Nautica - 19/6 - 29/6 - review

[Harters]

On 7/16/2023 at 2:34 PM, SellaVee said:

One thing I found odd was my husband's plate being cleared away while I was still eating.

It's a common occurrence in some American restaurants, in my experience, so I presume it's just following their cultural norms. I've always thought it odd and wondered, in a restaurant, if it's something about being seen to be doing something , to "earn" the tip. Certainly not a practice I welcome. 

[pinotlover]

2 hours ago, Harters said:

It's a common occurrence in some American restaurants, in my experience, so I presume it's just following their cultural norms. I've always thought it odd and wondered, in a restaurant, if it's something about being seen to be doing something , to "earn" the tip. Certainly not a practice I welcome. 

I wish Sella Vee had been a bit more exacting and told which restaurant that occurred in.

 

In the US, the practice is called “ Clear that table”. It is unfortunately practiced by primarily metropolitan restaurants, with high rent overheads , that are forced to do 2-3 full seatings each night. Their singular goal is to get people in, feed, out, and set up for the next seating. Some US restaurants book tables in 50-60 minutes intervals! 🥹

 

IMO, it is a horrendous practice, but I don’t have to pay their rents, salaries, and overhead. Another sad point is that it has trained/conditioned an entire generation of Americans into gobbling down a full three (3) course meal in 40-45 minutes . Minimum conversation, minimum actual taking the time to fully enjoy the food and wine, just shovel and go. 

Patron: “ It’s 7:10, the Symphony starts at 8:00, can you have us out before then?”

 

Waiter with a smile: “Of course Sir!”

 

The result of all that conditioning is these threads are full of posts with cruisers complaining about it taking 1.5 hours plus to eat in the GDR or one of the Specialties. If the waiters can flip a table in NYC in 42.5 minutes at a fine restaurant, why don’t they do it abroad ship? We have entire recent threads of fellow cruisers complaining about the horror of a table maté ordering 3 or 4 courses, and they having to sit at the table for more than an hour. 
 

We enjoy a nice leisurely dinner at a Southern European pace. Fortunately, for us, the only O restaurant we have encountered the push to flip is on Vista in Embers where a quick turnaround seems to be a goal of the new restaurant.

 

 

[Harters]

19 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

complaining about the horror of a table maté ordering 3 or 4 courses, and they having to sit at the table for more than an hour. 

A significant reason why we like O - and would like similar lines that offer tables for two, so we can eat at our own pace that particular evening, just as we would at a land based restaurant. Dinner is an "event" for us, whether we're eating at home or eating out somewhere (ship included). 

Edited July 18, 2023 by Harters

[LHT28]

3 hours ago, Harters said:

It's a common occurrence in some American restaurants, in my experience, so I presume it's just following their cultural norms. I've always thought it odd and wondered, in a restaurant, if it's something about being seen to be doing something , to "earn" the tip. Certainly not a practice I welcome. 

It maybe   that  the person finished  does not want to sit with a dirty plate in front of them while others at the table are still  eating

So the waitstaff  remove the plate

I guess  it can be for many  construed many ways

 

The thing I dislike  is when you take a break from eating to have drink of wine/water/coffee  & they take your plate  when you are not finished

 

[Harters]

2 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

It maybe   that  the person finished  does not want to sit with a dirty plate in front of them while others at the table are still  eating

Possibly. But wouldnt that be a matter of the diner asking the server to remove it, rather than the server assuming what the diner might want?  Either way, as a European, I find the practice very different to what generally happens here. By contrast, we had lunch at a pub yesterday. We'd obviously finished the  starters - nothing left on the plate and knife & fork "correctly" placed to indicate we'd finished - but the server still asked if we'd finished and could she take the plates. Just different dining etiquette that you have to adapt to when you travel. 

[ORV]

I'm with the group that wants it cleared. If I'm done I want that dirty stuff out of my way. No rush to leave, I just don't like dirty dishes in front of me. 

[Clutj]

It’s just cultural.  Europeans are not raised with the concept of “dirty” dishes after you eat. Remains of food don’t suddenly become dirty in their minds.  On the flip side, they are raised that it is rude to finish eating, give up your plate, before all are done.  I am American but find the Euro customs more to my liking as I grew up and ate out more, but there isn’t a right or wrong, it’s just how you were raised. 

[SellaVee]

@pinotlover It was in the Grand Dining Room, and has happened on more than one Oceania ship.  You make an interesting point about conditioning to eat quickly.  We've been to places in the UK where we've been told that we have to be finished by a certain time because the table is already booked and if we only plan to have one course we don’t mind.  We never have just one course on a cruise, as each meal is "an event".

 

@HartersWe, too, always choose a table for two unless we're invited to dine with an officer.  So it's not as if there are a lot of plates to clear, and I think that's what makes it seem particularly rude to me.  If we were both finished I’d be happy for them to be removed swiftly.

 

@LHT28 In the UK there's an etiquette around dining that says if the knife and fork are place together in the 6 o'clock position, the diner is finished.  If the knife and fork are apart, the diner is still eating, so don’t remove that plate.

 

@Clutj I think you are right.  It's a cultural thing, and we have to adapt.

[EJL2023]

Clearing the tables quickly is certainly a thing in the states.  I just made a reservation for a restaurant in NYC for 9:00 on a Sunday evening. And it states when you make the reservation you have the reservation until 10:30.  Now I’m not sure what they’d do if we are not done at 10:30??? most likely just remind us or maybe nothing and they just state this as it seeds the thought in a certain percent of those making reservations to adhere to it. 

[sunlover12]

I am American and I agree it's a common practice here to clear tables too quickly. All for the sake of turning tables over. I don't like lingering over a long dinner either but taking my plate away, without asking, while I am still chewing and still have a bit of food on it is unacceptable. It happened to me recently at a popular lakeside restaurant in the Midwest. It was ridiculous.  The other 2 people in my group were finished but that doesn't mean that I am. It was so obvious they were trying to get us out of there as quickly as possible.  I will not be going back to that restaurant. 

[Harters]

1 hour ago, EJL2023 said:

Now I’m not sure what they’d do if we are not done at 10:30??? most likely just remind us

A similar "time limit" on your table is increasingly common in the UK. So long as it's not a silly limit (and I've never seen one that was) and folk can have a relaxed enjoyable meal, then I'm OK with it. We were in a place a few weeks back and overheard the server tell a nearby table that it was going to be required back in ten minutes. That clearly wasnt going to be a problem as the party were already at the coffee stage. The restaurant had given itself leeway there, as the original party had left and the table had been reset before the new diners turned up.