Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
Buy Used
$3.92
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.
Used: Very Good | Details
Sold by Cottontail Pickers
Fulfilled by Amazon
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comment: From a private collection, Clean and unmarked, Fulfilled by Amazon, Eligible for Amazon Prime,

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you increase your sales. We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon .

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See this image

Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter Hardcover – July 29, 2008

by
Steve Dublanica (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Steve Dublanica Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Steve Dublanica (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 608 customer reviews
See all 20 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$12.49
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
—
$1.90 $0.01
Paperback
"Please retry"
$8.69
$0.96 $0.01
Audible, Unabridged
"Please retry"
$0.00
Free with your Audible trial
MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged
"Please retry"
$9.99
$4.66 $11.21
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Discover what to read next through the Amazon Book Review. Learn more.
click to open popover

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Read more

From Booklist

Read more
See all Editorial Reviews
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
New York Times best sellers
Browse the New York Times best sellers in popular categories like Fiction, Nonfiction, Picture Books and more. See more

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 302 pages
  • Publisher: Ecco; Later Printing edition (July 29, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0061256684
  • ISBN-13: 978-1616795573
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (608 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #932,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 starsHalf cooked
By Andrew McCaffrey VINE VOICE on September 9, 2008
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
For me there was simply too wide of a gap between what the back cover promised and what WAITER RANT actually delivered. The summary claims to "[tell] the story from the server's point of view, replete with tales of customer stupidity, arrogance, misbehavior and the little unseen bits of human grace[...]" This description sounds like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, while that quote is technically correct, the actual anecdotes that follow are very few and very far between. And the filler wasn't interesting enough to hold my interest.

WAITER RANT shares its name with a blog. It also (alas) shares other aspects of this new form of communication. The book is very shallow, cursory and self-absorbed. It can be difficult to relate to if you do not actually know the person involved. This is something I've noticed with a lot of blogs. For example, a blog entry about the birth of the author's child might be absolutely overwhelmingly joyous news to you if you happen to be a friend of the author, but utterly meaningless if the author is just a random person on the Internet.

Reading a blog over a long period of time may make a reader feel more of a personal connection to the author. In that case, the bite-size, minimalistic style of blog writing may work. However, a novel (or a memoir) is a different medium. It's more immediate. It's not generally read in small doses over a long period of time.

For an instance of how what I'm talking about impacts this book, take chapter two. This is the section where The Waiter discusses the series of events that brought him to the point in his life where he first took a job in the service industry.Read more ›
4 Comments 113 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
1.0 out of 5 starsTerrible ... boring, irritating ... need I say more?
By zewology on November 10, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I don't know how much I can say that other 1- and 2-star reviewers haven't, but I feel the need to add my two cents in about a few things.

The first thing I want to point out is that I am not giving this a low rating because I think the author is lying or exaggerating or whatever. I've noticed that a lot of the low reviews are getting rude comments from people telling them that they just can't understand until they've worked in food service.

I have two things to say to that: one, how do you know that the reviewers haven't worked in food service? And two, if the book was only meant to be enjoyable for those who have had the same experiences as the author, then the book was falsely advertised.

I came in expected a funny rant on all the ways it's terrible to work in the food business, and perhaps to discover if I unwittingly commit some customer faux pas which I have no desire to continue doing.

Well, the book was certainly a rant, but it was far more whiny than funny. I've worked in more than one industry and I wasn't all that shocked by the tales of psychopathic bosses and awful working conditions. You don't just get them when you work in food service, trust me. As for the rude customers, most of the people he described sound like despicable people in life in general, and not just nice people who are terrible to their waiters. Don't expect someone to change his personality just because you're serving him food; most likely he treats everyone this way, and you, as a waiter, are not the only person who doesn't get paid enough to deal with him.Read more ›
2 Comments 58 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
1.0 out of 5 starsBoring, irritating drivel...
By Judit Nagy on December 26, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Having worked as a server in several New York restaurants I was sure I'd enjoy this book. I was expecting a shocking exposé of life at a high volume, fine dining establishment, interspersed with funny anecdotes and stories of customer awfulness that would have me nodding sympathetically on my couch. What I got was a high school level, pseudo-intellectual treatise on the meaning of life, with some breathtakingly mundane restaurant scenes thrown in. The writer either worked at the most boring restaurant in the tri-state area, or he's saving the interesting stories for another book. There certainly aren't any in this one. So much for boring.

What makes this book irritating is that every description, whether it's of an event, person or situation, is followed by a page or two of simplistic psychoanalysis so trite and clichéd it's almost sad. Add to this the pages upon pages devoted to the author's management of his own image and by page 35 you feel like throwing your Kindle at the wall.

Not good.
Comment 34 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
2.0 out of 5 starsAll filler, no meat
By D. Tiberio on January 27, 2009
Format: Hardcover
As much as I hate the term, I could be considered a "foodie." I love to cook, I love to eat well, I love to eat adventurously, and I love to read and watch almost everything about it all (except for much of The Food Network). I've worked through a number of chef/authors such as Pepin, Bourdain, Ramsay, Zola, etc. and through the huge expensive food porn books filled with chemistry experiments and tiny morsels like Alinea. One piece mostly left out is the experience of the front lines. I had hoped Waiter Rant would be that tale, especially due to the high praise... even from Anthony Bourdain himself. It wasn't. The book is all filler and no meat. A handful of actual tales and page upon page of uninteresting drivel. To make matters worse the "author" really thinks he is good at his craft, and while busy churning out cringe worthy garbage he is tooting his own horn and spending quite a bit of time explaining the actual writing of the book you are reading to again fluff up the page count. Ugh. Amateurish and pretentious at best.

As always this book sits with high marks on sites like this while it honestly doesn't even deserve to be published. I think people's expectations are so low, and the acceptance of terrible writing so high, that no one knows what good is anymore. Or don't care. If it can be read in a few days and not eat up much brainpower while being the literary equivalent of Top 40 radio it is destined for lavish praise and critical acclaim these days. This stuff might make for a middle-of-the-road blog (which it was) but certainly not a book. NOT Recommended.

- read52in52
Comment 26 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsI enjoyed the Kindle version of this book so much that ...

I enjoyed the Kindle version of this book so much that I bought the hard copy of it to give to my grandson for Christmas because he is a server and host at Aerie, the upscale... Read more

Published 7 days ago by J. Parker
5.0 out of 5 starsBest Waiting Book Ever Written

Either you or someone you know has made statements like, "everyone should work in the restaurant industry at some point in their life," or "they should make a sitcom... Read more

Published 17 days ago by Michael T.
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Love it

Published 1 month ago by sabato
3.0 out of 5 starsLife at Tableside

I really learned a lot about what it is like to be a WAITER! Never had any desire to be involved with the occupation. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Lillian FERRIS
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

interesting

Published 2 months ago by michelle lundberg
5.0 out of 5 starsUNDERSTANDING THE LIVES OF WAIT PEOPLE

Makes you appreciate how badly wait people are treated by the consuming public.

Published 3 months ago by upstream
3.0 out of 5 starsDecent read!

This was interesting and made me think about the waiting profession. I used to wait tables and have never dealt with as many problems as this guy did! Read more

Published 3 months ago by Murphy
4.0 out of 5 starsDelicious

Insightful, lovely writing and seasoned with wit, this rant is a keeper.
If you are looking for a book to share with a friend, this is it.

Published 3 months ago by Charlene V. Sawyer
5.0 out of 5 starsThis book is a must for any hospitality workers and ...

This book is a must for any hospitality workers and people that have never worked in a restaurant alike. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 starsAre you guilty?

Good observations, quite funny.

Published 3 months ago by Chef Pierre

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.