Oh Mother! The Mother of All Nights

Mum's Day.

One of the two biggest nights of the year for our restaurant.

All hell breaks lose in the space of four and a half hours.

Every waitress skill, trick and fake smile comes out to play.

No one can predict the terror that will result.

Or the clean up that the end of the night brings.

All waitresses are told beforehand that split bills are a major no no. We should not have to deal with the pressure and situations of split bills with everything else that is going on. Also, it is not our reponsibility who pays for the bill, as long as its paid. It also ends up clogging up the kitchen when one table of eight has four different bills. And the kitchen doesn't treat to kindly on that either. (And eventually this will have its own special entry soon enough).

Turning away customers is never a completely positive things for business. Yes, its good that the restaurant is full, but bad that customers have to find new places to try and may not come back for a very long time. However, it does gives waitresses a smidge of satisfaction when we get to turn customers away for simply being stupid enough to think that there is a table just for them, sitting free, on the biggest night of the year. Did it really not occur that booking might be essential on Mother's Day?

It becomes more than just an ongoing joke when a large group of people walk in and ask if there is a table for seventeen people, without a booking, just vacant, waiting for them to sit at. Really? Seriously? They must have because they did not want to leave until they were seated. So in the end the best option that I could give them was a table that usually fits fourteen and with every spare chair that we could muster, including take away waiting chairs, and cram them together on this magic table that I had managed to piece together. Yet after all of that in total, we only had sixteen. When I asked them if this was acceptable, they pretty much jumped at it and were quite pleased to have it. (Of course a little bit later on another table had left so they did eventually have a chair each).

In total it was a delightful an adventure of a night. It went as smoothly as it could possibly have hoped to be and there was very little that could be done for all the things that didn't go right (which thankfully was very little). And to all the girls that were on tonight, it was great night, even if it felt like living hell at the time. Also, apologies as I did not sufficiently warn the girls who worked their first Mother's Day tonight, how bad it would actually be.

Here I was thinking it was going to be one of the quietest Mother's Days that I have waitressed...

A Tip of Accomplishment.

The night started off in average fashion. Only one booking had been placed, a table of 8, so it wasn't a big deal. It seemed it was going to be an easy night. Then there was few things that happened that changed the situation really fast. The thing is that you never really see a busy night come at you, it just happens. It happens before you can blink and then before you know it you are in the thick of it.

Two consecutive phone calls were picked up, both to make a booking. A table of 5 and a table of 6. Which seemed pretty reasonable on a Saturday night.

Then a table of 8 walked in without a booking, so in speedy waitress fashion, we put some tables together for them. Worked out fine and soon enough they were all settled into their meal.

Few more walk-ins came in at around the same time. Then Take Away got swamped. Phone orders and walk in orders would not stop coming in. It was hard to find time to pack the meals let alone get them out in time.

At that moment in time I think it dawned onto all the waitresses that this was no ordinary easy going Saturday night. This was the BIG one. The one that comes every so often, the one where everyone decides that they want to have Chinese that night and definitely the one that you know as a waitress tests every inch of your skill whilst still balancing great customer service.

Then just as we thought that we had everything in control. The last table had their mains coming out and Take Away finally slowed down. The thing that I will also never understand, happened.

A table of 12 walked in, with NO booking, and asked if we had room for them. Lucky for them, unfortunate for us, one of the earlier bookings for the table of 5 had just left.

So once again in speedy waitress fashion a table of 12 was made. Then they inform me that in fact they have two more additions. I grit my teeth and say that's fine, I can work something out. And so an extra table was added and two extra seats were set up.


The night was insane. Everyone barely had time to stop and think about what had to be done next. Instead it was go, go, GO! And hoping that you didn't miss a thing. It was a night where the only way to keep sane was the banter off each other and work well with everyone around you, because everyone was just trying to keep their heads above water. Its nights like these that I know that we are not always at our usual customer service level, we barely have time to acknowledge our customers let alone chat with them and some times it feels bad. But you try and get through it by making sure that you are covering all bases and they are comfortable.

The table of 8, with no booking, had just left and told us to keep the change for their bill. We don't get tipped all the time, that's just the way it is. We get a few dollars and usually that's pretty good. That table left us with a $54 tip. That was 40% of their bill. That left us all flabbergasted. That is the biggest sized tip that I have ever received in the whole time I have been working.


At the time it feels impossible, but at the end of it you accomplished everything with minimal damage, especially to yourself and the other staff members.We must of done something right, despite the insane way we must of looked. Especially on a night like that it was nice to feel so appreciated.