Then you would not be finished now would you?

So enjoy the table.

Sure it would cause it has.

I use a different approach than if you were say, a teenager speeding down my street ;)

I have had this happen at various places and one time mentioned it to them. Turns out that they had one or more waiters out sick and just did not have the staff to take care of all of the tables.

In the end agreed with them and would rather have good service with someone taking care of my table than have everyone seated and not seeing the waiter/waitress for 20 minutes because they are overloaded.

^^^This

My wife gets frustrated by my impatience... however there is no place we go out to eat where there are three or four good restaurants within easy walking distance...

And I AM a total foodie (wife doesn't get that either) but time is valuable... I'm not waiting an hour for food... no matter how good it may be...

I should add that is just for the two of us.. when I go out with a big group we make reservations.

Usually not more than 5 minutes, unless it's a really good restaurant. In that case I might wait 10 minutes.

But here's the deal: I don't go to restaruants at 8 pm on friday or saturday night. I don't go to restaurants at the same time that every swinging deek is going.
I go before the rush so I rarely have to wait at all.

BTW I went to a place called the California fish grill last week. Very interesting concept.
California Fish Grill
it's kind of like a fast food joint but they serve fresh seafood. Salmon, swordfish, ahi, all the good stuff.

You walk up to the counter and place your order and pay for it, and they give you a number. You go find a table and go to the self-serve beverage deal, then sit down. In about 5 to 7 minutes they bring you your hot food to the table.
And it was good!

I had the blackened swordfish and the wife had the shrimp plate. Both were excellent and the total cost was $27.

It had all the things I like: Good food, low prices, fast service.

Sort of like the Panera concept.

If those tables are reserved for customers who have reservations already on the book, then yes those tables are taken. When I worked in the industry (waiter, true 4-star facility) we had tables reserved out. If a party was due within the hour, that table sat empty waiting for them. Our clientele took their time with the meal. We might turn a table twice in a night, sometimes three times. There were many nights we had to turn away customers who could not understand why we had no room with five or six open tables showing. We were always polite and we always handed out cards, sometimes discounts, and asked them to please reserve a seat for special occassions and Fridays and Saturdays. We had no room set aside for clients to wait on tables.

15-20 minutes without a reservation is ok. there usually is a reason there is a wait. with a bar to wait in maybe more.
with a reservation 5 min tops, a place that has the ability to take a reservation should know how to handle the procedure of saving a place for you. if you cant make a reservation please make the effort to cancel so others wont be inconvenienced.

my dad has sworn off a very popular and successful local chain of moderately priced seafood restaurants just on principle of how long he had to wait for an anniversary dinner at one location 20yrs ago. if the staff had handled it better he might have been back, but they dropped the ball. he isn't afraid to comment about it to locals and non-locals alike

This is another thing I can't abide... I won't wait in a big a$$ line to be part of the hip crowd... 'oh look at us, we are soooo kwel, we are in with in people'.

I much prefer small, mom and pop joint's with good food.

However I am not above eating in or at the bar... dumbfounds me to walk in and find 10-12 people waiting with tables open in the bar... I understand if you have children... but I don't and neither do most of the people waiting.

I was going to bust on you with a speeding teenager joke but you beat me to it. Still laughing. :D

15 minutes at most. My time is more important to me than waiting in any restaurant.

i don't wait for tables, i'm not te waiter..
i walk in , and if there are free tables, i pick one and it's mine.
if there ain't one, i proceed to the next place

I never quite got used to how it works in the US...
Standing around to get a table assigned to you, even in a place that has empty tables? Nuts.