Miami Restaurant Culture (Bell: condo, credit card, attorneys)

[elchevere]

One thing I’ve noticed here in Miami is that the wait staff is in a rush and quick to grab your plate, often before you’ve finished eating and without asking (and then slow to bring the check afterwards)….is grabbing your plate treated like a red light or stop sign in which signs and/or customers are ignored…I ask because if a few of my friends who are attorneys had not already warned me that the jury composition might not favor me a few waiters would be walking around town missing fingers and/or pulling my fork out of their eyeballs.

[SanyBelle]

What?

[elchevere]

I kid you not…I find hands on my plate (Cousin It) or it in the process of being removed without asking and before I’m finished eating—including at fancy places….one of these days…

Originally Posted by SanyBelle

What?

[WINTERFRONT]

True, now that I think about it, I usually never leave a place with plates on the table. Maybe it’s a presentation concern. A restaurant might look ratchet with so many used plates on a table during or after a meal.

[WINTERFRONT]

But what if I’m the only person dining with just one plate on the table?

[jr8999]

Originally Posted by elchevere

I kid you not…I find hands on my plate (Cousin It) or it in the process of being removed without asking and before I’m finished eating—including at fancy places….one of these days…

Having only lived here less than I year I do notice a difference from other places. It's especially annoying when it's a cocktail I haven't quite finished. I've thought about the possible causes/motivations and really can't come up with a solid reason...at least in my mind.

The thing that really ticks me off is when there are two people dining together and one finished before the other their plate, utensils, glasses etc. are immediately taken away leaving the other diner looking looking awkward. On the rare occasion that I've dined at very high end restaurants I've noticed this does not happen.

elchevere... did you mean to reference Cousin Itt or "Thing"? Thing was the hand

[elchevere]

ha ha....yeah, "Thing".....I must be getting old.

Originally Posted by jr8999

Having only lived here less than I year I do notice a difference from other places. It's especially annoying when it's a cocktail I haven't quite finished. I've thought about the possible causes/motivations and really can't come up with a solid reason...at least in my mind.

The thing that really ticks me off is when there are two people dining together and one finished before the other their plate, utensils, glasses etc. are immediately taken away leaving the other diner looking looking awkward. On the rare occasion that I've dined at very high end restaurants I've noticed this does not happen.

elchevere... did you mean to reference Cousin Itt or "Thing"? Thing was the hand

[Frustratedintelligence]

I just call it how I see it, and it's a blatant sign of disrespect. Everyone knows waitstaff are hustling to get diners in and out as quick as possible, but that's not your problem and they know this.

Their hand trying to take my plate is going to be met with my hand swatting theirs.

[WilliamInMiami]

The last time I was at El Cristo on Calle Ocho the waiter changed my $10 tip to a $40 tip after we left. Unsurprisingly, it was a loud mouth Cuban waiter.

[elchevere]

Funny, but I had something similar happened to me at LPM in Brickell.

I ordered cocktails and apps prior to dinner on the outside patio….$69 worth of food and drinks and a healthy $18 tip for a total of $87. When I went online to check my credit card charges they input $267–not $87. I went back to the restaurant to ask them WTF happened; after 15 minutes the manager came back to me and said they “accidentally” entered my tip as $180 instead of $18….calling bullsh*t on this because if you add this $180 to the original $18 tip that was part of the original $87 amount the corrupt waitress tried double dipping and “excessively” adding an extra $180 to her tip hoping I would not check my statement and just pay it. Furthermore, the management only offered me a cup of coffee while I waited for them to discover THEIR error; a well managed place would have offered me a glass of wine, dessert or an appetizer on a follow up visit, particularly since I had dined there 12-15 times previously, and fired the waitress. It was as though they condoned the thievery from one of their employees and were rather nonchalantly unapologetic.

Will be a cold day in hell before I step foot again in LPM Brickell.

Originally Posted by WilliamInMiami

The last time I was at El Cristo on Calle Ocho the waiter changed my $10 tip to a $40 tip after we left. Unsurprisingly, it was a loud mouth Cuban waiter.