Hang up and eat!

Just a friendly reminder when you dine anywhere that does not feature an extra-value menu...STFU on the cell phone. Believe me when I tell you you look like an a$$ yapping away about what your stooge friends are doing at the beach house while others around you are trying to enjoy a nice dinner. Furthermore, you ought to know you deserve filthy dish water dumped on your head if you are so rude as to concurrently spew your banter while you incoherently give your dinner order to your waiter. You are not important enough to yak on the phone in a restaurant. Hang it up and dispense with the verbal dysentery. By the way, if anyone knows where I can get my hands on one of those cell phone zappers, I will gladly pay for it.

That is all.

Basmati's -- one of the best restaurants on 30A -- a definitely worth slowing down and savoring. What was worse, when these women weren't actively talking on the phone, they had the iPhone on the table, backlit...obsessively watching for text messages and then loudly telling everyone what the son who couldn't make the journey from New Orleans is up to. How could I have possibly enjoyed the perfectly balanced egg drop soup with huge lumps of crab had I not known?

Basmati's food was stellar, as always.

Just a friendly reminder when you dine anywhere that does not feature an extra-value menu...STFU on the cell phone. Believe me when I tell you you look like an a$$ yapping away about what your stooge friends are doing at the beach house while others around you are trying to enjoy a nice dinner. Furthermore, you ought to know you deserve filthy dish water dumped on your head if you are so rude as to concurrently spew your banter while you incoherently give your dinner order to your waiter. You are not important enough to yak on the phone in a restaurant. Hang it up and dispense with the verbal dysentery. By the way, if anyone knows where I can get my hands on one of those cell phone zappers, I will gladly pay for it.

That is all.

Same here--IN SPADES!

I'm going on a jaunt across the big pond this Spring--I think I read one can get the phone jammers over in the UK, so I put it on the top of my shopping list. I know they're "illegal" here in the USA, but so is ripping the Cell Phone out of a person's hands and jamming it up their arse--so I'll call it a wash.

.

Did you speak with your server about this extreme rudeness? Most nicer restaurants have rules about cell phone usage....for good reason, since IDIOTS have lost their manners.

Sounds like they were cougars waiting for phone calls.

Furthermore, you ought to know you deserve filthy dish water dumped on your head if you are so rude as to concurrently spew your banter while you incoherently give your dinner order to your waiter.

Or you deserve not to get served AT ALL if you hold your finger up for the server to stand there and wait for you to finish your conversation. Like those other 4 or 5 tables he/she has dont mind waiting for you to finish chatting for their refills or food to be brought out from the kitchen. I actually walked away from a table once when a customer did that to me then was asked (rather rudely I might add) why I went to another table and served them first when the chatty cathy table was there before the other one.

Even more annoying, taking the call on the ba-deep phone so everyone can hear the other person !
Ba-deep "where you at"
ba-deep "We're at the restaurant, where are you?"
ba-deep "I think we're Lost"
ba-deep " take a right on 98......."

STFU! or go outside! :roll:

There is no excuse for that behavior, especially a fine dining restaurant. You are there to dine. If you really wanted to talk with the people on the phone, they should be at the restaurant with you. Management should have said something to them.

Did you speak with your server about this extreme rudeness? Most nicer restaurants have rules about cell phone usage....for good reason, since IDIOTS have lost their manners.

Even Houston's says no cell phones. Thankfully most doctor's offices and even the salon where I have my hair done have signs that request no cell phone usage.

SORRY: The day when Big D called me from China and I knew it would be my only call from him that day. That was rude of me, and I apologize. Even though we were outside, I should have gotten up from the table and had our conversation elsewhere. I just didn't anticipate us talking so long.

God help us all if the day arrives when cell phone usage is allowed on airplanes.

I agree completely with the above.

This is not as important as a fine dining restaurant (or restaurant of any kind, really), but I have often wanted to ram my shopping cart into the people who stand in the middle of the grocery store aisle--constructing a shopping list via phonewith their housemates, spouses, whomever....while they are oblivious to the fact that they have brought the traffic flow to a standstill...
and always there is TMI about their lives coming from the phone conversation.

What has happened to manners and appropriate behavior

I agree completely with the above.

This is not as important as a fine dining restaurant (or restaurant of any kind, really), but I have often wanted to ram my shopping cart into the people who stand in the middle of the grocery store aisle--constructing a shopping list via phonewith their housemates, spouses, whomever....while they are oblivious to the fact that they have brought the traffic flow to a standstill...
and always there is TMI about their lives coming from the phone conversation.

What has happened to manners and appropriate behavior

I've been asking this question for quite some time. Both these scenarios just really piss me off. Also, when you meet someone for lunch you haven't seen in a while and you're at lunch so your time is limited and they spend the whole bloomin' time on the phone!! ARGHHHHHHH!!!!!

I've been asking this question for quite some time. Both these scenarios just really piss me off. Also, when you meet someone for lunch you haven't seen in a while and you're at lunch so your time is limited and they spend the whole bloomin' time on the phone!! ARGHHHHHHH!!!!!

if you stand up and leave, once they notice you're gone maybe they'll get the hint.

If one is dining with someone who is rude enough to spend their time and mine talking on the phone, I don't consider it too rude to say," please excuse me,I'll go to the restroom and give you the privacy you need to FINISH your call."

I also get annoyed with people who talk on the phone while driving and don't pay attention to traffic, traffic lights, etc., and either hold me up or almost hit my car. So I have a sign that I hold up that says:


GET OFF THE
DAMN PHONE
AND DRIVE!

Even Houston's says no cell phones. Thankfully most doctor's offices and even the salon where I have my hair done have signs that request no cell phone usage.

SORRY: The day when Big D called me from China and I knew it would be my only call from him that day. That was rude of me, and I apologize. Even though we were outside, I should have gotten up from the table and had our conversation elsewhere. I just didn't anticipate us talking so long.

...I don't remember that one, but I do remember our dinner at Onano during a football game. :shock:

if you stand up and leave, once they notice you're gone maybe they'll get the hint.

When I was invited to lunch again, I said, "only if you leave your phone in the car. " It worked.
Now, I'm sitting here trying to think of how many times I might have been rude myself. I really try not to do any of these things. But, it's sure a good reminder.

I think it is mostly about being considerate of other people: if one is receiving a call from China, or, in my case when my son was deployed to the Middle East, and he could only make one call a week; then, I would tell people: I am leaving my phone on, because I do not want to miss this call.

but a grocery list--or in a restaurant? That is just unacceptable unless it there are extenuating circumstances IMO. Frankly, I don't care to share my calls with the rest of the world...and driving: it is so dangerous around here under the best of circumstances, that I almost never use my phone in the car anymore.

They talk really loud too. Do they think they are impressing those around them by sharing their personal business with strangers? I'm never impressed with rudeness or lack of manners.

Admittedly I do have an I-phone. However, it's usually buried so deep in the endless recesses of my BAP, that there is no chance of reaching it, let alone hear it when it rings. I like my phone, but it has not taken over my life or my manners.

...I don't remember that one, but I do remember our dinner at Onano during a football game. :shock:

Sorry for being rude. As much as we're into Gator football/basketball, we've learned that it's really best for us not to do anything social with anyone during a game unless the people we are with are into the game as well. We sometimes forget that people aren't as into it as we are. During the holidays we watched games in one room, and daughter and fiance watched what they wanted in another.

I know lots of people with iPhones that still seem to retain their home training. It's not the phones, per se, it's the people using them.

What really bothered me were two things about the situation--

It seems dismissive to the chef and staff of a really good, local restaurant to treat it as though it were no different that grabbing a meal at Chili's. Basmati's deserves more respect. They have candles and low, soothing Asian music playing. They are trying to set an atmosphere -- and these women totally ignored these cues. As a matter of fact, they whipped out some tiny, bright led flashlights so that they could read the menu, throwing a blue/white glare through the room.

Maybe it's just the economy, but it also seemed tacky to go out to a nice place, order dinner and a few bottles of wine, and talk on the phone the whole time. It's gluttonous.

As for why we didn't say anything...well, first I know business is slow this time of year and I didn't want to put the server in a position that may have jeopardized her tip. Plus, we get to enjoy the place pretty often. If it had been my one visit for the year as a tourist, I might have felt differently.

Thank you.

Unless you are waiting on someone or an important phone call, please put your phone on silent. End of story. We have signs all over the clinic "NO CELL PHONES ALLOWED." You would not believe how many still take them out and take them back to the rooms. I don't get it.

I hate people texting almost as much as I hate it when they talk on their cell phone. My daughter came down to visit us last week, and we all went to the movies. We sat in the back of the theater and every couple of minutes a bright light from a cell phone would come on and take me out of the movie. I finally went and told an employee (who was on her cell phone), and of course the situation was never rectified.

It's amazing how much we've progressed with communication technology, but yet people are losing their ability to communicate directly with each other.

Sorry for being rude. As much as we're into Gator football/basketball, we've learned that it's really best for us not to do anything social with anyone during a game unless the people we are with are into the game as well. We sometimes forget that people aren't as into it as we are. During the holidays we watched games in one room, and daughter and fiance watched what they wanted in another.

lesson...stay home during football games.

Most people were starting to demonstrate decent cell phone etiquette .......... then text messages and internet phones became common and manners were once again lost w/ the joy of this new technology. :roll:

It's rude to have a phone conversation in a restaurant, it's rude to check the football scores, weather, Sowal etc. during a meal, it's rude to be sending and receiving text messages, and it's rude to other diners if you let the people YOU are dining with do any of the above.

Rarely am I forced to overhear a cell phone conversation of importance - so turn the damn things off!

I have occasionally been guilty of using my phone in public/where it is rude to others, but I do try to be aware and not do it!

Shelley - please buy me a jammer too!