Waiting for Somebody to Wait on You

    You enter the restaurant, hopefully through the main entrance door.

One of the first things you will find once inside the door, is a sign saying "Please wait to be seated".

A hostess, or a host, will care for your demands regarding preferences on whether you want to sit in the Smoking Section or not, "Would you like to sit next to the window?" or "Do you prefer to be seated close to the entrance and restrooms?" 
(Would you prefer a table next to the entrance and the restrooms?)

...and I'd like a great view of the Pacific if possible, now that you've asked me.

There are lots of things to consider when you're in a restaurant, especially if you are bringing good friends, family, or a loved one. You want everything to be just right.

Once there's a cleared table available you are seated. You are shown to your table, presented with a menu, and asked about what you would like to drink.

Or, would you like to order right away ? Food, drinks, beverages, the works, all at once ?

Just as there are many restaurants, there are many ways of ordering, eating and drinking.

If you can spare the time, which might be the case if you are going out, dining, in the evening, it's worth suggesting you order beverages only, to start with.

Once that is taken care of, you can glance over the menu, discuss your various choices, taste your drinks, make your orders, and enjoy yourselves.

Nothing worth discussing, is ever so enjoyable discussing, as when you are seated with good company at a restaurant at night, especially so when there's nice scenery, soft music and a nice crowd inside. Never does the food taste better.

While glancing at the menu, you are actually waiting for somebody to wait on you.

Yes, funny as it seems, you wait for a person when you want him or her to come.

A waitress or waiter is giving you the service of waiting on you, which means that he or she will attend to your orders and demands or requirements during the course of the meal and your stay inside the restaurant. It is called to wait on a person when you give service or attention to somebody.

The job of a waitress is waiting on customers, or waiting on tables, as is also the phrase.

In a restaurant, waiting on a person means to give service to that person, or guest.

This is true of other circumstances as well and doesn't pertain to the restaurant trade only.

Once you've placed your order regarding the main dish, you will also be asked whether or not you want soup or salad, and if so, which kind, what sort. There is usually a variety of both.

Sometimes, especially during lunch hours, you have the option of helping yourself to the salad at the salad bar (salad counter). Here you will find not only salad ingredients such as lettuce, onion, brussel sprouts, cauli flower, carrots, mushrooms, corn and grated cheese,
but also items such as breadcrumbs and a variety of dressing that, in some instances, you have never dreamed of, all included in the meal, of course.

Attention to your demands when it comes to ordering meat at Anglo-Saxon restaurants, is extraordinary compared to our standards in Sweden.

There are rare, medium rare, medium and well done to consider.

Remember that chunks, pieces, of meat served are more often than not, larger in size than they are in Sweden. Sometimes this is reflected in the menu by means of weight specifications underneath the various meat dishes.