Julie W. (cloverluv) reviewed on 5/2/2011 + 129 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 8

As a former waitress myself, I was looking forward to hearing someone else's battle tales.

At first that's exactly what I got. For the first third of the book I was hooked. I couldn't put it down. I was loving all the stories about horrible customers, crazy staff and bosses, and what really goes on inside a high-end kitchen.

Then, fairly abruptly, I was bored. Dublanica got me excited by throwing out all his good stories right at the start of the book, then the more I read, the more he became preachy. His attempts to be insightful about the food service industry and the restaurant business in general became dull and boring as opposed to insightful and thought-provoking.

It felt like he was trying too hard. It's almost like his editor said to him: "Well, this is an awesome idea, but we can't just print a book about funny stories and complaints."

In response, Dublanica sat down at his computer and turned a singular observation about life as a waiter into an entire chapter. After awhile I was reading without really comprehending. It's like Charlie Brown's teacher was talking to me: "Wha wha wha wha wha wha wha...."

All I wanted was the funny stories, the "oh man" moments, and the tips on how to be a good customer, not a long-winded soliloquy about how bad waiters have it and how everyone who has never worked in a restaurant sucks.

It just felt like a light-hearted idea got flipped upside down into a "let's whine about everything" monologue.

Sadly (or happily however you choose to look at it) about 50 pages from the end I think I'll have to put down "Waiter Rant." Otherwise I may never bother to eat out again.

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