A few days ago, I complained about rushed meals and service at restaurants since the pandemic. For the most part, that always seems to happen to me when I’m with a (female) friend somewhere in Manhattan. It’s usually a semi-trendy or relatively new restaurant. There’s rarely a wait, but the restaurant feels a need to kick us out at the 9-minute mark for a party of 2. When I told Chris this, he said he never felt that pressure while we’d be out together; and yes, he’s actually right. When we’ve gone out on the weekends, mostly Saturdays, with Kaia, this has never, even once, happened to us. We’ve never gotten told when seated that we only had x amount of time. We’ve never been rushed to leave when we finish our meal and get the bill. It seems to happen when it’s just a friend and me. Does this mean that women friends are getting targeted to get out of restaurants? Or was this just a Manhattan trendy restaurant thing?

Well, today I got worried because I made a 1pm reservation at a Georgian restaurant in Brooklyn Heights to meet with two of our friends. They ended up running very late because my friend confused the booking time for later. So they showed up 45 minutes after my reservation time. We were, understandably, annoyed, but what I was actually concerned about, other than Kaia being able to sit in a high chair for that long, was whether the restaurant would get mad at us and rush our meal.

It never happened. The service was gracious. In that time, our server finished his shift and our table went to another server. That server ended up being very friendly and accommodating, and he never once told us we had x amount of time left or had to leave after a certain time. I was pleasantly surprised and felt pretty relieved in the end. I’ve come to the conclusion that the rushed restaurant situation happens when a) it’s in Manhattan), b) it’s at a semi new or trendy restaurant, and c) when it’s just a girlfriend and me. Of course, it’s annoying, but nothing can really be done about it.