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| - Last night I attended a birthday dinner for a friend at Vegetarian Haven. I am not a vegetarian however I enjoy new restaurants and am always encouraged by thoughtful, healthy eating.
This restaurant is located on a very cute street, the patio out front is decorated with colourful lights and quaint tables on a wooden deck. The inside is small, but not cramped. When we first arrived we were 'specialized' - meaning we were not only told about the special of the night, but shown what it looked like cooked on a plate.
The menu is vast and it was hard to decide with all the delicious options. In the end I chose the special - a vegetable and herb medley encased in a phyllo pastry with coconut curry sauce, green beans and glass noodles. I ordered the rice paper Garden Rolls to start which were delicious and fresh, and a green tea with dinner.
Everyone enjoyed their dishes and the waiter we had was friendly, knowledgeable and helpful when we had questions. He encouraged us to try the vegan desserts so I tried the Blueberry "cheese" cake and a couple people shared the belt buster which looked quite yummy!
All in all, I really liked the ambience, the food, the wait staff ...until the bill came.
He wouldn't split the check between 4 of us, but told us he would enter whatever amount we requested onto the debit machine. After a few minutes of calculating we did just that. I included my tip in my amount, as everyone else did. We left the restaurant talking about coming back and bringing other people who would also enjoy this new found gem.
About 2 streets away I heard someone run up behind us. It was our waiter, Billy, from the restaurant. I figured someone had forgotten something until I saw the 4 receipts in his hand. He asked us if everything had been all right with our service, to which we responded, yes of course it was all great. I asked what was wrong and he very passively aggressively started asking again if everything was all right since our tips didn't reflect that we had enjoyed ourselves. He told us that we had only tipped about 4% between the 4 of us and it came to roughly $6 in tips altogether.
It was very awkward and very embarrassing to watch. It was almost as if he wanted us to pull out our wallets and give him more money right there on the street. I assured him if that was the case there was an obvious mistake because we were all pretty savvy restaurant frequent-ers and I'd ask about it once I caught up with the other girls. If it was a miscalculation or misunderstanding then we'd be back to fix the mistake.
He sulked away still visibly upset.
I told the other girls what had happened and they all said that they had also tipped him and didn't understand what he was talking about.
First of all, had it been an error or had we just tipped poorly or even nothing at all, is it really appropriate and professional behaviour to run after your guests and demand an explanation for why the tip was low?
I've worked as a waiter before and unfortunately bad tippers and rude guests are all apart of that line of work. I don't consider myself or anyone at that table as either of those so this was quite an experience.
To my friend Billy, I say, thank you for being such a great server to us during our dinner but your actions after left us all dumbfounded.
Thank you also, for the laughs that followed your theatrics.
Not sure if I'll be back.
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