The thing with Restaurants/eating out....
Part of me doesn't like restaurants because it's too much social overload.
Another part of me has some real issues with Restaurants... Why do some people get to sit and have a meal cooked for them and then have people serve them, having a great time, while other people in the restaurants have to work hard for minimal wage and have to run around serving strangers?
This doesn't seem fair to me... I used to go to restaurants when my parents were around... they had a decent source of income and I had a great time never thinking twice about the chefs struggling to cook the food I was eating or the waiters/waitresses who were running back and forth bringing food to my table.
Now I work in these services... and it feels like crap.. why do I have to run around for these picky people and serve them and clean up after them? And after that I have to go home to my tiny apartment and prepare, cook, and eat crappy food? It makes me feel like a slave... or a servant... a maltreated one.... and the fact that the whole world seems to be ok with creating such huge divisions among people (aren't we all children of god?) makes me feel sick to my stomach.. I don't think I could ever enjoy a restaurant meal again.
It reminds me of old movies.. a throwback to older times.. when some people lived in their master's home as servants and spent their whole lives serving them and taking care of them while they were getting paid very little and could not actually afford going out.
Restaurants are the ULTIMATE symbol of inequality in the world.
Some people are born to serve, others are born to BE served. Does anyone else feel this is really wrong?
I have never had those thoughts on restaurants at all.
What I don't like about them is that I might not getting the food like I want it (I can be particular about food) and that it's really expensive.
The people there are employed, not slaves, so I don't get that kind of thinking at all TBH.
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Sweetleaf
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I haven't really eaten anywhere that gives that kind of impression really. Usually when I eat out its small sort of family owned places or small businesses not like restaurant chains and in a lot of those places the people working seem content with the job, they probably are getting paid enough. But I don't doubt there are underpaid workers in the food industry, that probably should be paid a more fair wage....But I am not sure restaurants in themselves are a symbol of inequality in the world. Sounds like you're not working for a place that treats its employees that well, just don't think that applies to all restaurants though.
But also keep in mind a lot of people become chefs because they are passionate about cooking, so many of them are probably enjoying their work.
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lostonearth35
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Well thanks for ruining one of the very few enjoyable things I get to do outside of these four walls on a weekly basis. Another thing to feel bad and guilty about. Maybe I just won't go out at all any more, I'll become one of those Japanese-Hermit-Type people I've read about. I'll probably go insane and kill myself from the isolation but at least people won't have to cook and serve me meals that they GET PAID FOR DOING WHILE I DON'T GET A CENT FOR MAKING MY OWN MEALS, HAVE TO BUY THE INGREDIENTS WITH MY OWN MONEY AT AN INSANELY CROWDED GROCERY STORE WITH OVER TRILLION PRODUCTS I HAVE TO CHOSE FROM, AND THEN CLEAN UP AND WASH DISHES MYSELF, ALSO WITHOUT GETTING PAID A SINGLE CENT.
Sweetleaf
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I wouldn't feel bad over this, I mean if you're not rude to the employees, tip when appropriate then you're not doing anything wrong. If the place has crappy management and doesn't pay its workers well its not really your fault. But it is up to you where you eat anyways, if you went somewhere and did not like the way it was managed or felt employees where unfairly treated you don't have to return to that one.
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We won't go back.
I like eating out, but I would feel more comfortable if people didn't bring children under 4 into restaurants. I know that sounds selfish and everything but no matter what restaurant I go into, there is always somebody with a noisy toddler, and they're usually at the table next to me. When there's a toddler having unpredictable tantrums, I can't enjoy my meal properly. If the toddler is excessively loud and grizzly, I have to go outside or into the toilets, just to take a few deep breaths. When I was a toddler I didn't get took to many restaurants until I got to school age, and if I did get taken to a restaurant as a toddler me and my brother were made to sit quietly. We also brought a toy along which always kept us amused. And if we did have a tantrum for what ever reason, we got took outside for a 'time out', which always worked. Parenting small children is ironically easier than parenting older children because you can get them to behave by giving empty threats. Ok I'm ranting on about toddlers here, I will stop now.
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I'm grateful for my job at my restaurant. I have no idea if what I earn an hour makes me a slave, I have a modest but comfortable lifestyle.
I wouldn't worry too much about people who chose their line of work, if they're miserable they have the power to change their circumstances. I've worked plenty of really bad restaurants and right now I would say I'm in a good kitchen -- it's really worth it to find one at some point to work in. If not everything ends up sounding like Kitchen Confidential
I think what the OP is really getting at is the fact that only the privileged get to go out to eat and get waited on, am I right? It's the severe inequality from society that stems from greed. People own restaurants to make money, like giant corporations the restaurant owner makes somewhere in the order of 6-8x that of that restaurants' dishwasher. (I'm assuming a million dollar grossing restaurant, which would pay out the owner (whatever he wants) $120k a year, a dishwasher makes at (my wage) $20,000 (rounded up a thousand))
The distribution of wealth is absurd; I don't buy the "we earned it" pledge either...
I'm really saddened to see my country, USA, become a service industry tourism country rather than a world-leading producer of tech, products, metals, etc.
Joe - do you actually have any kids?
Cause I had a toddler and now I have a 7 yr old. And yes the challenges are different, but it's MUCH easier parenting a 7 yr old.
Nobody wants their kid to go into an unpredictable tantrum. Nobody. I used to take my son to restaurants when he was a toddler because he was often so bad at home during mealtimes, but not nearly as bad in restaurants. It was the one place I could eat a meal in peace.
What I don't understand is how people can watch "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Restaurant Impossible" or one of the other shows where they show rotten food in the cooler and rats running through the dining room (often with crying owners who found out their business is not their personal ATM) and; seeing what goes on during these shows, still want to spend money to put something into their body that they can't see whether their chicken was touching garbage or the cook just scratched himself and probably has eBola.
Not to mention they're probably paying $20 for a plate of spaghetti that the sauce comes from a can at Costco. Meanwhile people who were trained to handle food can't even get their foot in the door at most places
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I feel the same frustration. Cartoons have helped me to understand the situation from kids point of view, the ones aimed at younger kids. They helped me feel less anxious around kids. The only thing is little kid cartoons can be kind of dull to adults, especially if they take breaks to explain things. They're relaxing and the parent targeted jokes are funny sometimes, like cheesey funny.
Funny that today I was thinking about what the OP said, including some other jobs that tend to be regarded in the same way. I agree with the OP. I do often eat out with my parents and sisters while on vacation. Thinking about it while I was actually in the restaurant diminished the enjoyment. I wonder what we can do about it.
Some people who have worked in restaurants told me that in the kitchen they do something disgusting to the food they serve to the customers. I guess that's how they get back at the customers. It's sad that some of them have to work feeling like that.
why a japanese hermit? hermits exist everywhere. It's not the worst fate in the world