March 19, 2007
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Waiting in Line
I was just reading an article about how long the wait can be at certain restaurants.
The article mentioned that some restaurants could make a person wait 85 minutes to be seated. Then the person has to wait to order and then wait for the food to be delivered. Here is the link: Link
I went to a restaurant recently where someone who was waiting told me they had waited for 2 1/2 hours.
How long of a wait would it take to make you walk back outside the door?
Comments (125)
Pretty much over 20 minutes.
30 mins tops …
thats a long wait for food! omg i would die
I went to a restaurant a couple of weeks ago and they told us 2 hours… we left.. anything over a half hour is too long
Not very long. . .
I hate that. . .
you spend time with other people, and they just want to eat-eat.
“Oh my, it’s been 3 1/2 hours since we last ate. I’m starved!”
So then you go into some restraunt and seated wait 40 minutes for the food. . .
It’s like, you can’t do anything with anyone because it’s “Food this, food that”.
More then half an hour. It would be quicker to just drive around to go somewhere else, or (god forbid!) make a meal myself.
I last ate at Applebee’s Elementary school. . .I remember liking the shake. . .a banana shake?
depends on the restaurant. For something I really liked, I could probably wait a long time…maybe bring snacks and make a day of it.
I would probably wait 5 minutes. If my parents were there they would drag me away.
Depends on the restaurant and the reason I’m going there. For most situations… a wait over 30 minutes would be unacceptable.
ten to twenty minutes. I’m normally hungry by the time I go somewhere to get food and waiting longer than that? well, it’d be ugly for everyone else.
30 min….i usually call ahead to places like Chillis or Texas Roadhouse….
over 30 minutes would be a danger zone…
Oh, I won’t wait longer than 20 minutes or so. I’m paying a babysitter!
It depends on how fast the line was moving, how many people were in front of me and who I was with.
In Chicago we waited over an hour and a half, but the wait was indoors and I was with friends and we had a good time in line. Plus the food was great!
45 minutes to an hour, unless I was with people I could have a fun convo with and had a place to sit
30 mins TOPS. my s/o works at applebees… heh heh heh, 4 years now. poor thing.
1/2 an hour..
If it’s over 45 mins I leave and eat else where.
Not to backtrack several posts but
Yes coke is addictive and I say I-M & aim like the general population however whenever you minimize the screen and the bar at the bottom says IM with psychenabelljar or whoever your talking to it reminds me of those Im with stupid shirts.
Also I have a topic for you.
A friend of my boyfriend commited suicide. I never met the guy but everyone was really bummed out and confused (he was religous you see and apparently they thought that meant he was immune to suicide). They were all sitting around and being sad about his death and someone said “That’s just selfish I dont care who you are or why”
It got me thinking….
Why is it selfish to kill yourself? Because it hurts those you leave behind.
But how come its ok to want your loved one to continue to live their life and be in pain just so you dont have to deal with the loss…isnt THAT selfish?
That is all
I just buy a table at every restaurant in town.
i live in hot springs arkansas where we have alot of tourism, we also have a race track, so during horse racing season, you can bet your not gonna get a table at any resturant , any time of the day, with out atleast an hour or hour and a half wait!!!
Depending on the situation — if the resteraunt was well known or historic and I was only in town for a day, and I chose to eat there, I might wait as long as you have noted. I once waited about an hour and half to get a table at Paul Prudhomme’s place in New Orleans, and it was well worth the wait!
well the decision whether to wait or leave has never been mine-yet. id say weve had to wait a good half hour.
No more than 30 minutes for any normal dinner but if we really wanted a specific restaurant, up to an hour
Depends….I’d wait all day for Dorsia, If patrick could get reservations….
I went to outback and it was a 45 minute wait. To pass the time I went to the bar got some beer and ordered a bloomin’ onion. Then got my table where I filled up on bread until my order came out.
30 minutes tops.
depends on the restaurant and if they have a bar or not.
I ask as soon as I walk in, if they say anything over 30 mins, or if they “aren’t really sure”, I will turn around and leave right away. I, personally, don’t ever think it’s worth the wait.
i’ve waited over an hour for a restaurant dozens of times before. it’s common.
It depends on how hungry I am.
Depends on whether or not the wait is worth it per situation. Generally if I’m told the wait is an estimated amount of time above 15 minutes, I immediately go elsewhere. Otherwise once I start waiting I rarely go away unless the wait is more than 45 mins. That’s just ridiculous and bad business, and if someone makes me wait like that I probably just won’t go again.
Normally if the wait is longer than 20 minutes, I’ll leave. To me, it’s not worth it. That’s why we very rarely go out to eat on the weekends, and if we do, we go really early. Like 5:00. Besides, normally if the wait is really long, then the service is pretty slow as well.
Over 30 minutes. 45 minutes maybe if I absolutley loved the food. C:
Over 30 minutes is crazy. I’ve waited 90 minutes before but only because I was with a group of friends celebrating someone’s birthday and she REALLY wanted to go to this restaurant. It was the first and only time I went to Cheesecake Factory. The food wasn’t even that amazing… even the cheesecake.
If they have a bar then we put our name on the list and wait. If they don’t then we won’t wait more than 30-45 min depending on the resturant. Two and half hours is way too long to wait for a table imo
15, but it’s best to make reservations if they aren’t interested in accomidating you within 15 minutes then they aren’t worth your time.
cheers,
m
Anything over a half hour. Otherwise, that place is way too wicked busy and I should have come BEFORE the rush. Besides, you think YOU have it bad? Try working that crowd.
~45 minutes
Thirty minutes.
30 minutes and an hour is severely pushing it for me. My hubby and I like to go in the late afternoon to avoid that kind of stuff.
Depends on the restaurant and how good the food is.
30 minutes. We called ahead Saturday night to a place that was an hour and a half….but that was okay because we could wait at home not at the entrance to a place.
anything more than 45 minutes
How interesting. I just went to a Wendy’s in MO a couple days ago, and people at the end of a maybe 30-person line had to wait an hour to order their food. My group leaders reported it of course.
I waited at Taco Bell last week in the drive-thru for over 30 minutes. If I could’ve gotten out, I would’ve left after 10 minutes. A couple of years ago, some friends and I went to a crab shack and they said the wait was 2 1/2 hours. There was an arcade across the street, so that’s why we ‘waited.’ Those were certain circumstances, though, otherwise, I only wait 45 minutes or so.
10 minutes. . . any more and I’m out of there. I can eat at home quicker.
depends on the restaurant. We waited around 90 minutes to get into Cheeseburger in Paradise, but that allowed us to go around all the shops in Village Pointe. Sometimes the waiting is just as important as the meal! This should be an indicator to all of us of the importance of RESERVATIONS! Unfortunately, Cheeseburger in Paradise doesn’t do reservations.
Did it Friday – 75 minutes at Chili’s.
So we went to Steak and Shake – 5 minutes.
JF
like… fifteen minutes…
i’m not an idiot
i’m not going to wait forever for food i probably wont even like
trust me, food that makes you wait that long
will never be that good
If a gun to their face won’t get me that table faster….
Depends on the place.
20 minutes tops for an average place.
up to an hour for someplace special.
I’ll wait half-an-hour, but not 45 min. It also depends on if I have the baby – then I won’t wait at all.
45 min limit
No more than 30 minutes ever
30+ minutes.
never over 45 minutes. It’s easier to leave and go some where else. I definitely would not wait that long for somewhere like Applebee’s or Chili’s.
30 minutes at the most..
Unless it was a really good place
25 minutes. If I’m hungry, I’m just gonna get fast food =D
Never more than 30 minutes
reservations!
Depends. Usually no more than 30 minutes. Also depends on whether or not we have the kids with us. And how hungry they are. And how cranky we will become if they don’t get fed soon. Without the kids though…can we sit at the bar?
Higher than 30
I won’t wait more then 20 minutes. I did once wait more then that but that was only because someone else was paying and I never turn down free food.
15 minutes……..and I’m gone.
30 minutes tops
i’ll wait up to 20 minutes. i’m not very patient & there are more than enough restaurants in my town.
Probably half an hour. 45 minutes if the food was good.
Depends on the restaurant, but not usually more than 30 minutes. That’s one more reason to eat at authentic Mexican restaurants, I’ve never had to wait!
it all depends on how hungry i am and how far away the next restuarant is.
I do not wait well at all. I would say 20 minutes tops then I’m walking out the door.
I wouldn’t wait more than forty-five minutes. But by then, I’ve already wasted too much time to make it be sacrificed in vain… I’d end up in an Iraq-esque situation, waiting for days on end like a mentally disturbed star wars fan.
So I make it a policy not to wait for more than fifteen minutes.
Around 30…
More than 45 minutes. Every time I try to go to the restaurant on my campus there’s always at least an hour wait. Last time it was 2 1/2 hours. I’ve only eaten there once.
I usually won’t do more than 45 minutes, not because I’m too impatient for it but because I can find somewhere else that’s just as good.
It depends on what restaurant it is and the mood that I am in. The maximum for any restaurant is probably in the range of 30 minutes. I one time was in a McDonald’s in the middle of the afternoon with some friends and we had to wait 10 minutes to for our order to be taken despite the fact that we were the only ones there. I wanted to go across the street to Wendy’s but my friends threatened to leave me if I left McDonald’s, therefore I chose not to order anything.
I work as a hostess and the longest wait I’ve dealt with was about an hour and a half.
15-30 minutes, if it was a good enough restaurant.
30 min.
I’ve waited 20 minutes.
Anything longer than 45 minutes prompts me to go to a different restaurant. It’s never that incredibly important to go to that specific one. Not to mention, reservations are good for something too, right? Make on and avoid the wait.
well i usually make reservations at the restaurants i go to…but if i decide to eat somewhere last minute anything more then 45 minutes is excessive, i’d better get complimentary cocktail or wine if its an hour! more then that i will go somewhere else
Fancy restaurant? Hour and a half.
Cas.? Half an hour.
There’s no excuse, we’re walking money for Gods sake.
If i am not seated and ordering in 30 minutes, im out. Applebee’s is awful.
In my town it’s the Friendly’s that’s a long wait. (around 2.5 hours just for icecream)
Applebee’s is actually okay where I live.
any wait at all… I have two little kids. Impatient! The wait to get our food is torture enough!
it would depend on many factors. in NJ, if it is a friday or saturday night, and you arrive at a good restaurant (good food, not high priced/chichi)about 7PM, you can expect a minimum wait of 45 minutes to 90 minutes up until 9:30PM. you could go elsewhere, but unless it’s a mom-n-pop place, a diner, or fast food, you’ll get the same wait.
sooooo…. if i were on a date, and i could get a seat at the bar to talk/drink, i would have waited up to 2 hours. if it’s with my husband, it depends on him, but it’s basically the same as when we dated. if it’s with my family, then my sister and my mom max out at 40 minutes. if it’s with my husband’s family, his sister maxes out at 20 minutes, and his mom at about an hour. if any of our nieces or nephews and their significant others are in the mix, we surrender at 10 minutes.
30 minutes if its just the two of us,
15 if we have the kids…. 4 year olds are not patient
Why cant they take your order(atleast appetizers) BEFORE you are seated…like …. 15 min or so… that way when you are seated your appetizers can come out and your food shortly after??
30 minutes max.
My time is far too valuable to wait for foods.
Although, I did wait for over an hour at the Cheesecake Factory once. Was it worth it? Maybe.
over 20 minutes
: )
I think it depends on the day. There are some days that I have nothing to do, so I don’t mind sitting for a while (although I think an hour or 90 minutes would be excessive), but there are other days where I have to eat quickly (and that is what Taco Bell is for).
It is somewhat situational, but I am not sure I’d stick around more than 30 minutes in most cases.
Honestly, I hate going to any type of restaurant where you have to wait to be seated. I’m paying them more money than the food is worth and I’m supposed to wait to do that? If I didn’t have a wife, family, or friends, I’d never go out to eat at anything more expensive than Taco Bell.
up to 45 minutes – but id rather it be like 10-25. I would never wait one or more hours just to get in, unless i had a wife and it was our anniversary or something
- Daniel (doubledb)
there are so many restaurants, the world is overflowing with them… i never wait anywhere because if one place is too crowded we can just go somewhere else. the only food i like enough to wait for are some guacamole tacos.
15 minutes or so
there is such a thing as reservations
Now if they have a bar i eat there
I am a conaisseur of food. I would wait 1-2 hours max to eat at a hot restaurant. The trick is, call ahead and reserve a table. If you want to eat at a hoppin restaurant in San Fransisco or NYC you need to call ahead. Unless you have a Q rating, you need to reserve.
Problem solved. If the wait at an applebees is an hour…
MOVE.
Applebees gets customers because they know they can get the exact same food at any applebees anywhere in the WORLD.
And that is the PROBLEM.
Paige is so adorable. God help me, I will drink with her at an applebees within the next two years, and take pics for xanga, so help me god…
“Certain restaurants” and then you have a picture of Applebee’s. hahah
Not very long. I’m impatient and unless I really really really want something specific from there, it’s unlikely I’ll stick around. Plenty of other places to choose from.
2 1/2 hour waits are common at the resturaunt that I work. Usually within an hour after opening we’ll have a half an hour wait. But we’re also in a mall, so customers can always leave and go find something to do for say an hour then come back.
I think if I’m with friends I can wait a long time, but if its just me and my family I wouldnt want to wait…
see the interesting thing is that for all the people who wont wait, there’s enough people that will.
and alot of the time the wait really isn’t as long as the quote time.
I used to work at a Bertucci’s (italian resturant/brick oven pizza place) and on friday/saturday nights we’d have up to a 2 hour wait, and people would wait for it. so…I guess it depends how good the food is and what you have to do.
I’d say thirty minutes… if it’s really good, I might make it a little longer, but I’d have to have good company.
I’m a hostess at a restaurant, so I deal with wait times a lot. And I have the solution. You call ahead. Don’t even have to make a reservation, just call ahead (most restaurants will add your name to the list). Also, most of the time we quote higher times than the reality, just in case.
If they tell me that there is a 30 minute wait then I am out the door. It happened one night so I went to another local place instead of a national chain. We ended up having a really great time and one of the best Marguerita’s I’ve ever had.
I feel like as I’ve grown older, I’ve become much more impatient in terms of waiting. So if I had to wait forever just to be seated and then have to wait again just to order, I’d be so annoyed.
40+ minutes.
Usually they tell you what time frame. If its 10 minutes longer then what they told me (given i’m willing to wait) then I leave.
In this age of fast food, the food would have to be pretty damn good for me to wait over 10 minutes :s
Some people must value their time less than I do mine. I wouldn’t wait that long if it was free, and I got to diddle the waitress before and the busboy after.
30 to 40 minutes on a weeknight, 45-60 for a weekend.
anything over a half an hour
It would depend on how hungry I was. If I were really hungry, not over 20 mins. However, I have waited as long as 45 minutes. I probably wouldn’t wait longer than that, though.
omg i hate cheesecake factory… they made me wait 3.5 hours.. i wasted a good 3 of those hrs in the mall, came back, and then i was told i had to wait another 1.5 hrs. yeah, i just cursed under my breath, walked out, and headed towards the food court.
if i had to stay in there, i wouldn’t have lasted more than a half hour.
All depends if I have PMS or not.
Depends on the restaurant & situation. Normally I won’t wait more than 30minutes, but I have waited almost 2 hours before to get a table with a group for 1/2 priced appetizer & kareoke night @ the Snooty Fox!
If I like the restaurant, then I wait up to 45 minutes, then I leave. I would never wait that long at Applebee’s though. Their food sucks butt.
I’ll wait up to 45 if I REALLY want ot go there. Otherwise, I’m out.
two hours at a shushi bar, but damn its worth the wait
30 minutes- Thats plenty long enough. But it all depends on how hungry I am…lol
I agree with PSUnited1 ^^^^
I would wait for Red Lobster!!
There are only two places I would wait for potentially more than 30 minutes. Beach Break Cafe in California where the wait is about 40 minutes in this little hole in the wall place. It’s very comforting, very personable, and the food rocks. And I’d wait for Chili’s.
Anything more than 30 minutes.
i can’t wait any longer than 30 mins. i usually try to make reservations but sometimes it doesn’t always work out. i absolutely hate waiting in line at a resturant.
charliesgirl_21
I’ve done it for 45 minutes…and I wanted to eat there…
I’m pretty sure I’d walk at 30 minutes too.
They shouldn’t make you wait so long just because they want to come off as an upscale restaurant. If they make me wait I’ll leave. It isn’t their time, it’s my time.
If the food rocks…all night long. Besides I go out for more than the food. I go out to have fun with friend and family. I can do both.
And I have something most of America doesn’t…Patience.