When you’re in a restaurant or café, how do you get the attention of a waiter/waitress?
This cartoon shows how it can be difficult in France.
The customer in the cartoon first says “Please”, then “Sir/Mr”, then “Waiter”, then ‘Can I order?’, then a hour later the waiter finally speaks to him and says, “Sir, to stay here you must have something to eat or drink.”
What’s it like where you are? Are waiting staff in restaurants quick to respond to you, or do they go to great lengths to ignore you? What do you call waiting staff?
I’ve worked as a waiter and as a barman and know that at busy times it can be difficult to respond to everybody immediately, but I’ve never ignored anyone deliberately.
Image supplied by Frantastique, who can teach you how do you get the attention of a French waiter, and help you to learn French.
I live in Midwest America where waiters and waitresses are constantly interrupting the meal with questions. At some places, it is typical to be bombarded with “How is everything?” and “Can I get you anything?” every 10 minutes throughout the meal. And of course, you’d better be finished with your meal within a half hour of receiving it…Gotta keep the business going at a steady pace.
Can one seriously eat their meals at a restaurant in peace somewhere in the world? This happens?
I’m jealous.
As an American, I find the experience of attracting a waiter’s attention anywhere in Europe to be fraught with frustration and anxiety. In the U.S., waiters come to the table frequently to ask if anything is needed, and calling them over for any reason is considered disruptive to their work-flow and borderline rude — something we’ll do only when it is impossible to continue with the meal otherwise (such as if silverware is missing).
I understand that the culture is different in Europe, and that waiters generally leave people alone until summoned — but it is very hard to break myself from the mindset that I’m treating them poorly if I call them over. Now that I reflect, I remember a lot more frustration on this front in the U.K. than in France. Perhaps this is because in France I was speaking French, which made it easier to get in the mindset of a different cultural expectation, while in the U.K. I was of course using my native English, making it more challenging to be attuned to cultural differences.
What a waiter says when giving you the food is interesting too. In the Netherlands and Belgium it’s “als du blieft” (please). Funnily enough in French speaking Belgium and the extreme north of France (Lille) they also say “s’il vous plait”. But in the rest of France I don’t seem to hear it.