Restaurant asked us to leave after 2 1/2 hours. Should this bother me?

[Anonymous]

You were costing them money. And other people were waiting on the tables. You were extremely inconsiderate of the business. I hoped you tipped well to compensate for taking a table away from the server.

(I have been known to linger, but not if it is crowded...and I will tip in a manner such that the server does not suffer from my lingering. that is, if I spent $200/2 hrs, but spent another hour chatting, I would tip as if I spent $300.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, in the US I think it's standard to move along once the bill is paid. When we went to Italy I routinely saw people who were done eating when we sat down who were just chatting and they would still be there when my husband and I left - they probably thought we were weird and rushed. A nicer place may not have said anything but would probably still feel put out.

[Anonymous]

Do you not get out much? You realize someone else had a reservation for 8 pm so they needed the table on a Saturday night right - regardless of what you just spent? You're acting like you finished up a lunch at 3 pm on a weekday, saw there was not one else coming in and held the table.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I was looking for some perspective and knew I could count on you for that.

Additional thanks for the snark and assumptions about my character.

To answer some questions:

We probably lingered at the table for 20 minutes after the bill was paid.

I understand that $250 is not a lot for 4 people. That's why I described the restaurant as "mid-level"

We cheerfully left the table, no questions asked.

I do not expect any compensation for being asked to leave my table.

I rarely make early reservations. I'm honestly not sure how long I am "allowed" to stay at the table.

I have never worked a restaurant job, so I have no reference on that end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I was looking for some perspective and knew I could count on you for that.

Additional thanks for the snark and assumptions about my character.

To answer some questions:

We probably lingered at the table for 20 minutes after the bill was paid.

I understand that $250 is not a lot for 4 people. That's why I described the restaurant as "mid-level"

We cheerfully left the table, no questions asked.

I do not expect any compensation for being asked to leave my table.

I rarely make early reservations. I'm honestly not sure how long I am "allowed" to stay at the table.

I have never worked a restaurant job, so I have no reference on that end.

A good rule of thumb is that you can stay as long as you are consuming food or beverage.

[Anonymous]

Well now you know not to be rude in the future.

[Anonymous]

Having worked in the industry, I don't feel comfortable lingering after the bill is paid and while a restaurant is busy. How, I do agree with others that there are ways for the server or the manager to finesse the transition so that customers don't leave feeling awkward or unhappy. I've also made reservations at places that basically tell you when they expect your party out for the next seating-I don't like that approach.

[Anonymous]

Doesn't sound like you've ever run a business. In business, money is time and time is money, you should've been polite and left shortly after paying the bill.

[Anonymous]

Wow- I managed restaurants for 12 years and would never dream of asking a table to get up. The mgmt was rude. It happens, we don't love it, but I never asked a guest to get up no matter how desperate I was.

i would always offer the overdue guests a round of drinks or an app if necessary and of course, rearranged other tables and just sat them somewhere else.

It definitely was aggravating when someone stayed longer than I felt appropriate, but it was their right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't sound like you've ever run a business. In business, money is time and time is money, you should've been polite and left shortly after paying the bill.

I imagine you with an MBA, a starter potbelly, and suburban castle. Most of us have not run a business. We have, however, common sense and have worked tipped jobs. It absolutely baffles me that OP is American and is still unfamiliar with our longstanding habit of getting our butts out of the table once the bill is paid.

[Anonymous]

I have a bit of a spin off question: when i want to keep chatting with my friends after dessert I feel like its "ok to hold the table" as long as I keep buying rounds of drinks...is this correct or no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, in the US I think it's standard to move along once the bill is paid. When we went to Italy I routinely saw people who were done eating when we sat down who were just chatting and they would still be there when my husband and I left - they probably thought we were weird and rushed. A nicer place may not have said anything but would probably still feel put out.

Well the prices for eating in a restaurant are higher in other countries in my experience. They also pay the servers a higher wage because they don't rely on tips, so the servers probably don't care how long you stay because they are getting paid no matter what.

As for the ops situation, I don't think she was intentionally being rude, and I think people are being really hard on her. But I wouldn't continue sitting at a table after I finished eating and paying the bill, especially if it was crowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a bit of a spin off question: when i want to keep chatting with my friends after dessert I feel like its "ok to hold the table" as long as I keep buying rounds of drinks...is this correct or no?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never had it happen - but we never stay for more than a few minutes after paying the bill and our tabs tend to run much higher. We had dinner with friends last night - was $240 a couple and we didn't have dessert. It was about two hours from sit down to departure for us. The restaurant business is so tough and I feel for them that there were people probably with 8 pm reservations waiting for your table to turn - they may have even told them that their table was almost ready and you were just paying the bill and then you sat there. During a week day, I doubt they'd need to do it - but Saturday nights is the big money making night and they need tables to turn to do so.

+1 Unless the restaurant isn't crowded, we've never sat there after we've paid taking up valuable table space. Pretty thoughtless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow- I managed restaurants for 12 years and would never dream of asking a table to get up. The mgmt was rude. It happens, we don't love it, but I never asked a guest to get up no matter how desperate I was.

i would always offer the overdue guests a round of drinks or an app if necessary and of course, rearranged other tables and just sat them somewhere else.

It definitely was aggravating when someone stayed longer than I felt appropriate, but it was their right.

+1. I worked in restaurants for years, and as aggravating as it was when people sat around after paying, it was absolutely against the rules to ask them to leave. In fact, the standard comment made when dropping the check was,"no rush, I will take this whenever you're ready." Sure, it was rude of the customers, but customers do rude stuff all the time, and you don't get to call them out, unless they're outright abusive. That's part of the service industry.