit and chat and wait. We're going to chat as much as to eat, so no sweat. Of course, if we are starving or tired or had a cranky little kid, we'd move on to somewhere with a shorter wait time. 

[Ripley]

 

 

So, the question is.... how long are you willing to wait to be seated? For us, no food is that good that we're willing to wait an hour or more to be seated. There are plenty of other good places to eat. We are willing to wait 15-20 minutes tops and then we're going elsewhere.

 

We dine out a lot. Like A LOT a lot. So we have our fingers on the pulse of wait times in our area. :lol: We plan accordingly.

 

On nights we need to stay on schedule, we have three options: 1, allot for the extra time by dining off-hours; 2, avoiding the long wait by ordering to-go; or 3, head somewhere we're guaranteed little to no wait - typically a dive or second-tier place.

 

But most meals out are social occasions, be it just our family or with a small party, so the wait isn't any big deal. We're fine waiting up to an hour or more, and will either order drinks from the bar or otherwise just visit while we wait. Meals are social deals for us, and a wait of any length is simply an extension of that.

 

I'd agree that few food options are worth an hour or more wait, but the social side (for us) is!  My kids have never had any issue waiting, even for lengthy waits. They sometimes get antsy, and it was more challenging while they were younger, but we'd just play games or run them around outside - they never really fussed or anything. Maybe they didn't know any differently, maybe they're used to long periods of sitting/standing/waiting because we're Catholic and Mass operates the same way (after which they also get to eat out). LOL

 

[Mrs Mungo]

You know, we lived in Europe for a total of 11 years, and I can never once remember waiting for a table. It didn't matter what city we were in, we were always seated right away. I wonder why? More restaurants? Varying eating times? I don't think it's less eating out.

I think there are more restaurants. And mostly people go to their little neighborhood restaurants. We had two little neighborhood restaurants only a couple of blocks from our house. Did you ever go to that Tex-Mex restaurant in Mainz? We waited there a couple of times, but even that was rare.

[lovinmomma]

It depends on where you live. The town that I used to live in was small and there wasn't much to do other than movies or eating out. It wasn't uncommon for people to wait 1.5+ hours to get into Olive Garden. Especially around the holidays. I know it's crazy, but I really think it depends on where you live and what's the norm for that area.

[DawnM]

Depends.  

 

I have waited an hour for a restaurant at Disney for a special dining experience.

I have waited an hour for a table with a group of friends and we were fine standing outside and chatting.

 

However, on a regular basis, with the family or with kids……15 min.  Any longer than that and they would just as soon go to McDonald's!

 

Dawn

[ksr5377]

If it's a busy night and I know we're going at an especially busy time, I would be willing to wait an hour to be seated.  But not at Olive Garden.  Thankfully we have many options where we live, so that would never happen. 

[Camelfeet]

I wouldn't wait an hour for an Olive garden... I've waited 40 minutes for a cheesecake factory once.  Usually we make reservations or go somewhere else to avoid a wait.