Annette's WONDERFUL Playground

Recently, while at work, I saw this:  A mummy opened up my restaurants' menu and place it on the dining table, she then place her baby (Probably between 3-6 months old) on the menu, and started to change the diaper for the baby. :O  A strange 'aroma' slowly lingers in the air, customers siting nearby started to search for this strange 'aroma'. I'm a new mother and I think this is ridiculous. Why doesn't she go to the baby nursing room? A restaurant is a place to dine and not a TOILET!!! Why didn't she bring a changing mat? Do you know that a restaurant's menu contains as much bacterial as the toilet floor? Want to know why? I do ask my staffs to wipe the menus on a daily basis, but please understand, during the weekends when it is so busy, we may not be able to wipe them at the end of the day. So normally on fridays & saturdays, we only wipe menus that are dirty = dirt that can be seen!! I also seen ridiculous cust...

What's a vegetarian? A person who doesn't eat meat and animal products such as milk, egg or honey. There are many different types of vegetarians, such as Strict Vegetarian (No meat and Animal Products), Semi-Vegetarian (Occasionally eats poultry and fish) and Lacto-vegetarian (no meat but eats dairy products except egg), lastly, due to religion, there are some other items that this group of people doesn't eat. You must be thinking, why am I explaining this? It can be googled easily but there are people who doesn't understand this. I'm working in a normal restaurant, serving meat, seafood, dairy products, and etc... Once a while, I'll have some vegetarian customers walking in looking for vegetarian food. Something's it is a bit frustrating, trying to explain to customers why we have limited vegetarian dishes in our menu. It's not that we don't welcome vegans in a restaurant, but it seems like it is very difficult for a vegan to underst...

Hi here, sorry for not writing much on my confessions recently as I've been busy with my work.  I saw this article and tot that it's quite interesting and wanted to share with you guys... It's funny but yet true.... Some of the points may not apply in Singapore, but it still does makes some sense.. Check out  Top 20 ways not to be a Horrible Customer .... XOXO, Rain Rain

How to have a great dining experience? It all starts with your orders. Follow the simple guide to ordering and have a great dining experience. 1. Call the waitress only when you are 'READY'? I always find myself standing next to the table trying to take orders for 'unready' customers. The customers will then desperately flips the menu, while the waitress stands there waiting for their orders. I get very annoyed because they are not ready, but doesn't allow me to go and come back later. Sometimes other customers who are really ready to order could not get any waitress because we a stuck with unready customers. 2. Remember your orders Many times I had to sent the food back to the kitchen because the customers don't remember what they order. In the worst case, I got complained because the customer said that I missed out their order when what happens was that they told the other waitress that they did not order that item when the dish was served. I...

I needed to write this post because I realize that there are some customers out there who feel that we, the Waitresses, are mind readers. They had eye contact with us, and then look away. What does that mean? There was no sign of any body language to tell the waitress that they are ready, except that they look at the waitress, for a split second.  Seriously, we are unable to read minds. We do need a clear sign that you are ready and requires our service. There are customers who 'talk' with their hands, waving them non stop, and when we approached, they are actually talking with their friends. So what can customers do to get the waitress's attention? 1. Eye Contact &  Clear Signal/Body language This is the most important point to take note of. If you did not established eye contact, how would the waitress know that you are calling her. After establishing an eye contact with the waitress, you need to acknowledge that you needed attention. You can do it by nodding your hea...

Dear Customers, There are some things that I would like to let you know. I don't mean anything, and I am not complaining. I just thought that it is good for you to know. Please remember to make reservation if you know that you are bringing an important guest to dinner. The restaurant is meant for everybody to come and dine. I swear that the restaurant is really full and that is why I couldn't seat you. Do you think that I had purposely rejected to seat you to give you a reason to scold me? Please call and check if your favorite seat is available for the night before you come. I do not have supernatural power to predict when you are coming for dinner. The restaurant is meant for everyone to come and dine. Do you think I had purposely give up your favorite seat to give you a reason to scold me? Please inform me in advance if you are in a hurry. Food also need time to cook. Our restaurant is really different from Macdonalds, we are unable to serve you within a minute, unless you w...

A restaurant is considered a public place because the public are all welcome to enter the establishment. And because of that, it is important that customers can be considerate when dining out in restaurants, making a restaurant a nice dining environment for everyone. Keep your volume down Everyone and anyone can dine in a restaurant. There are business customers who will bring their clients. Parents who bring their babies. Of cos, I do understand that you may like to have a birthday celebration at the popular restaurant. If you know that you will be noisy, request for a private corner seating or rooms. Be considerate and don't let the other customers feel that you're a nuisance. Take care of your children There are lots of things going on in a restaurant. The waitresses are serving hot food or beverages and this is the most dangerous part. When a waitress is carrying food or beverage, it is very hard for a fast reaction if a kid is running around. When...

Everyday when I start work, the first thing I'll do is to make sure that I have enough pens with me. I need pens to take orders, note down reservations, and for customers to sign credit slips. What annoys me the most is when I lend my pens to the customers, I don't get it back.  Not all restaurants provide pens for their staffs. Like me, I bought the pens with my hard earned money and I really get very frustrated when customers keep my pen into their pockets. Taking a pen without asking is just like stealing.  There was once when I handed my pen out to a customer to sign the credit slip. After signing, he said to his friends, "This pen writes smoothly!", then he popped the pen into his pocket. That was my pen and he took it without asking. I did not ask him for my pen, but I felt really annoyed. He was dressed in a nice suit, looks just like a working professional, but he 'steals' my pen in front of my eyes. It is not very expensive to buy...

Many times customers will ask for a round of water for the whole table but in the end only 1 or 2 persons are drinking. And I sometimes run out of water glasses for customers who really need drinking water because of that. In some cases, I have customers who will ask for Ice water for everybody in the group without asking if they really want. After we served to the table, let's say, 5 glasses of iced water, 3 in the group wanted warm water instead and asked for it. In the end, there will be a total of 8 glasses of water at the table. What make it more annoying was when the customers left the restaurant and we started clearing the table, the 8 glasses of water were all untouched. Not even a sip. This means that the dishwashers have all these unneeded extra load to wash, the waitresses needed to search high and low for glasses for the water. That is also the reason why some restaurants charge a small amount for water. It is not to make extra sales. How much can the restaurant make by...

Meaning of Reservation: An arrangement whereby something, especially a seat or room, is reserved for a particular person. There are some things that you should take note when making reservations. If you follow the steps correctly, making reservation is a breeze. Name Your name is required so that the hostess can find your reservation easily. In Singapore, we will normally give our surname, instead of our names. Actually, it is best to give a name that your guest knows you by. For example, Tan is a very common surname in Singapore. Sometimes on a busy Saturday night, I have more than 5 Mr Tan on my reservation list, with 2 or 3 Mr Tan arriving at the same time. There was once when a customer made a reservation under the name of Mr Lim for 10 persons. The guest arrived one by one, asking for Andrew. When we asked if they are the guest of Mr Lim, none of the guest knows that his surname is Lim, as they known him as Andrew. You may also give your initials, example: S.P Ng, so that it is ea...

I found this blog very interesting - The Waitress Confession - and I tot I should share this out to my wonderful friends who are in the Food & Beverage industry. As most of you may know, I'm also working in the restaurant line. I love my job, but I am also just a human being, and I admit that there are times when I am too emotional to concentrate on my job. Recently, with the tighter restrictions for foreign works, almost all food & beverage establishments are down with staff shortage issue, of cos, that includes my company too. We are still trying to cope with the same number of customers during the weekends, but we are just human beings, thus, there's still a limit to how much we can handle. Imagine that it will normally take 3 waitress to handle up to 20 tables, but with the shortage, we are down to 2 and sometimes even 1 waitress to handle the same number of tables. If each table were to sit 2 customers, it would mean that 1 waitress had to attend to 20...