Starters/main courses - is this normal?!

[sha9]

Originally Posted by dippiedawnie

Clearing the empty plates when others are still eating drove my mam nuts when we took her. She would tut at the staff and once wouldn't let go of a plate! We found it funny-she didn't 😬

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I love that they clear empty plates. My mum is a slow eater so often here the rest of us are sat with dirty plates in front of us for ages! I much prefer the US practice of clearing empty plates and bringing the check as another pet hate of mine is trying to flag down a waiter/tress to get the bill at the end of a meal.
Bringing mains with appetisers is pushing it but we seldom have starters anyway.

[ChesterDraws]

Originally Posted by sha9

I love that they clear empty plates. My mum is a slow eater so often here the rest of us are sat with dirty plates in front of us for ages! I much prefer the US practice of clearing empty plates and bringing the check as another pet hate of mine is trying to flag down a waiter/tress to get the bill at the end of a meal.
Bringing mains with appetisers is pushing it but we seldom have starters anyway.

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I agree. I'm a slow eater while everyone else wolfs down their food so I prefer the service in the US. Also, I don't usually order dessert and like to savour my main while everyone else has their dirty plates removed and cracks on with dessert.

In the UK (unless we remember to order differently or flag down our server) everyone has to wait for me to finish my main course before they can get their dessert, and then it's a bit awkward for everyone when they're eating dessert and I'm just watching. I feel like we're taking turns.

I love dishes being cleared as they tend to pile up and I like drinks being topped up without having to call a server over. I don't like it when servers hover though and make small talk throughout our meal. I once had a server at the Grand Floridian stay at our table the whole time and at the end we knew all about her family, how her kids were doing at school, where she'd been on vacation over the last few years etc. She was nice but we just wanted to talk among ourselves and enjoy our meal.

[purplemusky]

This happened to us a couple of nights ago at Bahama Breeze, first time we've experienced it. I said I wanted to finish our starters first so they took them back. Our waiter got the manager over who was very apologetic and said they would put fresh food on when we were ready. When the waiter came back he said his manager had explained how we like our courses served separately.

[mason1]

We've learnt to order appetisers first, and not to order the main until the appetisers are brought out - this way you enjoy both without being rushed.