Dining Out
Pleasurable or Painful? Take the poll and tell us what your pet peeves about dining out are.It's not so much poor food as hovering waiters, meager servings and sneaky surcharges that are leaving diners with a bad taste.
A guide released by the British consumer watchdog found the top gripes of restaurant customers had more to do with the overall experience than the bill of fare.
The most common complaints were of restaurants that encouraged tipping when a surcharge had already been added to the bill, as was the addition of unstated cover and bread charges.
The UK Good Food Guide also found that serving scanty portions ensures a customer will not return.
And while open salt and pepper bowls are appearing on the tables of fashionable British restaurants, they are a turn off.
"They may be in fashion but not knowing whose fingers have been in there already puts off customers,'' the guide says.
Sydney diner Greg Duncan, 29, eats out three times a week. He disliked "greedy restaurants that attempt to fit in two sittings per meal''.
"There is nothing more frustrating than turning up for your 8pm booking and having to wait half an hour for your table,'' he said.
"But my biggest general complaint about Sydney restaurants is paying $110 for a bottle of red that I know I can pick up for $30 at the local liquor shop,'' he said.
Mr Duncan said while giving a 10 per cent tip was standard, waiters shouldn't expect to get one if they were rude or incompetent.
A spokesman for Choice magazine, Christopher Zinn, said the standard of restaurants was generally high in Australia but it was important for owners not to rest on their laurels.
"Like any other business a lot depends on word of mouth,'' he said.
"That can make or break a restaurant.'
Elizabeth Carter, editor of The UK Good Food Guide, said dining out could be memorable for all the wrong reasons.
"Restaurateurs looking to raise their game this year could do a lot worse than listen to their customers' pet hates,'' she said.
"They're often simple mistakes that can be rectified.''