It's always sad when nice restaurants treat their employees poorly while at the same time demanding them to be extremely courteous and pleasant to the customers. I currently own a restaurant and we operate with the philosophy that we need to treat our wait staff with the same amount of respect that we expect them to treat our customers. By treating your wait staff poorly, or in this case forcing them to buy meals in order to try them, a restaurant is just asking for it. In my experience employees are much more helpful to customers if they can sincerely answer customers' questions as far as how things taste or what would they recommend. It's always sad when nice restaurants treat their employees poorly while at the same time demanding them to be extremely courteous and pleasant to the customers. I currently own a restaurant and we operate with the philosophy that we need to treat our wait staff with the same amount of respect that we expect them to treat our customers. By treating your wait staff poorly, or in this case forcing them to buy meals in order to try them, a restaurant is just asking for it. In my experience employees are much more helpful to customers if they can sincerely answer customers' questions as far as how things taste or what would they recommend. We have had the experience that the happier our wait staff the happier our customers.