I was quite happy to see this news story about a restaurant-industry study on Yahoo:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050718/bs_usatoday/dinershaveamessageforrestaurateursdontrushus
My wife and son and I eat out fairly often, and while I understand that restaurants are businesses and have to make money, there are times when I've felt like I was being rushed, and I hated it. It makes me feel like a product on an assembly line, instead of a customer. (More below the fold)
I'm curious if anybody has had similar experiences. I've noticed that this kind of thing happens much more in chain restaurants (like Bennigans and Ruby Tuesdays, although the Ruby's near us isn't as bad as it used to be) than it does in mom-and-pop places. As I mentioned, I know that restaurants are businesses out to make money, but I know that when a place lets me eat at a relaxed pace, I'm more likely to come back there and eat more often, and therefore to give them more business.