bad restaurant habits. count me in on the side of those who find the waiters trying to pour your wine unbidden to be furiously annoying. playing loud muzak is the sort of thing you can suss out before you go into a restaurant so i don’t think you can really complain at that. someone must like it. but the wine thing really bugs me. as does ‘oh you don’t need to book’ followed by ‘sorry, it’ll be an hour and a half for a table’ when you come back in the middle of the evening.

let’s name names: at ciao in huddersfield there were at least three members of staff trying to pour our wine at all times. they came to the table only seconds apart and didn’t leave us alone for the whole meal. i was driving home and i really did want just one glass of wine from the bottle. not one glass of wine that was mysteriously topped up numerous times. it sets your nerves on edge when you can’t relax and enjoy your food because you have to keep telling the staff what to do. you’d think they could remember after the first time at least. besides it makes you feel rushed when you really want to feel relaxed. and it was the trattoria in honley who told us last weekend when we passed by at half past six that there would be no trouble getting a table that evening. at half past eight however we couldn’t have one before ten o’clock at the earliest. grrrr.