THE INDOFILES

My wife and I love to go out and eat. We have eaten in restaurants with every cuisine possible: Thai, Mexican, Japanese, American, French, Spanish, Chinese — you get the point. We have eaten in dives to Michelin 3-stars to everything in between. We love food, and find that most places we choose to go are generally pleasurable experiences. For the majority of my adult life however, I am baffled by the fact that the poorest service I receive hands down is when we eat at Indian restaurants in the U.S..

Before you get up in arms about this - you know what I’m talking about. The surly host meets you at the front, eyeing you suspiciously while you survey the restaurant identifying a few white couples who look like they could have starred as British ex-pats in Passage to India. The host, rather than seating you, tells you to take “whatever table you’d like”. Once you sit down, it is another wait to get your papadum and chutneys. The waiter who comes over, looks thoroughly unhappy to be there, and overfills your water glass, causing the outdated tablecloth to get wet. Of course, there is no apology. You order your food, without any meaningful assistance from the same waiter (q: “which is better: the bhindi masala or the saag panner?”  a: “either one should be ok sir”). Invariably, at least one of the dishes you ordered has been forgotten or prepared incorrectly (the number of special requests you make results in exponential growth in the problems with the food output). 30 minutes pass. No one has come by to fill your water, so you have to wave your arms frantically trying to get someone’s attention. A Latino busboy sees you, and begrudgingly fills your water glass. You finish your meal - another 20 minute wait for the check. As you leave, no one acknowledges you except perhaps a cursory glance over that says “don’t let the door hit you on the way out”.

This experience has happened to me over and over and I should mention is unique to the United States. When I have eaten Indian in Europe and Asia, I generally find the service in quite nice. So, the question is, why don’t Indians in the U.S. take more pride in service? The easy answer would be that they don’t care/culturally are not attuned to service, but I don’t really buy that since service is excellent in other countries.

My personal theory is that there is something culturally demeaning for Indians to be serving in America (perhaps this goes back the model minority belief) and as a result, there always seems to be some distance in the service. You see this type of attitude manifest itself in other occupations where Indians are prevalent to, e.g., hotels, and taxis. Do any of you have any theories on this? Anyone have a completely different experience?