Why do waiters at certain restaurants NOT write the order down?

May 13, 2006 6:52 PM

At P.F. Chang's, our waiter didn't write any portion of my family's order down (party of six.) This seemed to be the custom at this particular location, but I don't understand why. Do restaurant managers specifically instruct their wait staff not to write the order down? Why? Is it considered more personal and attentive?

I happened to notice it this time, because I was requesting a dish that's traditionally made with meat to be made vegetarian. I personally would prefer to see them write something down - just committing it to memory seems like an easy way to get someone's food messed up. As someone who has stickies posted everywhere (and yet still manages to leave the house without turning the oven off), I can't imagine how this system can function in a way that's helpful to a busy restaurant.

posted by invisible ink to food & drink (37 comments total)

I've noticed that at a Cheesecake Factory, and the waiter was taking orders for 13 people (and got each one right on the money, including the fancy orders).

I imagine that as soon as your waiter left your table, he beelined to a computer and typed them all in. That's the only way I know I'd remember them, anyhow!
posted by cajo at 7:06 PM on May 13, 2006

just committing it to memory seems like an easy way to get someone's food messed up

Exactly. By not writing it down and still getting the order right they are trying to impress you. They want you to feel that you are being served by the exceptionally skilled waiter. From the restaurant's point of view this helps justify what they charge for the food (high quality service is a perk). From the waiter's point of view you ay be more inclined to tip a little extra for such a seemingly impressive feat.

The thing to keep in mind is that the waiter has to keep it memorized for just the two minutes it takes him to go back to the wait station and punch in your order. So, really, not all that impressive.

The bottom line is that everything they do well enough for you to remember, makes you more likely to go back to the restaurant and to discuss the restaurant with friends. Notice that you've just given P.F. Chang's some free advertising on Ask.Mefi.
posted by oddman at 7:08 PM on May 13, 2006

Huh. Surprising to hear that this custom has made its way to chain restaurants.
posted by desuetude at 7:12 PM on May 13, 2006

You can either remember the orders or you can't. If you can, special orders are no harder than the rest. Probably easier in fact.
posted by smackfu at 7:24 PM on May 13, 2006

I like it when a waiter comes back and confirms my order, because it means there was a good chance they were about to mess it up and now they wont. No doubt your waiter would have done the same thing if they weren't sure.
posted by furtive at 7:28 PM on May 13, 2006

My wife, a waitress of many years says she did this when see forgat her note pad at the desk. Yes, just to look professional and spectacular.
posted by sled at 7:35 PM on May 13, 2006

I waited tables. The thing is that you hear the same orders over and over night after night. Even if someone has a special request, you're memorizing stuff you're extremely familiar with, and stuff you're used to memorizing. I never found it to be too hard.

Partly it was to appear more professional as a waiter, but mostly it was just that writing everything down was a pain. Not worththe effort since it goes into a computer.

In a busy restaurant, I'd say remembering orders is one of the least difficult parts of the job.
posted by y6y6y6 at 7:38 PM on May 13, 2006

I'll echo y6y6y6. I work for FedEx Kinko's and we do the same thing. No matter how unique you think your particular project (or meal) is, it's been asked for before. Now it's just a matter of matching your face with what you asked for.
posted by ThFullEffect at 7:42 PM on May 13, 2006

Exactly. By not writing it down and still getting the order right they are trying to impress you. They want you to feel that you are being served by the exceptionally skilled waiter.

I waited tables for several years, and at some point decided to take orders this way as well. I wasn't trying to impress anyone - the reason was simply a matter of convenience. No more pens in my pocket, no more pad to carry around, no more time taken out to write everything down. Waiting tables is a fast-paced and stressful job, and every second counts - writing everything down took too much time away from my schedule.

After serving the same platters day in and day out - and hearing people order basically the same thing every time - it was easy to remember each order. It's simply a matter of taking note of what is out of place, instead of what is normal.
It's not a problem to remember a complex order with special instructions - the person waiting on you is actually far more likely to forget a basic order.
For large parties of 30 or more, I would generally carry a pad with me. Anything less than 30 I could usually handle with no problem.
I believe the most I ever committed to memory was a table of 40, or something close to that... It's been a while. My memory's not so good.
posted by bradth27 at 7:42 PM on May 13, 2006

on preview, what y6y6y6 said.
posted by bradth27 at 7:43 PM on May 13, 2006

Remembering orders is not a magic trick. If all you do every day, all day, is remember orders picked from what is likely a never-changing menu (save Per Se and the like).. it's not rocket science. They're just saving time. It is likely they are encouraged to do so at high-end restaurants, but on the other hand, you'll see even more limited menus and less modifications. Dinner at the French Laundry? You've got, oh, three choices.. :)
posted by kcm at 7:48 PM on May 13, 2006

I've worked in restaurants for about ten years. In these ten years, on almost a daily basis, I've dealt with customers who are of the opinion that they know how to do my job better than I. The short answer to why any waiter or cook employs any method at all? None of your business. The good ones have figured out how to make it work, and writing down orders may or may not be part of the process.

They spend a hell of a lot more time at their restaurant than you. If they're good at their job, then they have intimate knowledge of their workplace's peculiarities. Perhaps every dish has a corresponding number at PF Chang's which this waiter long ago commited to memory. Six numbers with a quirk on but one of the dishes is quite easy to memorize, no pad required. He may have been on his way back to the kitchen when he took your order. In that case, it's likely he meant to tell the cook directly instead of trusting an order slip to express your request.

Customers tend to assume they are a waiter's only table, or at least the only table that matters. In the thick of a burly dinner rush, a waiter is just plain too busy to reassure their patrons that their simple instructions were understood. You're not the first vegetarian this waiter encountered, nor will you be the last.

Customers also tend to forget that a waiter is a professional in the service industry and he knows what he's doing. If he was a scrub, then he'd still be stuck on hosting or bussing duty. When I take orders without a pad, I'm never doing it to enhance the illusion of personal attention. Sometimes, leaving paper out of it is just more expedient. Other times, I was too busy to go scrounge up a pen.
posted by EatTheWeak at 7:59 PM on May 13, 2006

This is especially easy because often there is simply a number code you punch on the computer for each item, and after a while the numbers are so ingrained into your memory that when you hear "Chicken Puttanesca and an iced tea" you hear "23 and 02". Most waiters I worked with not only didn't have to write it down, they didn't even look at the screen when they put it in.

Except every now and then the owner's wife would add a new item, which would set all following numbers off by one, resulting in a few huge catastrophic screw-ups until the change was memorized as well : )
posted by hermitosis at 8:05 PM on May 13, 2006

A number of people have said it well. Not writing everything down is usually just an efficient evolutionary part of the job. Really any job - do you write down every little detail of every day that you do over and over again? Menu alterations have usually been heard before, or they're so unusual the waiter will remember them because of that! EatTheWeak is right that an unfortunately large amount of the populous thinks they know the job better than the one actually doing it. Of course I'm not saying anyone here is guilty of that. Just an observation from my own experience as well.
posted by dog food sugar at 8:07 PM on May 13, 2006

Great answers, thanks:-)
posted by invisible ink at 8:08 PM on May 13, 2006

i have been working in the restaraunt industry for ten years and have never yet been to a restaraunt (other than very high end 5 star dining type places, where you generally have 1 or 2 tables at a time) that encourage not writing things down. ive never had a server at PF Changs not use a notepad so i doubt it is a company wide practice. I work at the Cheesecake Factory currently and not writing down your orders can cost you your job.

the few times i misplaced my pens or ran out of paper and had to do it by memory the 'tables' were never impressed.. more just concerned.

the restaraunt i work in has over 100 entrees on the menu and ALWAYS has a wait.. writing things down is crucial to making the guests experience, i definitely dont think not writing it down adds much of anything, what it does add is the opportunity for someone to catch my attention before i make it to the computer and then i have to make a fool out of myself to go back and ask again.
posted by trishthedish at 8:21 PM on May 13, 2006

I waited tables for several years in mostly fine dining. Never a chain. Anyway, in general, I knew what everyone ordered anyway, whether or not I wrote it down. I suppose there's lots of people who are competent waitpersons who don't remember everything that's happening at every one of their tables, but I did.

This was 20 years ago, so most of the places I worked did not have fully computerized ordering systems. I suppose that for places that do, it might be easier to not write the order down because it's going to be printed up anyway. If it's written and/or entered properly, it'll be using a "pivot" system whereby some rule defines the "first" seat at a table (such as the seat closest to the kitchen or closest to the front door) and then the order as it is written or printed will show who gets what. This wasn't ever necessary for me to remember, but under any circumstance where someone else would need to take something to the table, it'd be apparent from the ticket where the stuff goes. (If you ever get a waiter who, god forbid, asks you who got what or is otherwise clueless, they're not doing their job. Even if it's not your waiter bringing the order to the table.)

If the restaurant is using hadwritten tickets to place the order in the kitchen, then not writing it at the table isn't going to save any time (well, that's only for food).

Even though I could take orders without writing them down, I rarely did so because it made customers nervous as this question demonstrates.

I'm sure a lot of waitpeople with, say, four tables of four, couldn't tell you what everyone has ordered at any given time. Even so, this isn't as extraordinary as it seems because to do your job competently, you must come pretty close to being able to do so anyway. You have to know at any given time what is happening at all your tables in detail because timing and efficiency is everything in waiting tables.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 8:34 PM on May 13, 2006

Also, to emphasize what's implied in my response, there's nothing at all wrong that you were nervous when your waitperson didn't write anything down. It makes most people nervous. Sitting there worrying about whether your waiterperson has screwed up your order can be a real distraction from what otherwise would have been a relaxing meal. I strongly disagree with the attitude that some people have above that disdains customers worrying about such things and that in doing so, the customer is supposedly presuming to know better than the waiter how to do the job. The customer isn't claiming to know better how to do the job—they're just naturally worried something is going to go wrong. If the customer feels that way, in a fundamental sense the waitperson isn't doing their job.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 8:45 PM on May 13, 2006

Speaking as someone who eats at restaurants, I'm always annoyed at waiters that don't write down my order. From experience, I know that the odds of getting a wrong order when it's written down are maybe 1%. The odds of getting a wrong order when it isn't written down are more like 5%. I find that annoying. It detracts from my meal, even when the right order eventually shows up. Do I take it out in people's tips? I don't know, never really thought about it. Perhaps I've generally forgotten about the earlier part of the meal by the time the check comes. But perhaps I haven't.

My advice for waitstaff: carry a pad and paper, and pretend like you're writing, even if you aren't.
posted by jellicle at 9:19 PM on May 13, 2006

Back in my service days, the guys who did the memory trick did it purely for show, not efficiency. In fact, some guys would pull the memory trick ONLY with large parties, to make it seem more impressive and get a bigger percentage on a bigger ticket.
posted by frogan at 9:27 PM on May 13, 2006

i definitely dont think not writing it down adds much of anything, what it does add is the opportunity for someone to catch my attention before i make it to the computer and then i have to make a fool out of myself to go back and ask again.

Thank you. Invisable ink, believe everyone saying it's "easy" if you want. It's not true. Under special circumstances, small menu, been working at a restaurant for a long time, only have one or two tables, or the waiter is simply gifted, it can be done. Most waiters can't do it. About half the time, in my experiences, there's been a mistake. We either have the biggest group of gifted servers ever on metafilter or you might want to take all this with a grain of salt.

I believe the most I ever committed to memory was a table of 40, or something close to that

Then you should be counting cards in vegas. 40 people, different orders, whatever.
posted by justgary at 9:45 PM on May 13, 2006

I strongly disagree with the attitude that some people have above that disdains customers worrying about such things

I think I agree. it's distracting to have to worry about it, and the reason I worry about it is because waitstaff have got my order wrong quite a few times in the past, not because I'm Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets.

Having said that, this thread is convincing me that a waiter who takes an order without a pad is, paradoxically, more likely to get it right than one who does.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 10:02 PM on May 13, 2006

Thank you. Invisable ink, believe everyone saying it's "easy" if you want. It's not true. Under special circumstances, small menu, been working at a restaurant for a long time, only have one or two tables, or the waiter is simply gifted, it can be done.

It was easy for me, and made my job a lot less complicated. I worked for a large chain restaurant, and our menu was fairly extensive. Our sections consisted of four tables each, and the restaurant was almost always on a wait ( I worked at the busiest chain location in the state.)

About half the time, in my experiences, there's been a mistake. We either have the biggest group of gifted servers ever on metafilter or you might want to take all this with a grain of salt.

Perhaps we do have a group of gifted servers. As far as mistakes being made regarding my own time as a server, it almost never happened. I can only speak from my own experience, however.

As far as people being annoyed by my service, I can't say for certain. I can say this, however - I had a significant number of regular parties who would ask for me to serve them, and received very few complaints.

Then you should be counting cards in vegas. 40 people, different orders, whatever.

Remembering that a certain person wants ranch dressing with their fried cheese is a far cry from being able to count cards. I did enjoy the "whatever" comment, though. Gave me a nice mental image of you with rubber bracelets and leg warmers.
posted by bradth27 at 10:04 PM on May 13, 2006

Slight derail, but all these experienced waiters talking about how predictable the customers are reminds me of a scene from a British TV show I saw some years ago.

Someone is in an indian restaurant, and they're thinking deeply about their order ... hmm, let me see, I'll start with the Sharmi Kebab, then perhaps, yes, the Butter Chicken, and why not, side order of Papadums...

Then we see the pad over the waiter's shoulder. He's already written the whole thing down.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 10:08 PM on May 13, 2006

I've never been a waiter, but back when I worked in the paint department at Sears we offered hundreds of different colors of paint and 90% of people bought one of ten colors. Not only did one learn the SKUs for those very quickly, one learned to punch the SKUs into the cash register while carrying on a conversation with a customer, not even skipping a beat. Yeah you did it partly to show off, but also because it was faster and you were busy. If you could categorize a repeat customer by which of the ten colors they bought a case of last time, you could open with "Ah, another can of the Antique White?" This would be sure to impress them. Can't imagine waiting tables is really any different; in fact, I'd wager there's a 90/10 or 80/20 rule in most any service or retail job.
posted by kindall at 1:25 AM on May 14, 2006

From experience, I know that the odds of getting a wrong order when it's written down are maybe 1%. The odds of getting a wrong order when it isn't written down are more like 5%.

From experience, I know the odds of that statement being pulled out of your ass are 99%. If you can show me a list of all the restaurant meals you've had over, say, the last decade with consistent notation of order-taking (written or memorized) and outcome (number of mistakes), with an accurate statistical analysis including P values and ranges, I'll withdraw my remark and apologize handsomely; until then, I'll assume that like the rest of humanity, you're letting one or two memorable experiences color your idea of how things work in general. ("Yeah, every time I go out with a blonde, it's always the same...") We humans are great at storytelling and terrible at probability.
posted by languagehat at 7:15 AM on May 14, 2006

I know that the odds of getting a wrong order when it's written down are maybe 1%. The odds of getting a wrong order when it isn't written down are more like 5%."

You're more likely to get an order wrong if you write it down. Especially with special orders. If you don't have to actually remember what everyone ordered you're more likely to screw it up when you read it back from your notes.

I could go into why remembering a few orders is really one of the easiest mental tasks a waiter needs to master, but I don't see the point. It's easy. The other stuff I had to do was much taxing mentally.
posted by y6y6y6 at 9:10 AM on May 14, 2006

its all fine and great to remember an order and be able to walk from the table to the computer.. but that doesnt account for whatever obstacles lay in between. upset or lost customers, managers, gossipy employees.. it can be difficult to search back in your memory when everyday is very similar, every table is a different mix of the same things.

of course you also have to take into account that some people have an incredibly good short attention span so they can take dozens of orders and be fine. but in my experience working with, training and overwatching hundreds of servers over the years.. this is not generally the case.

write it down, correctly of course and there shouldnt be any confusion with the order at all.. i mean ITS RIGHT THERE written in your own hand writing with your memory to back it up.

but personally it matters to me that my customers arent put off by my serving abilities, and that they dont worry whether their food will come out correctly or not... i pay my bills 100% from the tips they give me, i want them to be happy in the long run.. instead of trying to impress people with cheap tricks.
posted by trishthedish at 11:08 AM on May 14, 2006

I am glad this thread helped me discover that there are people who actually worry about their orders after giving them to a waiter at a restaurant. Do you fret while the shoe salesman goes back to find your size, as well?
posted by anildash at 12:25 PM on May 14, 2006

Well, evidently you've never had an order messed up. Thank you so much for your helpful response.
posted by invisible ink at 2:24 PM on May 14, 2006

I think there are some people that can easily remember orders without writing them down, and some people that can't. I never could - like trishthedish, if I made a beeline from the table to the computer I'd probably be okay, but if something distracted me then I'd invariably forget some small detail and have to go back and ask, "So, wait, you wanted fusilli, right?" Unlike furtive, the customers I did this to never looked very appreciative.

The majority of my coworkers wrote stuff down but a few didn't, and they seemed fine.

I'm probably more likely to be nervous than impressed by a server who doesn't write my order down, though, just because you really can't know whether they're one of the short-term-memory superstars that seem to be populating this thread, or if they just forgot their pen by the soup station and decided to wing it. As for me, I found serving stressful enough that every little crutch helped, including having written reminders of customers' orders. In fact I think I once wrote down a table's order on a napkin using an eyebrow pencil. Why I had more eyebrow pencils than pens in my apron is one of the many mysteries of my life.

Interesting how for some people, writing things down leads to more mistakes than just memorization. What a fascinating jumble of psychologies we are!
posted by granted at 2:35 PM on May 14, 2006

I am glad this thread helped me discover that there are people who actually worry about their orders after giving them to a waiter at a restaurant. Do you fret while the shoe salesman goes back to find your size, as well?

No, but then again, my wife doesn't have any kind of footwear allergy. A small piece of mushroom, however, can send her to the hospital, so every time we special order a dish without mushrooms (mine too, since we like to share), we wonder if the server will communicate the message to the kitchen. Judging from this thread, maybe I shouldn't, but I feel better when I see the server writing things down.
posted by diddlegnome at 4:37 PM on May 14, 2006

I find this a really fascinating discussion, because it's diametrically opposed to my own line of work in emergency medical services.

There, the rule is "if it isn't written down, it wasn't done", and no matter how familiar you are with the repeat ailments of your patient population, you always write everything down.

More than one very large jury verdict in a medical misadventure trial has hinged upon the frangibility of human memory.

To keep my observation relevant, I tend to get nervous when a server at a large chain doesn't write down my order, because in my practical experience, those waiters tend to be starting out, and not quite as good at their jobs as they think they are. I've had enough orders come back incorrect to vindicate the suspicion, but 100% of all anecdotal statistics are worth precisely balls.

On the other hoof, I almost never worry about the non-writing thing at top-flight restaurants, and I can't recall the last time I had a mistake on an order at one of those (Marche, Manresa, etcetera).
posted by scrump at 5:52 PM on May 14, 2006

Honestly, I can't recall the last time a server wrote down my order, with the exception of diners and when I sit at the bar to eat dinner and therefore am waited on by the bartender. This goes for more casual places as well as fine dining.

(I don't love national chain restaurants though, so I can't speak for them other than a brief and unremarkable waitressing stint at one summer ten years ago. I know I always wrote things down, but I was also a very inexperienced server.)
posted by desuetude at 8:00 PM on May 14, 2006

Sorry for the derail and the unhelpful comment, was intended to be playful, but on review it was a bastard thing to say. Here's to worry-free dining. :)
posted by anildash at 12:42 PM on May 15, 2006

No worries Anil:-)

cowers in trepidation upon discovery that anildash is good friends with #1 and could therefore have me banned upon a whim's notice

Seriously though, my sarcasm detector tends to malfunction when I'm online.
posted by invisible ink at 12:02 AM on May 16, 2006

Hey, anil, at least you gave me the chance to use the phrase "footwear allergy," which I don't get to do often enough.
posted by diddlegnome at 5:36 PM on May 16, 2006