Surprised By Experience At Pizzeria...

[bronzebygold]

I've only been in Buenos Aires is a few weeks, and I speak a low-intermediate level of Spanish - enough to get around, but not yet close to fluent. The other night I visited a pizzeria near my house. Since it was early evening still I ordered a liter of beer and proceeded to quietly read for about two hours. I was then approached by a waitress who said something rather sharply to me in Spanish. I didn't understand, so I asked her if I should order food to compensate for my time occupying a seat. (This would have been perfectly fair of course! I had lost track of the time.) However, she then rather angrily demanded that I immediately pay for the beer, and said I could order food after if I wished. I was taken back, but I paid and ordered a pizza. She then proceeded to treat me with great hostility for the remainder of the evening. I felt insulted, left a very low tip, and don't plan to visit this restaurant again. Did I commit an Argentine faux pas, or was this just a rude waitress?

 

[nikad]

I've only been in Buenos Aires is a few weeks, and I speak a low-intermediate level of Spanish - enough to get around, but not yet close to fluent. The other night I visited a pizzeria near my house. Since it was early evening still I ordered a liter of beer and proceeded to quietly read for about two hours. I was then approached by a waitress who said something rather sharply to me in Spanish. I didn't understand, so I asked her if I should order food to compensate for my time occupying a seat. (This would have been perfectly fair of course! I had lost track of the time.) However, she then rather angrily demanded that I immediately pay for the beer, and said I could order food after if I wished. I was taken back, but I paid and ordered a pizza. She then proceeded to treat me with great hostility for the remainder of the evening. I felt insulted, left a very low tip, and don't plan to visit this restaurant again. Did I commit an Argentine faux pas, or was this just a rude waitress?

Does not sound like you did anything wrong imho.Maybe she was about to finish her shift so resented the fact that you had not yet paid so no tip for her? I cannot think of anything else really. Where is this place?

 

[internationalguy]

Waiters don't really care about you taking up space or using up the table for a long time. They're used to people sitting around forever. It's nothing like back in the US. Must have been some misunderstanding, there are sadly, some negative feelings towards Americans from SOME people here. The fact alone that you didn't understand what she said or respond accordingly may have offended her. Pay no attention, waiters and waitresses can be extremely nice or extremely rude. Some do have horrible attitudes. Brush it off and carry on.

 

[garryl]

In US, when you ask for your check/bill, if it takes a long time for waitress to bring it to you, it's considered bad service or rudeness. But in Argentina, quickly giving you the bill after you finish eating is considered rude. People usually spend a long time at restaurants when they go out, it's like they own the place, wine and coffee, never ending. And it usually takes a while for the waiting staff to bring you the bill. So it does not look like you did anything wrong, if you like the food, you should continue to dine at the place, the owner probably does not know what happened, no one probably remembered anything. I think it's just waitress who had a bad day, there is not much service at a small restaurant. It's something you should forget and not worry about. Usually good restaurants have good food and service, the owners know what they are doing. When the service is constantly bad, so is the comida.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Waiters don't really care about you taking up space or using up the table for a long time. They're used to people sitting around forever. It's nothing like back in the US. Must have been some misunderstanding, there are sadly, some negative feelings towards Americans from SOME people here. The fact alone that you didn't understand what she said or respond accordingly may have offended her. Pay no attention, waiters and waitresses can be extremely nice or extremely rude. Some do have horrible attitudes. Brush it off and carry on.

Nothing suggests that the initiator of this thread is a US citizen. Are you choosing to play the victim here?

 

[nlaruccia]

I've only been in Buenos Aires is a few weeks, and I speak a low-intermediate level of Spanish - enough to get around, but not yet close to fluent. The other night I visited a pizzeria near my house. Since it was early evening still I ordered a liter of beer and proceeded to quietly read for about two hours. I was then approached by a waitress who said something rather sharply to me in Spanish. I didn't understand, so I asked her if I should order food to compensate for my time occupying a seat. (This would have been perfectly fair of course! I had lost track of the time.) However, she then rather angrily demanded that I immediately pay for the beer, and said I could order food after if I wished. I was taken back, but I paid and ordered a pizza. She then proceeded to treat me with great hostility for the remainder of the evening. I felt insulted, left a very low tip, and don't plan to visit this restaurant again. Did I commit an Argentine faux pas, or was this just a rude waitress?

Welcome to Buenos Aires. Your first authentic eating experience here. You'll get used to that kind of treatment soon.

 

[EdRooney]

Dear Grandmother Rooney's solution for folks who didn't understand her language was to keep repeating what she was saying more loudly and furtively until they reacted in a way she found more to her liking. Not always effective but certainly entertaining.

 

[thorsten]

The only thing you did wrong was to leave even a small tip after receiving a very bad service

 

[ajoknoblauch]

I've only been in Buenos Aires is a few weeks, and I speak a low-intermediate level of Spanish - enough to get around, but not yet close to fluent. The other night I visited a pizzeria near my house. Since it was early evening still I ordered a liter of beer and proceeded to quietly read for about two hours. I was then approached by a waitress who said something rather sharply to me in Spanish. I didn't understand, so I asked her if I should order food to compensate for my time occupying a seat. (This would have been perfectly fair of course! I had lost track of the time.) However, she then rather angrily demanded that I immediately pay for the beer, and said I could order food after if I wished. I was taken back, but I paid and ordered a pizza. She then proceeded to treat me with great hostility for the remainder of the evening. I felt insulted, left a very low tip, and don't plan to visit this restaurant again. Did I commit an Argentine faux pas, or was this just a rude waitress?

In a case like this, I might contact the owner and tell him or her why I would not return to the restaurant (I say that as someone willing, usually, to cut restaurants and their staff considerable slack).

 

[ARbound]

In a case like this, I might contact the owner and tell him or her why I would not return to the restaurant (I say that as someone willing, usually, to cut restaurants and their staff considerable slack).

Sadly my expierence has been that they don't care. The concept of customer service doesn't exist in Argentina