US restaurants

[SquishTheWhale]

So, just a random question/observation about dining out in the US. We've just returned from our trip to Disney and IDrive, and while it wasn't our first time in the US we seemed to notice this much more- think it's worse at Disney!

When we eat out in the UK, you stand in the entrance of the restaurant waiting for a waiter to notice you, they show you to your table and then they or a different waiter take your order. Sometimes there's a host desk and then a waiter so that's two people max (keep in mind we don't eat at fancy places).

When in the US, there's:

The outside desk where you check in (1 person)
The inside desk where you have to check in again (why? 2 people)
The person who shows you to your table (3 people)
Your actual waiter (4 people)

Our record was at the California Grill where we also had a guy who's job it was to take us up in the elevator, so 5 people involved with serving us! We also ended up with a 6th as we had to ask a different waiter to chase our drinks, but that was only because ours disappeared so not the normal system.

It just seems like there's triple the staff you get in the UK, sometimes (Homecomin', I'm looking at you) it feels like there's more staff than customers hanging around! Anyone else notice this? Anyone had more than 5 different people involved in getting them to their table and ordered?

By the way, I'm not complaining- we just find it bizarre! It became a bit of a joke with us trying to guess how many people we would get at each restaurant.

[Belle1989]

We have notices this when in the US too and I actually find it super annoying to be passed around so much during my meal!