Paying your bill in change

When your stressed-out server is already being yelled at by table seven over their steak being medium, not medium-well done, she doesn’t then  have time to count out $12 in change. Oh and if you didn’t want it weighing down your wallet, you can bet she doesn’t want it weighing down her apron.

Go overboard with the food pics

Your server doesn’t have time to wait to ask if you need more water while you get the angle and lighting just right on your photo of your sandwich. And she can’t afford to trip over the chair you’ve pushed back to stand on to get a bird’s eye shot.

Having 100 specifications

“Dressing on the side, only yellow bell peppers—no red ones—cooked right between medium and medium well, two pinches of spice but no more, and extra fluffy.”

Tipping like a jerk

Servers depend on their tips to make a decent living. They’re making less than minimum wage without it. Even if your server wasn’t excellent, unless they majorly messed up, they don’t deserve an 8 percent tip. That implies they were bad, when they may have just been average.

Have the server wait while you decide

Ask your dining mate, or the table next to you, if the fish or chicken is better. Don’t flag down the server so you can ask a dozen questions on their opinion on the menu. In fact, just don’t flag them down at all unless you’re ready to ask for a tangible item.

Take a call at the table

Answering a cell phone call at a restaurant table is obviously rude to your dining mate, but it’s also rude to everyone else in the restaurant because—be real—you never use a normal volume to talk on a cellphone. Everybody has to hear your personal business, and pause their conversation.

Believe you’re the only customer in the place

Look around: if there is a 45-minute wait for a table and your server is literally running around, this is probably not the best time to ask for some super-specific condiment, or complain that your knife is the tiniest bit foggy, or double check that your drink is in fact Pepsi and not Coke.

The “get-a-room” syndrome

Do you know how uncomfortable it is for a server to come up and take your order when you’re making out? Even if you just won’t stop nuzzling, they feel they’re interrupting any time they just do their job.

Order something that isn’t on the menu

It’s one thing if you want to put together separate items that are on the menu in a particular way. It’s another to ask if they have seafood, when there is clearly no seafood section of the menu. Oh and don’t order a cheeseburger at an Italian or Chinese restaurant.

Ask to see the manager

Just so you know, the manager of a wait staff is 99 percent of the time on the wait staff’s side. They care way more about making their daily employee happy than a customer who isn’t ever coming back since they’re so unhappy they’re asking to see the manager.