While it can be hard to come by Tampa restaurants with particularly excellent service (unless you dine in a five-star restaurant hotel), there are still some out there that pride themselves for not only delivering good food to your table but delivering the tray with a smile on your server’s face.
While we understand that the food industry is a tough job and that servers are the most unappreciated and under-compensated workers, it’s still hard to dine in a restaurant and constantly get frowned at by your waiters.
So, in the rare chance that we get to see restaurants upping their customer service game, we want to show our appreciation. How do you do that?
Tip, tip, tip
If there’s one thing that can put a smile on your server’s face, it is receiving a generous tip. Reward your server for a job well done. The minimum acceptable tip percentage is 10% of your total bill; more if you are a big group that had loads of request.
If you pay with credit card, make sure to indicate how much gratuity you want to be charged. But if you’re dining in a restaurant, make sure to bring some cash with you so your servers can receive the tip compensation at the end of the night and not wait for accounting to release their bonuses.
Call the waiter’s or the chef’s attention
If you are really impressed with the meal, why don’t you ask if you can talk to the chef for a second? We know the chef’s really busy but it would do him/her good to hear that his/her work is being appreciated.
Tell him/her how impressed you are with the presentation and the flavors of the dish. This will inspire the chef to create more stunning dishes in the future. You will also benefit from this random act of kindness.
Make sure your table is not messy
Before leaving the table, check if your table is ultra-messy. If you brought your kids with you, there’s a good chance that there are crumbs on the table with the spoon dunked in the glass of juice, etc.
While restaurant ethics said never to clean up after yourself in a fine dine-in restaurant, it would show your servers how kind you are by simply removing the crumbs from the table and putting the utensils together on top of your plate.
This little act, plus that smile you give to your server, will somehow alleviate the sufferings from this job.