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PrintAt the Table: It’s more than the food
The Drinks
A decent wine list—and wine-by-the-glass list
While almost every chef or restaurateur pays lip service to the concept of wine as an essential component of fine dining, you’d never know it from far too many Western New York wine lists. Sure, creative and reasonably marked-up lists are the norm at a few places—Mother’s, Aroma, Bistro Europa, and Seabar come immediately to mind—but they’re the exceptions to a dreary rule. Local restaurateurs need to blow the cobwebs off their lists and stop automatically accepting whatever their distributor is pushing. Wine-by-the-glass is now the default choice of many diners—why can’t that list have interesting choices? One memorable glass of wine might make a diner decide to get a bottle the next time. When diners are excited about what’s in their glass, everybody wins. —EL
Post-dinner pours
It’s okay if a restaurant and its staff aren’t particularly trained in, or interested in, good coffee and, more specifically, espresso drinks. There are plenty of places to find caffeine after dinner if the conversation must go on. Yet so many restaurants offer drip coffee that’s been on the burner for hours, and cappuccinos pressed and shot by whoever has the most time on their hands. It’s the last taste you send to your customers’ table, so if it’s not something you can really deliver, don’t do it. —KP
The Menu
Design should include your menu
I really find it reprehensible when a restaurant skimps on a quality menu—nice paper gets big points in my world. I am driven to distraction by menus that are cluttered visually, littered with misspellings, and are not designed well with good fonts that are clear to read by candlelight. —NJP
Glossary
I’m not a chef, and I don’t pretend to be one. Do me a favor and don’t add little-known culinary terms or French techniques that even Jacques Pepin hasn’t heard of to your menu. When faced with a choice between pretense and information, always choose the latter. —AJB
Vegetarians don’t eat fish
Most chefs can’t imagine a life of edible restraint, sadly empty of foie gras and twelve-hour braised short ribs. This is understandable. But why is it that chefs think having some type of seafood on the menu constitutes a vegetarian choice? A person who avoids red meat, or who prefers fish, is not a vegetarian. We must find a way to put at least one truly vegetarian entree on every menu in town. It must be meat-free and it should not be Pasta Primavera. Not all restaurants can accommodate every dietary whim or allergy, but in 2012, vegetarian and gluten-free options are about as mandatory as ice water. —CGS
Missing essential ingredients
Diners understand when their server informs them that certain dishes are no longer available, despite what the printed menu relates. It is frustrating, though, when you order a dish and it arrives with important components missing or substitutions that were not mentioned ahead of time. A diner can be disappointed that the very reason he ordered a dish was due to a favorite ingredient that is now nowhere to be found, but he may be delighted if he knows that upfront and selects another dish that satisfies. Worse yet, a diner may actually be allergic to the substituted ingredient. —NB
The Service
Steps of service
Waiting tables isn’t a guessing game. Sure, misfires and other woes can complicate things, but there are basic steps of service that apply to any tableside meal—so why is it that so many of them seem to be interpreted as optional? These steps of service are widely accepted and part of every corporate restaurant’s training program. If you don’t check back within two minutes of dropping the food, how can you be sure your guests are pleased? Why would you leave the check and then make the table wait ten minutes before you come back to run their credit card? Even the most leisurely meal requires thorough attention from the staff. If management hasn’t been wise enough to provide you with proper training, Google it yourself. Your tips will increase exponentially. —CGS
Unspecified specials
We love to choose from the specials menu; often it is where the most seasonal and creative dishes await. We may not even mind our server whizzing through them so fast that we can barely make out the central ingredients. But don’t take the time to tell me about the whole, head-on fish special, and then not mention that it’s $20 more than the most expensive entree on the menu. If you must recite the specials then you must also mention the prices, or, if that’s too déclassé, at least leave behind a legible list with prices clearly marked. Same goes for the dessert menu. It’s not fair to force diners, particularly if they are hosting other guests, to ask the price of anything while at the table. —CGS
Check please
Finer restaurants are known for their ability to get every little detail right, but here’s one that many seem to miss. Check presenters, those vinyl wallets that fold in half and have little pockets that hold the bill, your credit card, and your receipt, are widely used at the best joints in town, So if this little convenience is going to end up on my table and in my hands, why did it spend the rest of the evening crammed down the back of my waiter’s pants? I know most aprons aren’t equipped with pockets large enough to hold this tool, and I actually prefer it over its counterpart—the little plastic tray with one stale mint working oh so hard to keep the check from blowing off my table—but it’s really just gross to pull something from the back of your sweaty slacks and lay it on my table. —CGS
The Room
Thoughtful trimmings
It has been said that you eat with your eyes before anything else, but before your food is even ordered, you take in all that is around you in the dining venue. From quirky mismatched vintage plates to jute twine tied around your cloth napkins, if it fits your establishment’s personality, it will leave a lovely impression with your patrons. —NB
Steerage
There’s a certain local eatery—high end, expensive—that is rather popular for special occasions like Mother’s Day. I’ve gone there two times for a celebratory meal with my (not unruly) kids, and have been seated in a large banquet room. Both times, that cavernous room seemed to be reserved for parties with kids, and parties made up of non-Caucasians. The first time I thought it odd. The second time, I realized it must be a policy. Don’t think we don’t notice ... or that we’ll be returning. —AJB
Dirty washroom = dirty kitchen?
Anthony Bourdain may have been the first to write about it, but restaurant critics and choosy diners have known for decades that the best way to determine the cleanliness of a restaurant’s kitchen is to examine its restroom. A messy bathroom may be the result of a busy night, but a dirty bathroom is a crime. If management knows that guests will view their washroom and can’t be bothered to tend to it, then what must the unseen kitchen look like? Same might be said for dusty drapes or a tattered waiting area. One local restaurant provides a beautiful and modern setting for guests, but come daylight, the stains, rips, and dust are revealed to lunchtime diners without apology. We notice; so should you. —CGS
Great articles Christa. Especially the one about servers rattling off the evening "specials". A certain high profile and wonderful place had kobe meat on their special menu. When friends ordered it and were charged $40.+ for a hamburger, they were outraged and have not been back since.