I liked Simon Majumdar’s blog in the Guardian about the balance of power between waiting staff and restaurant customers. While recognising that not very many people want a return to the bad old days of pompous maitre d’s and intimidating wine waiters, he also has a pop at places where the pendulum has swung too far the other way.
I agree with him. Casual and informal is great but I don’t really want my server for the night pulling up a chair and chatting about their travels in Goa before telling me the day’s specials. To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I was anywhere that the staff were snotty. There are plenty of plain bad, uninterested and poorly trained waiting staff out there, as well as lots of committed professionals, but genuinely snobbish service seems to have died out. The dinosaurs of the restaurant trade, so beautifully skewered by Mitchell and Webb’s posh waiter, would appear to have become exinct.
In my experience, the posher the hotel or restaurant, the more practised the staff are at making everyone feel comfortable. It’s only the places that are a little unsure of themselves that tend to put on airs and graces. They are usually the same places that insist on using archaic French culinary terms in their menu descriptions.