On a recent trip to the US, we used to go out for lunch with our clients to various places.
One hotel we went to seemed to be pretty popular, and there was usually a crowd during lunch. On this particular day, we sat down and placed our orders. We were a huge group, so our entire order was not easy to remember. But I remembered reading somewhere that waiters were good at remembering orders, and hence I decided to ignore it. "She has noted it down on a notepad anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem for her," I thought.
Our first order arrived, carried by a different waiter from the one who took the order. She came straight to the table, and placed it right in front of the person who had asked for that item.
I was surprised that even though she was different from the one who took our order, she knew which customer had ordered that item. I put it down to the original waiter informing the new one of who had placed that order.
The subsequent orders came and the same thing happened again and again. I was surprised. I looked around at another table, and after some time, noticed the same pattern. Different waiters would serve the same tables, and each waiter knew which customer had ordered what. These same waiters were also serving other tables, and even there, they seemed to know who had ordered what.
"Can they really remember to such an extent?," I wondered. I didn't think I could.
I forgot about the incident and was reminded of it on another day, when we went to a mobile diner of sorts. The mobile diner is just the same as the street food stalls and vans that we see in India.
I placed my order, and the lady gave me my copy of the receipt she wrote the order on. Here it is:
Notice the top row of figures?
There are various shapes with some numbers arranged around them. There is also a circled 'S' symbol.
The shapes are the tables in the restaurant. The numbers around the shapes are the customers that can sit on those tables. Each customer is assigned a number. The circled 'S' symbol is the waiter. Its expansion is probably "server".
When the waiter arrives to take your order, she stands in the position marked by the circled 'S'. She then notes down your order according to the position in which you sit. Thus, if you are the first on her left side, your order is marked against number 1.
This paper is then maintained until the orders are ready, at which point the waiter brings the food to the table along with the paper. Since she knows the name of the food, it's easy to find the customer's position from the paper. She then serves it directly to the customer!! This ensures that any free waiter can serve the food back to the table, and it is not necessary to wait for the original waiter to serve, or to ask the original waiter whom to serve to.
I saw this for the first time in my life in the US, and am not sure whether it exists in India. In most Indian restaurants I have been to, when the waiter comes to serve me food, I am the one indicating to the waiter which food should go to whom.
One hotel we went to seemed to be pretty popular, and there was usually a crowd during lunch. On this particular day, we sat down and placed our orders. We were a huge group, so our entire order was not easy to remember. But I remembered reading somewhere that waiters were good at remembering orders, and hence I decided to ignore it. "She has noted it down on a notepad anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem for her," I thought.
Our first order arrived, carried by a different waiter from the one who took the order. She came straight to the table, and placed it right in front of the person who had asked for that item.
I was surprised that even though she was different from the one who took our order, she knew which customer had ordered that item. I put it down to the original waiter informing the new one of who had placed that order.
The subsequent orders came and the same thing happened again and again. I was surprised. I looked around at another table, and after some time, noticed the same pattern. Different waiters would serve the same tables, and each waiter knew which customer had ordered what. These same waiters were also serving other tables, and even there, they seemed to know who had ordered what.
"Can they really remember to such an extent?," I wondered. I didn't think I could.
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I forgot about the incident and was reminded of it on another day, when we went to a mobile diner of sorts. The mobile diner is just the same as the street food stalls and vans that we see in India.
I placed my order, and the lady gave me my copy of the receipt she wrote the order on. Here it is:
Notice the top row of figures?
There are various shapes with some numbers arranged around them. There is also a circled 'S' symbol.
The shapes are the tables in the restaurant. The numbers around the shapes are the customers that can sit on those tables. Each customer is assigned a number. The circled 'S' symbol is the waiter. Its expansion is probably "server".
When the waiter arrives to take your order, she stands in the position marked by the circled 'S'. She then notes down your order according to the position in which you sit. Thus, if you are the first on her left side, your order is marked against number 1.
This paper is then maintained until the orders are ready, at which point the waiter brings the food to the table along with the paper. Since she knows the name of the food, it's easy to find the customer's position from the paper. She then serves it directly to the customer!! This ensures that any free waiter can serve the food back to the table, and it is not necessary to wait for the original waiter to serve, or to ask the original waiter whom to serve to.
I saw this for the first time in my life in the US, and am not sure whether it exists in India. In most Indian restaurants I have been to, when the waiter comes to serve me food, I am the one indicating to the waiter which food should go to whom.
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