what is the longest time you will wait in line at a restaurant for a sit down meal?

this always puzzles me...

i see people stand in line at restaurants waiting to be called for their turn for a table to eat...

could be breakfast...could be lunch...dinner, etc...

i see this quite often at the cheesecake factory in downtown san francisco...people will wait past an hour just to be served a meal...

i see this in the mornings at trendy breakfast/brunch places....lines even out the door....

and especially at dinners....people will stand around like dumb sheeps staring at each other until their table is ready...

all this while there are so many alternatives that you can walk in and be sat down and eat...

have not ever ate at a place where the food was worth waiting hours for and I often discover new places that has good food without the hype or price....

If I'm with a friend and we really want to check the place out - 1/2 hour if they have room to wait at the bar, or if there is a bar close by and they will call when our table is ready. If I'm by myself I'll give it about a minute before I'm on to the next place. Waiting in line for anything sucks, which is why I never go out on weekends.

I'll wait 'bout 3 minutes. Anytime I ever wait very long cuz peeps say; "this place iz to die for" I'm alwayz disappointed. Feed me so'z I can be on mah way damn it!

15 maybe longer depending on the situation and the waiting area. I'm not standing out in the cold for an hour especially for the cheesecake factory.

Weve waited nearly an hour, and thats after we were seated. I was pissed, never go to the elephant bar. Food was crap too

Banjoboy said:

I'll wait 'bout 3 minutes. Anytime I ever wait very long cuz peeps say; "this place iz to die for" I'm alwayz disappointed. Feed me so'z I can be on mah way damn it!

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Somehow this doesn't surprise me at all.

I might wait 20 minutes if there's a bar. Otherwise, fuck it, I'm grabbing a taco down the street.

Depends on the restaurant. I have two in Oakland/Berkeley I will wait a half hour for. Full House Cafe and Rick and Ann's. Betty's Ocean View is worth the wait also.

20 minutes, 30 with a bar, but 20 minutes is about 2 smokes outside and enough time to figure out where to go instead.

Depending on details, maybe 10-20 minutes. But we seldom eat out; I can cook a better meal at home in less than an hour than I can get in any restaurant around here.

White people problems

My GF is a foodie and loves to wait in long lines for the latest trendy restaurant.

If there's a line it must be good, right?

After we got together I put a stop to that shit. There's nothing more irritating than standing around with a bunch of foodie hipsters, except maybe another Obama speech...

Now she makes reservations for us...

You see this all the time with upscale restaurants in the mission or downtown. Mostly foodies or hipsters that put up with this shit. Personally for me, 30 min top.

I usually try to make a reservation. If I can't, 30 minutes is about my tops, 40 if I really want to eat specifically there and there are other accommodations like a bar.

touristos were waiting 2-3 hours for the Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki when I walked by the other night

the Olive Garden in Hayward always seems to have a line out the door. I don't understand that one, it is the McDonald's of Italian food.

CABilly said:

I usually try to make a reservation. If I can't, 30 minutes is about my tops, 40 if I really want to eat specifically there and there are other accommodations like a bar.

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Yeah I'll wait 40-45, although I rarely have to do that anymore. I just go some other time than the weekend when waits are that long.

I have waited longer but it is usually for large parties, and it isn't for the trendy new restaurant. It is usually for my favorite chinese place, which is just crowded because it is awesome.

wazzuFreddo said:

touristos were waiting 2-3 hours for the Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki when I walked by the other night

the Olive Garden in Hayward always seems to have a line out the door. I don't understand that one, it is the McDonald's of Italian food.

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I do not fucking understand chain restaurants. I certainly don't understand waiting that long for one. My ex's sister and her husband would only eat at chains they liked, including when they were traveling. That one always made me

You're in a place you've never been before and you want to go to fucking olive garden?! This place is world famous for it's food...

wazzuFreddo said:

touristos were waiting 2-3 hours for the Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki when I walked by the other night

the Olive Garden in Hayward always seems to have a line out the door. I don't understand that one, it is the McDonald's of Italian food.

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Yeah, I don't get the wait for CF in Waikiki. There are a billion restaurants on Kalakaua. No fucking way am I waiting for food there.

OG, Denny's, IHOP, Applebee's, BJ's, etc. tend to have humungous wait times, which baffles me.

My limit is 30 minutes, absolute max, and even then, it has to be some special circumstance (really good, nothing else open, out of town, etc.). Generally, if I walk in some place and the wait is more than 10 minutes, I go find some place else.

revnort said:

I do not fucking understand chain restaurants. I certainly don't understand waiting that long for one. My ex's sister and her husband would only eat at chains they liked, including when they were traveling. That one always made me

You're in a place you've never been before and you want to go to fucking olive garden?! This place is world famous for it's food...

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Yeah, I doubt Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki serves lau lau or loco moco. Why eat shit you can get anywhere?

It's funny, the last time I waited happened to be at the Elephant Bar in Pleasant Hill (see post above). They said 45, but we waited less than 15 minutes and it was only because it was Mother's Day and Ms. BA had a gift card from her students that I was willing to put up with it.

It seems like most places will give you a longer time period than it actually takes which is a better policy than the reverse.

But its definitely an urban, and New York City thing, to easily accept the wait because its based on the premise that it must be good.

Spoiled surburbanites and rural folks don't want to wait, and I get it, because I'm more like that the urbanites. I always feel my life ticking away in a situation like that. But since the economy went south, we have had a vacation from long waits around here. But it's changing as things improve.

In general then, if they say any more than 30 minutes, I go elsewhere. And nowadays, you are supposed to be compulsively using your smart phone to make yer reservations, leaving us Neanderthals feeling silly for showing up at a restaurant without them.

Oh yeah, no Olive Garden for me. Ever. What a joke.

Bay Arean said:

It's funny, the last time I waited happened to be at the Elephant Bar in Pleasant Hill (see post above). They said 45, but we waited less than 15 minutes and it was only because it was Mother's Day and Ms. BA had a gift card from her students that I was willing to put up with it.

It seems like most places will give you a longer time period than it actually takes which is a better policy than the reverse.

But its definitely an urban, and New York City thing, to easily accept the wait because its based on the premise that it must be good.

Spoiled surburbanites and rural folks don't want to wait, and I get it, because I'm more like that the urbanites. I always feel my life ticking away in a situation like that. But since the economy went south, we have had a vacation from long waits around here. But it's changing as things improve.

In general then, if they say any more than 30 minutes, I go elsewhere. And nowadays, you are supposed to be compulsively using your smart phone to make yer reservations, leaving us Neanderthals feeling silly for showing up at a restaurant without them.

Oh yeah, no Olive Garden for me. Ever. What a joke.

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I really don't understand the people who won't wait longer than 15-20 minutes. If I walk into a place and it is empty, there is usually a reason. A place with decent food is going to have a full room at dinner time. I live in SF though.

I won't pick a place because it is crowded though. I compare notes with all my friends. Restaurants literally open and close weekly in my neighborhood. Hey have you tried X, it is really good. I either make reservations (which many restaurants won't take), or I just plan for a wait. If we are starving I go elsewhere or grab a taco. If I am going out to try a specific place, I build it in and make a night of it anyway. Maybe a snack around 5-6 and some drinks, go put in a name, have a few more drinks and wait for dinner. I am not a foodie, but I like good food.

Many places take a phone # and allow you to go to a bar nearby. Score. Many places I go to a bar nearby and just go check in every 15 or so.

Many of the places that have a consistent wait also have kick ass drinks while you wait. They say 40 minutes and by the end of a second cocktail our table is ready. Most of the time it is way less than they say anyway. As noted above though, that is better than telling you 10 minutes and having it take 30.

What I won't do is wait at a place that is so jam packed it is standing room only while you wait. Fuck that. If I can't sit and have a drink while I wait, or do that nearby then it isn't worth it to me. If I can't enjoy my dinner company and it is only waiting, then yeah, it blows. If it is having drinks and chatting, it's no skin off my back.

I noticed, during my wait at Elephant Bar, that they specialize in fairly big and expensive drinks, so I guess it works out in their favor really. But yeah, the middle ground is the right approach. If there is a comfortable and entertaining place to suck up some cocktails, it extends the evening in a fun way.