Ten Most Offensive kinds of restaurant behaviour

Ok, we've had numerous threads on tipping, undisciplined children in restaurants, etc, but here's a pretty good list ten of the worse bits of behaviour

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/08/15/the-10-most-offensive-kinds-of-restaurant-behaviour

Eight of these are just plain rude or objectionable but nose-blowing and changing a diaper in public are sure-fire ways of putting anybody in close proximity off their food entirely.

 

Nose-blowing has never bothered me.
The rest of them are awful.

 

To me, blowing your nose in a restaurant is slightly less gross than farting.

 

Those are some good ones, but I've been put off by the wait staff many, many more times than fellow diners.

 

It's something I've never really noticed, so I guess I don't mind it.
One exception: When I worked as busboy when I was a teen. I was clearing a booth, grabbed a linen napkin and got a massive handful of snot. Guy had blown his nose in a linen napkin. It was gross, but the guy left a very good tip.

 

That was awfully nice of Chris_L.

 

I recently experienced the last one. I went to a nice restaurant with eight of my cousins, including two who are quite wealthy. One ordered surf and turf (filet and lobster tails) and the other ordered some extravagant shrimp dish. One was drinking mixed drinks, the other had three nice glasses of wine.

I ate a grilled chicken sandwich and drank water. The bill came to around $300 and Capt. Surfnturf suggest we all just throw in $40. I told them there was no way I was paying $40 for an $8 chicken sandwich. He says, "OK, you can put in $20," as if he was doing me a favor.

I told him I'd put in $15 to keep the math easy for everyone, but there was no I was putting in more than 100 percent of my meal towards a tip.

I'm not cheap, but it couldn't have been more irritating for the guy who has a yacht and a mansion on Florida's intercoastal highway to act like I was some stiff because I didn't want to spend $40 on my chicken sandwich.

 

You cheap bastard

 

I'm pretty good with most of those. Save for the blowing the nose bit, every once in a while it comes up out of nowhere and you have no choice. I would rather blow my nose then sit there sniffling all meal.

Also as far as tipping is concerned: I can be a generous tipper, usually in the 18-20 per cent range, and it isn't that difficult to get a tip out of me. But if the service is horse shit I don't. I know it generally screws over the kitchen staff and host as well, but if the service is non-existent so will be the tip. If it angers the kitchen staff, for example, then they can look to the waitress/waiter.

 

Those are good, but I think I would have swapped public diaper changing for the drunk customer. I've never seen someone change a baby in the middle of a restaurant before. I have been near drunk customers who are loud and obnoxious. I recently went out to a barbecue place and a women who was either drunk or just incredibly unrefined (in this town and the neighboring town, it's hard to tell the difference sometimes). She apparently loved her ribs so much that she had to tell her friends that "these are fucking great ribs. They fucking fall off the bone." And she wasn't quiet either.

Of course the guy who I think was buying a homeless couple dinner was pretty classic too, though not offensive by any means. The woman attacked her hamburger like she was going to get shanked at any minute for it.

 

My wife and I recently went to a dinner at a restaurant in which everyone along one particular row (probably at least 10 tables) shares one big bench to sit on. The family to my wife's left decided it would be fun to start The Wave. And so they did. They bounced on the bench so hard it lifted my wife. Her knee banged the underside of the table. When my wife confronted our neighbors about their behavior, the mom rationalized the behavior instead of apologizing, saying something along the lines of "Oh we were just having some fun. Chill out."
I hope they all got severe food poisoning.

 

Unrefined patrons at a barbecue place?