Asking for a taste in a restaurant

[Tess]

Bringing the whole bowl was simply a matter of efficiency. Most of the time, the soups were very good, and people would want a bowl, anyway, so the extra time/effort/labor of bringing a taste, checking for satisfaction, then bringing a bowl was inefficient.

That would be my concern right there-- wasting the server's time. Most places I go, they're working about to the limits of the time they have. You can't always tell if they really have time to chat with you or if they feel they have to give you their full attention regardless of how backed up they are.

I wouldn't be surprised if some restaurants have a policy of not granting these requests because a good number of people (not you!) who make them turn out to be very high maintenance to wait on.