What Do You Find Annoying in Dining Companions?

[sherribabee]

Does anyone ever go up to these parents who let their kids run loose?  I sure as hell do.   Please don't tell me I'm the only one! 

sherribabee, you're my new hero!

my friend and I went to a little neighborhood luncheonette one day. this place is very informal but the lunch crowd is usually office workers. ok, so we walk in and there are two mothers sitting at a table chatting and eating lunch. with each mother is what I thought one child, each screaming it's freaking brains out. Do the mothers stop and console their children? No they do not!! With what must be mommy-like deafness they continue to chat and eat lunch. I get a closer look at the strollers sitting beside each respective mommy and see they each have a set of twins. Quadraphenia! ARGGGGHHH! By the time they pay the bill and begin to clear out, the other patrons of the luncheonette are moving tables aside so they can make their exit quicker. When they are finally out the door, the luncheonette owner laid down in the middle of the restaurant floor, kicking her feet and moaning.

I just wanted to throttle the mommies. So very clueless...

Wouldn't it have been fun if you could've orchestrated similar screaming among the other partons? When the mommies stop their conversation to see what's the matter, you simply offer a blank stare and say, "annoying, isn't it?"

Heh. I'm glad I don't have the balls to be as evil as my brain wants me to be.

[wawairis]

Wouldn't it have been fun if you could've orchestrated similar screaming among the other partons? When the mommies stop their conversation to see what's the matter, you simply offer a blank stare and say, "annoying, isn't it?"

Heh. I'm glad I don't have the balls to be as evil as my brain wants me to be.

WOW! I've always dreamt of doing something like that, but as you say, never had the balls to do it!

[=Mark]

Then there was the time we were eating at a small luncheonette when a couple of 20 something guys walk in with a troupe of 5 kids ranging from like 18 months to 6 years. They seat them at a table and order them drinks. The guys then proceed to the other side of the dining room by the counter where they light up a couple smokes and watch a football game on TV, leaving the little tykes, armed with their drinks, all to themselves.

Within 3 minutes all the tables within hurling distance of the unattended crumb crushers had bolted for the parking lot...

[wawairis]

why do people have to be like that? can't the childless go out and have a nice meal? aren't we entitled to a nice atmosphere? i'm not saying don't bring the kiddies along. just keep an eye (and an ear) on the little goober smoochers. if they get cranky, time to ask for the bill!

[Jinmyo]

I have to have one of the worse stories on this subject of all eGulleteers. Time, Halloween night, several (OK, at least 10) years ago. Place, Terra, Napa Valley, CA. Kathy had not been feeling well, so we took an early reservation, 7:00, to make an early night of it.

The staff was very into the Halloween thing and so service suffered a bit . . . but the bad kids, ACK!

We are seated in the room to the left of the door next to a table of three -- a slightly older man, his wife and their 3 year old daughter in a high chair. When we arrived, parents are just getting food; there is none for the child -- she ate at McDonald's earlier. The family is obviously on vacation. So, we have a child who has been dragged from smelly cellar to smelly cellar all day, gets an early dinner and is expected to watch her parents eat! If someone set out to make a child cranky, he or she could not surpass this couple's effort. She cries, she fusses, she whines. Just after my wine gets decanted (a Phelps Insignia, vintage either 1974 or 1978), the parents let the child out of jail. She flies around the dining room. As she heads back to her table, she grabs our table cloth and pulls. I dive across the table and catch the decanter just as it crosses over the table edge. I give the parents a laser stare; they just smile and nod.

The kid gets worse -- cry, fuss, run, fuss, run cry. Finally their check arrives; the kid is pitching a fit; and daddy takes the time to check the addition on the computer generate bill!

Meanwhile, some people get seated on the other side of us. A couple in their 30s from New York -- he's an investment banker, she's probably a lawyer -- and thier six month old daughter, Alexis. How do I know the baby's name you ask? Well, all through the remainder of my meal, Mommy kept bending over the pumpkin seat, ever closer to my right ear and cooed -- over and over and over --

Mommy LOVES Alexis.

If upon my death, I see that dining room, I will know that I did something terribly wrong during my time on earth.

Egad. I would offer my condolences but I have to stop laughing first.

[mags]

I'm wondering what one can do that might offend the parents as much as their unsupervised tykes offend us. Maybe a nice graphic discussion about oral sex....

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I'm very late to this thread. I agree with Bux regarding sharing tastes and the occasional exchange of plates. We have not too infrequently had a waiter appear from nowhere to provide the proper silverware for the "new" plates, eg, a fish knife and fork or a spoon, when the original plate had not called for either. We always have found the attitude of the waitstaff to be one of wanting us to fully enjoy what we ordered, regardless of who ordered which.

re Robert Brown's original question, we really don't have a problem with the idyocracies of dining companions since my husband's idea of the perfect table is "2"! He can on occasionally be pushed to stretch that to "4", but not beyond. More than 4 will be entertained at home. We really don't see n any context people who behave badly. It's a sheltered life, but one of the luxuries of age!

Edited November 13, 2003 by Margaret Pilgrim (log)

[srhcb]

Does anyone ever go up to these parents who let their kids run loose?  I sure as hell do.  Please don't tell me I'm the only one!

One more thing I'll always be thankful to my parents for; they used to take me and my younger Brother and Sister out to dinner about once a month, starting when I was eight or nine, and my siblings two and five years younger.

Often it was to the local hotel restaurants, at the time the nicest places to eat in our area. We were taught how to behave while dining in public, and I can remember how proud my folks would be when others would come over to the table and compliment them on how well mannered we were.

I've tried to advance this cause myself, although I don't have children, by sending my compliments, usually via the waitstaff, when I see a family dining with well behaved children.

I also recall the maire d' of the Flame Room at the Minneapolis Raddison Hotel, at that time on of the fanciest restaurants in Minnesota, making special arrangements for us to dine there an hour before the official opening time to circumvent the liquor laws. The staff made a great fuss over us, and we were all thrilled by the fancy decor and elaborate meal, which included the obligatory early 1960's vintage flaming-something-or-other-I-forget-what.

I will remember to thank my parents for one more special thing the next time I see them.

SB

[Suzi Edwards]

two of my best friends (a couple) are both perpetually late and the finickitiest of eaters. one won't eat fish, shellfish, mustard, anchovies, olives, blue cheese, celery, turnips and swede. the other avoids "foreign muck" (it's now easiest to say what this isn't rather than list the cuisines that fall into this category. at the last count he ate food from all of mainland europe (avoiding eastern europe and scandinavia) thailand and china) he also describes peas as "the food of the devil" and "the spawn of satan" and avoids them along with all pulses and beans. you can imagine what cooking for them is like.

despite this they are great dining companions and very dear friends. i took them to royal hospital road as a big thank you for looking after me during a tough patch. the sight of one of them surrepticiously spooning the peas out of his chicken consomme into our other friend's soup is for me my favourite dinner moment ever.

[lala]

Let's see...how about drinking too much alcohol, too quickly, getting drunk very fast. Instantly snagging the best food from shared plates for herself (all the shrimp, etc.). Gobbling food so fast it's revolting. Talking loudly, and making comments on table-mates ('That's your third helping. Are you sure you need that?'). When the rest of us pay cash, this person collects the cash, and pays with her debit card. What we didn't know is that she usually left a measly 5% tip, which means she basically stiffed the waiter, and stole money from us. I had forgotten a scarf one day and went back to the table to see the receipt. I was horrified!

Sad thing is, this is all the SAME person. Needless to say, I happily severed any relationship with her, and am much happier!