>We have some of the worst waiters; our (Dutch people) views of equality as being one of the most important things in society, render us unable to serve people, or to be served by others in fact. There always is some awkwardness with regards to the position of the server and the person being served.
I was once with an Icelandic friend who absentmindedly snapped while attempting to get a Dutch waiter's attention. While my friend meant nothing by it and certainly didn't intend to offend, he got a very direct "don't ever do that, I'm not your servant" rebuke from the waiter.
The waiter's rebuke would never have happened in the US for example. If anything they might have apologized for being inattentive.
Re:Where Dutch directness comes from
by Totoradio on Thursday February 01, 2018 @07:31AM
(#16281376)
Same thing would have happened in France for sure.
I saw once a client whistle to get the attention of a waiter. The waiter didn't come, the restaurant owner did, asking (loudly) the client if she had lost her dog.
Waiters in Amsterdam are really the worst. I lived there for a while and have become highly appreciative of friendly waiters, which are apparently quite normal in the Netherlands, just not in Amsterdam.
Side note: De Bekeerde Suster in Amsterdam has friendly waiters. It's become my go to spot for that exact reason.
I dine out in Amsterdam quite often and have yet to encounter a rude waiter. What did happen is that one day we had a party in the upstairs part of a restaurant in the inner city and due to a shift change they totally forgot about us. We had a great time but went home hungry, nobody went to alert the staff to the party because we figured it would be more fun to see if they ever turned up :)
We have some of the worst waiters; our (Dutch people) views of equality as being one of the most important things in society, render us unable to serve people, or to be served by others in fact. There always is some awkwardness with regards to the position of the server and the person being served. That is also why we have resolved into over automating everything in restaurants and why most waiting staff are students. Compare this to countries like France and Italy where waiting is a true profession.
In line with the 'people from Amsterdam are the most direct': I think "people from Amsterdam are the worst" is probably a more accurate statement. People who aren't from Amsterdam often state 'Amsterdam is a great city, too bad of all of those people who live there'.