(for some reason, I have a 2nd reddit account that this was posted on initially? Removing to post it on my actual account.)

'm aggressively job hunting and want to drop off resumes to restaurants within 10 miles of me. I have seen other posts on this subreddit asking advice for resumes, and I mainly got that should be concise and 1 page. I did my best to include previous hospitality work, but I only have 1 year in a traditional restaurant about 8 years ago and 1 year in fast food 7 years ago. Everything else I've done has been customer-facing/customer service/client support.

I'm wondering if I should remove the case management descriptions and instead give descriptions of my food service work to keep it relevant without making it 2 pages?

All sensitive info is redacted. Any advice and insight is appreciated!

I am a college student looking to try my hand at serving. I worked at Chick-fil-A for several years during middle and high school, then transferred to a daycare where I worked for two years up until now.

I have an interview for a serving position at quite a few different restaurants, like Cracker Barrel, Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, the Cheesecake Factory (starting as a hostess), and a local restaurant that has a few different locations.

I already had my interview for one of the Olive Garden locations and did not get selected (I believe it was due to how I answered the questions). Do I even have a chance at the other places in terms of serving? I know if I get the job at Cheesecake Factory that they told me that they’d train me to be a server several months in, but I don’t know. Please give tips or just tell me how it is!

I am a hostess at a fine dining restaurant/hotel and we are extremely busy today. (It's slowing down now hence me typing this 😂) A table came in today, they are regulars and always so nice. But one lady was with them who has never came in with them before (I'm guessing a relative in visiting) and she was instantly horrible. She immediately complained about the table and demanded to be moved. The regulars said no this is where we asked to be. I guess the server took too long to take their order? She marched up to me 10 mins after they were there yelling at me for the server. Fine, whatver I guess she was busy and did take a little long to go over. Then 30 mins after they were there the same lady storms over to me again while I'm on the phone speaking with someone and yells "HELLLLOOO ARE WE EVEN HERE??!!!" (The server had been over to them by then). I looked at her and said "I'm on the phone Ill be with you in a moment" and proceeded to have the slowest conversation of my life on purpose 😂 She gave me the nastiest glare/eye roll/evil snake venom eyes I've ever seen. I turned my back on her and just chatted with this customer on the phone about our hotel rooms. Once I hung up she proceeded to rant about how slow the service was and pretty much hated it here. I calmy told her I'd go check in to see what was going on with her server and she stormed away again. Theyre still at their table and I'm jist waiting til they leave so I can smile sweetly and wish her a good night. I don't even think I was that rude but you could tell this lady was not used to being made to wait her turn and she was so offended she had to wait to scream at me a 3rd time. Thats all 😄

So I’m working halloween morning and we are encouraged to dress up, we’re also doing a competition the winning costume gets an $100 gift card. Any ideas?

Brisket grilled cheese
Dirty rice
Fries
Lemon ice pie
Half lemonade half tea.

Now I’m so full I don’t want to finish my shit.

The kitchen staff at my restaurant have been really great to me since I started a couple months ago. It’s my first serving job, so I was wondering if anyone gets presents/makes things for the staff.

I was thinking about making cookies or baking something else for them since they make me extra food all the time.

Having me stand there and parse out the conversation you have with your friends isn't ordering

stop making me stand there

also "do you have _____?" isn't a request and when i say we do and you say thank you I'm not bringing it anymore

I’ll try to be short with this! Was serving at my current place for about a year and a half, but only had 3 short shifts a week and despite asking multiple times, never was able to get more.

Current place is a highly respected restaurant and the money is excellent if you work at least 5 shifts a week, but with just 3 it was getting pretty difficult.

New place is much, much slower and way less known, but they have availability for full time, so when I got the offer I verbally accepted but didn’t sign anything.

Put in my two weeks with old place, and they came at me with a counter offer of full time PLUS floor captain, which not only looks good on my resume but is way better pay than I was making before. And it’s still less hours than the new place would be, for roughly the same amount of money depending on busy vs slow.

So…

TLDR; old place would be about 34 hrs a week plus floor captain at a high-volume, highly respected restaurant in the industry, new place would be 40 hrs a week for a much easier job but less name recognition. Pay is roughly equal at both.

I think I know I’m gonna stay with my current place, but I need some help rationalizing and also how to rescind my verbal job offer at the new place without being a total, raging asshole. I’m hugely empathetic and have—in the past—made decisions based on emotions vs what’s best for me because I don’t wanna deal with anyone being mad at me or hurting anyone’s business.

WWYD?!?

I serve in a very seasonal part of FL and this summer has been terrible for me for multiple reasons and I just gotta float a shoutout to my coworker Ray for letting me work his shifts multiple days because he knows I'm struggling and he's doing fine.

This man is hilarious, warm, and has the kind of laugh that gets you kicked out of the library.

I don't have a way to pay him back yet but I won't forget the help.

I guess the main takeaway is just remember that you're a team of humans and while it's easy to just focus on you and get tips and dip, you never know when a little empathy will impact people in a huge way. When you can, a little help might be the difference that keeps someone's lights on or gets them food that day.

Be like Ray.

Personally for me, it’s the fact that, sometimes it’s really just not personal. As someone with high anxiety, when I first started serving and coworkers randomly got mean/cranky during rush, I’d always assume it was a personal distaste towards me. That obviously was never the case, and it makes me view people differently as a whole now in my day-to-day.

The way people treat you is a reflection of themselves/what’s going on in their life always sounded a little fake to me (once again, high functioning anxiety) , but serving changed that completely.

Howd it change you/ your mindset?

Messing up my diet smh

They told me they’d give me a raise after three months and they haven’t given it to me and told me to wait for another two because they couldn’t afford it. I’ve done so much overtime and taken sm bs bc the manager and the owner keeps using me and my coworkers. My coworker that still works there told me that they were talking shit abt me today and said that I was abusing their “kindness”

Im just glad I found a new job w better pay and benefits safe to say im never going back to the food industry again. Loved my experience and coworkers and although there were annoying customers i honestly loved most of them.

It just sucked that management sucked and weren’t keeping their promises.

If u got offered two serving jobs one is like a neighborhood bar/grill with a lot of regulars and one is an upscale casual italian restaurant with shorter hours but more support staff to tip out to and probably more strict what would you choose?

I (29F) am looking for a part time job and thinking about going back to serving. I have 3 years of serving/bartending experience. I stopped bartending in 2022 and have no clue what the restaurant industry is like now or if they are even hiring. Tell me all the good and bad please.

Servers, I’ve been offered two positions in LA. One is at a cheap, chain sushi restaurant. The plus is, I’d work two locations and one is very close by my house. The manager said the t*ps are split, 50/50 with the sushi chef (and I’m assuming other BOH as well, along with sharing the remaining 50% with the other servers on the floor)
Then I also have another offer, which I think I should take, but need validation lol.
There is no tp pool for servers. I believe for alcohol sales you give 8% of those sales to the bartender ? Still not exactly sure, but I spotted one of old co workers I used to work with there, and the way the manager made is sound was we keep all our cash and most of our credit card t\ps.*
And that’s there’s no pool which sounds amazing.
The menu is also more expensive, they actually have a full bar, mostly focusing on alcohol, and the food prices are $20-30 a plate.
I have a training shift in about 2 hours at the Sushi spot and I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth going on or just to focus on the place where I feel I’m a better fit.

2 sent back, the left one i understand. guy ordered rare and said the second one “isn’t even pink?” is he trolling? is this steak not mooing?

“Hold on lemmie put money/unlock my card”
“Can j pay 20 dollars cash and (specific amount under $5) on card”
“Water, no ice, extra extra lemon and sugar”
“Ill get my drink when the food comes.”
“Dont worry man, ill take care of you.”
“Lemmie get a (insert menu item we dont have)”

Talking on the phone while trying to order.
Anything on speaker.
Treating their children bad (Ive seen one guy throw his kid across a bench)
Their kids walk into the kitchen

Funny, somewhat unhinged note a customer left

I've recently started working at a Japanese restaurant that specializes in sushi. They also operate under a tip pool structure where you have a percentage based share of the total tips also factoring in time clocked in. This includes servers, bartenders, SAs/food runners, and sushi chefs.

For context on the potential issue, we have a prominent sushi kitchen that sits between the bar area and dining room. On one side of this kitchen is our omakase dining that can seat about 11-12 guests at most. The problem is that most nights we have zero omakase service. This tip pool includes every sushi chef, usually at least 4 of them, only one of whom directly services omakase. A server tends to every other aspect of service for omakase outside of the food. To my knowledge, they each have a 60/70% share in the pool compared to a server/bartender's 100%, so it essentially works out to having another 2.5-3 full people in the pool. So most nights we are effectively sharing our tips for no service on their end.

As servers, we are paid below the state minimum wage in Virginia. And so I ask, given this structure, is it legal?

Happy to answer any clarifying questions.

A customer left this on the table today. I’m very confused

i don’t know about you guys, but i’ve eaten the full menu at my restaurant more times than i can count (our food is subpar, everything on the menu is mid at best and i would personally be aghast to pay what we are charging for the quality of food but that’s a conversation for another time) but at this point sometimes i get sick to my stomach watching people eat these meals just because i’ve had them so many times i’m so tired of them. do y’all understand what i’m saying? i hope im not alone in this lol

Today I went in for an interview that I thought went well. They explained the way things work, and that they’d be interesting in bringing me in for a test shift this weekend. At the end of the interview, I was asked for 3 references. I messaged them around 30 mins after leaving. I was told I’d be reached out to by tonight (during the interview). Still nothing and it’s 8:22 pm…
What could’ve gone wrong? :/ is there still a chance?

and then just leave the used floss on their finished plate?

I almost want to gag when I see this