In the restaurant business, tensions inevitably arise between the kitchen and the floor. Waiters complain about temper tantrums from arrogant chefs, or inept line cooks who mess up food orders; cooks grumble about lazy servers who make more money than they do, or who make mistakes and then lie to tables and blame the kitchen ("Ma'am, I'm sorry your food is taking so long--the kitchen is really backed up," or "Oh, I'm sorry... you wanted that with sauce on the side, right? The kitchen must've forgot..."). Since we've allowed waiters to vent, we asked a few local chefs:

"What's your pet peeve about servers?"

Michael Bruno (aka "Bruno"), Tango

"There's no front-of-the-house/back-of-the-house thing going on here [at Tango]. I really strive for that."

Matt Costello, Painted Table (soon to be Library Bistro)

"I have a really great relationship with my waiters. But I guess the one peeve I have is when [a customer] has a dietary restriction, and the waiters develop the menu on their own instead of asking me first to do something special. If you have an allergy, or are a vegetarian, you shouldn't always have to have the pasta. [Waiters] always go for the lowest common denominator, like pasta or grilled vegetables. I can usually come up with something a little nicer than that."

Charlie Durham, Cassis

"What bugs the hell outta me is that they regularly make as much money in four hours as I make in 12 hours. And also, they often don't know what the hell's going on with the food, and they aren't particularly interested. They just sorta muddle through and tell people what they can, then they leave in two hours with a good tip, and I want them to describe the pig's-head special, you know what I mean?"

Renee Erickson, Boat Street Cafe

"One thing that drives me crazy is when a server approaches a table and sort of recites things to the point where they're not even listening to what they're saying. They say things that are completely inappropriate. We have a smoked fish plate on our menu, and one woman approached a table and started to recite the specials. The fish special was a smoked shad, and she said 'smoked shat,' and this table full of businessmen just went white."

Patrick Fagan, Meridian

"What's almost guaranteed to make me lose my temper is when they fuck with the plates--whether they grab a piece of calamari off a plate and pop it in their mouth, or rearrange garnishes and items. Also, when they take food from the window and make a side trip to do something else, or stop to talk to another waiter--the food should go straight to the table."

Julie Guerrero, Dulces Latin Bistro

"When food is up and the waiter is nowhere in sight, and I have to take the food out myself. My kitchen is in the front, so people expect me to [make an appearance] anyway, so it's okay, but sometimes I'm not in the mood."

Tamara Murphy, Brasa

"When a waiter comes back and says something like, 'Are there supposed to be bones in the fish?' [Laughs.] OF COURSE there are bones in the fish--fish have bones! Obviously... the customer sent back the fish because it had bones. But instead of telling me what they want me to do about it, they say things like that."

John Neumark, Serafina

"[When] waiters [aren't] team-oriented, don't have good knowledge of the menu or the wine list, or just generally... are not taking it seriously. I understand the restaurant business is a fairly transitional work environment, and servers are out to make a quick buck. But cooks tend to be more willing to sacrifice and to put upon themselves more responsibility, more effort, for the overall well-being of the group. Our passion is what allows us to work in hot kitchens for 11 hours a day and make less money than the people who work for five hours. I guess cooks are stupid enough to put up with it. But I've worked in a bunch of different places, and at Serafina, the servers tend to be more team-oriented and generous and communal."

Craig Serbousek, Stumbling Goat Bistro

"A pet peeve of mine is waiters who lack the ability to disengage from the table. [Like when] a table has entrées in front of them, and the waiter will just be at the table chatting. The food is sitting there getting cold, or if it's a salad, the dressing is getting at the greens.... A really good waiter knows how to end the conversation and get away from the table."