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Acceptable waiting time when ordering a meal

I have always understood, when ordering a restaurant meal, that twenty minutes is a reasonable waiting time, and the customer should be told if the food will be arriving at the table later than that. I have walked out of a restaurant tonight having waited 45 minutes after placing my food order. The restaurant was relatively quiet at 7pm, and the table had been pre-booked for 5 people. The manageress condescendingly told me that the food was fresh and 45 minutes was not considered too long to wait for a meal. I told her it was unaccceptable and we left the restaurant, refusing to pay for the pre-dinner drinks. Are there any diners out there who think that waiting 45 minutes is acceptable?? Incidentally the order was for 2 burgers with fries;, poached salmon with new potatoes; one grilled steak with fries; and spag bol - not exactly the height of gastronomy!!

ashfordshe Thurs 27/03/08 22:40

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Whickerman
Thurs 27/03/08
22:43

Unless they're killing the meat that is totally ridiculous. You were right to vote with your feet.

BUT - you should know that they would have been within their rights to insist on you paying for any drinks consumed- the police have been involved in cases like that!

Goodsoulette
Thurs 27/03/08
22:45

45 minutes is acceptable as long as you are told that at the beginning. 30 minutes wouldn't be abnormal, an hour would be unacceptable under any circumstance. I think you are in a grey area. What else was the manageress supposed to say?

Ice.Maiden
Thurs 27/03/08
22:47

Whickerman beat me to it. If the restaurant wasn't busy, I think a 45 minute wait was far too long, but I think you should've paid for the pre-dinner drinks, since you ordered them and presumably drank them?

Buenchico
Thurs 27/03/08
23:02

45 minutes is certainly 'stretching it' for that type of meal (although I've happily waited longer than that, for something really special, in really posh restaurants).

However, 45 minutes certainly isn't a record. You might be interested in 'the tale of the cheese sandwiches' in my post here ;-)
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Food-and-Drink/ Question399795.html

Chris

Ice.Maiden
Tue 22/04/08
01:40

I'd forgotten that one chris!!! Lol.
I agree with you about waiting times as well. If you go to an upmarket restaurant, the wait's part of the evening, as no one wants to feel rushed, and you can actually spend several hours in a place, so waiting an hour or so, with pre-dinner drinks, is pretty acceptable.

rotti
Wed 30/04/08
18:00

I think that 45 minutes is totally unacceptable for the food that you ordered. I have walked out of a restaurant that took that long to serve food BUT I spoke to the staff to find out why it was taking so long and gave them notice that if my food was not served within the next ten minutes that I intended to leave and not pay for any drinks we had ordered. I then felt justified to leave when they still hadn't sent the food.

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