When I go out to eat, it is about 95% of the time with my kids- sometimes by myself if my husband is working. So, the topics I rate servers and restaurants on tend to be family oriented.

I dont' have pet peeves per-sey, but the things that I do hope for in my perfect server and dining facility include:

• automatically brings a stack of napkins and a few extra plates with our meal
  
• asks if we want the A-1 sauce, ketchup and mustard (we don't usually need these things and they tend to clutter our space)
  
• brings crackers or equivalent right away for my youngest ones while we are trying to order.
  
• are prepared with reading material/drawings and crayons that consist of more than 3 utensils in more than 1 cup if at all possible. My children are 8, 7, 5, almost 4 and 18 mos old, so they all like a few crayons that are similar and their own.
• does NOT put knives for cutting meat and hot food in front of my children or pour my coffee near or around my children's heads. The last thing I need are bloody and burned children.
  
• brings children-savvy cups and not wine glasses for water, or if they don't have anything suitable for kids to drink out of, maybe a few Pool towels to dry off with afterwrds
  

My main concern as a mother of many out in a pubic eating facility is that my kids don't interrupt or invade other people's personal space or enjoyment. We can have fun ourselves and enjoy our food without being obnoxious and leaving people with a bad taste in their mouth.

I feel that I remind my kids to use quiet voices and using their manners and so I feel that the restaurants could also promote that sort of behavior by accommodating the not-so-patient clients in their facility. :-)

-Jyn