I don't know if it's my Canadian upbringing, or just a good upbringing in general, but I find rudeness appalling. That's why the dinner I had tonight with my family and some family acquaintances (wouldn't even call them friends) was not a good experience for me: rudeness.
It started early, even before we even ordered. The father, I'll call him A for convenience, didn't simply signal or say "excuse me" to a waitress to take our order, but instead called out "hey! we're ready to order," or something along those lines. Okay, to give the guy some credit, maybe he didn't realize how abrupt and harsh that sounded, but it really grated on my nerves; it was like he was issuing a command to a peon or something.
Then after we ordered, he "asked" the waitress, "can you make it fast." Now that doesn't read too badly, but the way it was said...ugh. It was like he was implying that he thought they would be deliberately slow in serving the food if he didn't tell them otherwise. Besides his tone, I knew that we weren't in a hurry to go somewhere afterwards, so there wasn't even a reason for him to tell them to "make it fast."
His wife, B for convenience, later ordered a drink. When it came, she tried it and didn't really like it. Fine, but then she started complaining pretty loudly about how it wasn't fresh, and how the people in the restaurant didn't know how to do things properly. Then he, A, joined in as well. Argh. Sure I'm not always completely satisfied with my food, and I may make a comment about it, but I try not to go on and on about it throughtout the entire meal, and definitely not at full voice either!
At the same time B was ordering her drink, she also ordered dessert for afterward. She pointed to something on the menu and the waitress repeated it to confirm the order. Then my dad asked for ice kachang (we were in a Malaysian restaurant), to be served after dinner. That was fine, except that when dinner was actually finished and it was time for dessert, they, A and B, got impatient again and started asking where the dessert was, and commenting on how slow the service was. The first things that came were two more drinks, similar to the one that B had complained about earlier.
She was shocked, she thought that she had ordered ice kachang. The waitress explained that she had pointed to that particular drink on the menu, and not the ice kachang, which was on another section of the menu entirely. I mentioned that I had heard the waitress confirming two somethings that weren't ice kachang. Then she, B, started again about how she hadn't liked the drink she had ordered because it wasn't fresh, so she didn't want these drinks--which she had actually ordered--because they were basically the same thing, made from powder, rather than fresh. After the waitress left and the drinks were aken away, B actually started commenting on how "ridiculous" it was that the waitress would make a mistake when we had been talking about ice kachang. Never mind that she, B, had pointed to the drink when ordering, and had given her assent when the waitress reconfirmed the order.
Their attitudes really peeved me off. First they were so irritating and rude, and then they tried to blame their own mistake on the waitress! When the bill came, they gave a bare 10% tip (it was their treat), if even--I'm still not sure if they even gave that much, becuase all I saw was a bunch of change. So, as we were leaving, I made sure that I was the last to go, and I left another five bucks. I wish I had had a ten dollar bill, (I only had a five and a twenty in my wallet) because I would have left that if I'd had it. I mean, they were nice enough to take the drinks off the bill even though we had ordered it, if mistakenly, and since they had made it, it only went to waste. That plus all the hassle that they gave the poor waitresses made me at least believe that they deserved a far more generous tip. I do regret not having a ten, though, as I'm not sure whether or not the cost of the drinks will come out of the waitress' pocket. It's not like the drinks were expensive or anything, but it's a matter of principal, y'know?
Geh, I really don't want to eat out with these people again as long as they're here. I'm probably overreacting because I wasn't too fond of them to begin with, but still, I don't want to have to see poor waiters and waitresses having to deal with them. Besides, I don't have a lot of money to spare for leaving extra tips--by way of apology--for the waiters, and, doubtless, I'd feel the need to do so after eating with them. >P
