“Enjoy Your Meal”

Picture this, it’s a busy Saturday night. You’re at your favorite restaurant with your family. You were on a waitlist for a half hour and the line out the door has only gotten longer. After a little while you’ve just gotten your food. Your server asks if you need anything. You reply with a no. She then says, “enjoy your meal!”

“You too!” The response comes out before you even realize it. It’s already said and you can’t take it back. You freeze. Your waiter isn’t eating a meal. You are. You want the floor to swallow you whole. You turn to your plate and dig in, losing a bit of your appetite after the embarrassing encounter. You hear your family snickering to themselves and the blush on your cheeks turns a darker shade of red. The server was already gone, but you were sure you saw her smiling and laughing to herself. You could never eat here again. They would forever know you as the person who told their server to also enjoy their meal.

It’s most likely happened to you. The inevitable “you too” response when someone says something that isn’t along the lines of “have a nice day.” You go on for the rest of the day thinking about how stupid you are and how embarrassing it was.

As a waitress at a restaurant, I can absolutely tell you that it isn’t as embarrassing as you think. I’ve worked at my restaurant for three years, and honestly, the amount of times I’ve heard that happen is very few. I can count on one hand in fact.

Saying “you too” to something isn’t something to be embarrassed about, and here’s why. The shift of a cashier or wait staff is very busy. Everything is constantly going at a rapid pace. Customer after customer comes in all day. Maybe twenty or thirty an hour. Faces blend together relatively quickly. (And by that I mean if you aren’t sitting in the same place when I bring out your food, I won’t know where it’s supposed to go). If you told me “you too” after I told you to enjoy your meal, I’m going to forget who you are right after I visit your table.

If you do say “you too,” your server will turn around and either go onto their next task of work, or will go back to the kitchen. Some people will chuckle and tell a coworker, but some (people like me) will forget about it by the time they enter the door. If the server has a laugh about it, then it’s out of their system and then it’s time to go back to work. There is so much more going on behind the silver doors of the kitchen. One server is having a mental breakdown in the walk in cooler and another is gossiping about her significant other. The cooks are making their eighteenth pretzel in the hour. The manager is dealing with a Karen over the phone. It’s just another Tuesday.

By the end of the night at closing, your server might remember that the response was given, but they won’t remember who said it to them. As I said, faces blend in. The most they will do is tell a friend or a family member, but those stories are a one and done. After the incident, there’s nothing else to it. Nothing to continue or add to make the situation funnier. No one remembers the “customer who said “you too” when I told him to enjoy their meal.” No one. I guarantee you that the rude customer or the bad tipper from the morning shift will get a longer story than your “you too” story will.

Working in a restaurant, there is always extra food in the back. When a cook accidentally makes the wrong burger or makes two of one order, chances are, that extra food will be gobbled down by the wait staff. If you say “you too” to your server, you might actually be telling them to enjoy the dead food in the back.

Saying “you too” is a force of habit that polite people have. It becomes an automatic response, so if you do end up in a pickle where that is said, don’t stress about it because it’s nice. It will honestly brighten that server’s day, no matter how awful the day was. So if anything, be proud!

Recently I went on a flight and the TSA person told me to enjoy my flight. The response was on the tip of my tongue. I almost said it. I almost told him to also enjoy his flight. He did not get to fly today. It was only me. After a second of awkward silence on my part, I gave him a mumbled thanks and went on my way.

More often than not, people will purposely say that, just to get that response from you. Maybe it’s to see how many will fall for it. My own coworkers have admitted that they wanted to get people to say it, so they built the trap. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you say it. Do your best to put it out of your mind.

Another thing to remember is that us wait staff are also humans, just like you. We have said that to someone. At the movie theater, I was told to enjoy my movie by both the ticket holder and the concessions person, and I said “you too” to them both. In the moment, I was mortified. My sister laughed at me and couldn’t believe I had done it not once, but twice. As the days went on, I patted myself on the back because I knew that the response actually gave them a laugh. The response is not the same as one in the grocery store. (When an item doesn’t scan, it doesn’t mean the item is free, so stop asking).

Two things to remember the next time you do it is that saying “you too” makes someone’s day every single time. It gives them a smile on a day when nothing seems to be going right. The second thing is, is that it means you’re a nice person. You give acknowledgment when an employee is talking to you and that in itself is very nice.