Wow, that's slow. Only one time have I spent more than an hour in a Japanese restaurant, and they were severely understaffed (two waiters for two dozen tables).
I overheard another server telling the people at the next table that if they wanted rice they would have to wait for it to cook
Feh! Even near closing time, that's insulting. Rice costs next to nothing (I should know, having lived off of rice and soy sauce for most of a summer in college) and is trivial to make. If they have to throw out ten cups of cooked rice at the end of the day, big deal. They probably lost that much in tips from that one table.
Rice: indeed. The stuff's cheap; they should plan to overshoot a bit. (Of course, the tip is lost by the server, not by the owner, but I do hope that sort of thinking doesn't factor into the calculations.)
I try very hard not to ding the server for problems in the kitchen. In this case I would have reduced the tip some because of the way it was handled; if, instead, I were in that situation and the server said "gosh, I'm sorry, but we seem to have run out of rice and it'll take about 15 minutes to make more; I could bring you some noodles instead if you'd like, or do you want to wait?", I would raise the tip. If I chose to wait and some manner of complementary appetizer showed up, I'd raise it even more.
Tips always confuse me, because how they are distributed amongst employees is not visible. There have been times I have wanted to heavily tip the chef but give barely anything to the slacker providing service, and vice versa. A very few restaurants have separate tip jars for the cooks (mostly in the deep south, from my experience). I like that idea.
I've never seen a tip jar for the chef; what an excellent idea. The only thing I've seen close to that is that if you sit at the sushi bar you are in a position to tip the sushi chef directly; I have both seen and done this. But if the chef is not accessible (because he's in the kitchen or I'm not sitting at the bar) I've never seen a way to do it.
I assume that tips left on the table (or the credit-card bill) go to the servers only. I know some places pool the tips (which bugs me if they don't also pool the service), but I have the impression the cooks don't get a cut of that.
Hrm. Not having been to Chaya for a couple of years :/ I have to wonder if the owner didn't sell out, or at least step back to management.
I remember reading a few times that Chaya was the owners "retirement"; after being a sushi chef in a number of restaurants in Japan and NYC he and his wife opened a tiny little place where they could set their own hours [hence it only being open for dinner, and not every night of the week] and cook what they wanted [more or less].
The idea that they'd expand, plus the idea that the kitchen wasn't keeping up with advanced planning needs, says to me that whomever is in charge is not an experienced chef, and probably not the original owner/chef.
(Also I cannot imagine that chef, a very experienced sushi chef, allowing rolls that fall apart out of his sushi bar.)
I've never been to Sakura, but I loved the Chinese place that was there before. They had the Hong-Kong style fake-meat vegetarian food that was just awesome.
The bio of their chef says he's been doing this for a while, though whether the site is up to date is an open question. Is that the owner you knew?
I always wondered how they could make a go of it on Murray Avenue (not cheap rent) being open only 4-5 hours a day (and not every day) and with such limited seating. If they're not trying to make money at it I guess that makes sense, but I wonder if economics forced them to either expand or shut down and they're not coping well with expansion.
I've never been to Sakura, but I loved the Chinese place that was there before. They had the Hong-Kong style fake-meat vegetarian food that was just awesome.
Zen Garden, which morphed into Hunan Garden. (The Zen Garden instantiation was entirely vegetarian; Hunan Garden added in meat dishes too.) I was sad to see that go away, though happy we got Sakura.
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I overheard another server telling the people at the next table that if they wanted rice they would have to wait for it to cook
Feh! Even near closing time, that's insulting. Rice costs next to nothing (I should know, having lived off of rice and soy sauce for most of a summer in college) and is trivial to make. If they have to throw out ten cups of cooked rice at the end of the day, big deal. They probably lost that much in tips from that one table.
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I try very hard not to ding the server for problems in the kitchen. In this case I would have reduced the tip some because of the way it was handled; if, instead, I were in that situation and the server said "gosh, I'm sorry, but we seem to have run out of rice and it'll take about 15 minutes to make more; I could bring you some noodles instead if you'd like, or do you want to wait?", I would raise the tip. If I chose to wait and some manner of complementary appetizer showed up, I'd raise it even more.
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I assume that tips left on the table (or the credit-card bill) go to the servers only. I know some places pool the tips (which bugs me if they don't also pool the service), but I have the impression the cooks don't get a cut of that.
Reply
I remember reading a few times that Chaya was the owners "retirement"; after being a sushi chef in a number of restaurants in Japan and NYC he and his wife opened a tiny little place where they could set their own hours [hence it only being open for dinner, and not every night of the week] and cook what they wanted [more or less].
The idea that they'd expand, plus the idea that the kitchen wasn't keeping up with advanced planning needs, says to me that whomever is in charge is not an experienced chef, and probably not the original owner/chef.
(Also I cannot imagine that chef, a very experienced sushi chef, allowing rolls that fall apart out of his sushi bar.)
I've never been to Sakura, but I loved the Chinese place that was there before. They had the Hong-Kong style fake-meat vegetarian food that was just awesome.
Reply
I always wondered how they could make a go of it on Murray Avenue (not cheap rent) being open only 4-5 hours a day (and not every day) and with such limited seating. If they're not trying to make money at it I guess that makes sense, but I wonder if economics forced them to either expand or shut down and they're not coping well with expansion.
I've never been to Sakura, but I loved the Chinese place that was there before. They had the Hong-Kong style fake-meat vegetarian food that was just awesome.
Zen Garden, which morphed into Hunan Garden. (The Zen Garden instantiation was entirely vegetarian; Hunan Garden added in meat dishes too.) I was sad to see that go away, though happy we got Sakura.
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