Ms Eclectic and I have just finished a fabulous dinner at Ben Miller Inn, near Goderich, Ontario. One of the things that made it so good was our wonderful server, a young lady who was friendly and accommodating, but not intrusive.
I'm writing about this because we live near a place in downtown London that serves excellent food, but unfortunately we have consistently had poor service there.
One time, even though they were clearly open as we walked in, we were told to come back in ten minutes. What? We couldn't sit at a booth until you were ready? You were clearly "open" since we walked in an open door.
Another time we mentioned that we didn't want any carbs with the meal and the server launched into a long lecture on what she knew about low-carb diets, telling us what we already knew and didn't care to hear from her. She was quite friendly, but very intrusive and overbearing.
At a different place, we had a waiter who kept touching me. Ok, I'm flattered that you think I'm attractive, but that's inappropriate. So was the pushiness of the maitre d' at that place.
We have had similar experiences too often at too many places: servers who try to talk too much and intrude too much. Note to all restaurant servers: it isn't about you. It's about the customers and it's about the food. Don't lecture us, and don't talk too much about yourselves.
The sad fact is that when we have unpleasant experiences with over-bearing servers, we don't go back. They think they are being friendly; they think they are chatting us up. But the fact is, we detest it.
The young lady tonight was friendly, very helpful, and on the spot with service. She did not try to strike up a conversation with us; she did not lecture us on topics we already know about [one time we had a waiter lecture us on a topic Ms Eclectic knew better than he could ever dream of knowing --- ugh!]. And it was clear to us we had a gem of a server tonight.