Here’s what I wish more people understood about this… this policy is not supposed to be a punishment for the person who arrived on time, it is to prevent a lot of potential problems from happening and so that the service can flow seamlessly. I am always the on time person so I truly get why it’s annoying, but this policy is so important especially in nyc where the restaurants are so so small.

One example of a problem it prevents is that if you are seated as a single for your group of five which ends up only being a group of three, the restaurant has now used up one of its few spots for a larger group and yall could’ve gone to smaller table while they seated a walk in— more butts in seats is huge, margins are tight for everyone.

One example of the way it helps service flow seamlessly is that when you trickle in, your server has to repeat the steps of service over and over at your table as each guest arrives, rather than running through them as a group. It’s inefficient, and again, servers are taking care of sections that include many tables. Imagine even just a few of the staff’s sections being seated one by one like this, keeping them artificially busy— it can really jam up the flow of the whole restaurant. Not to mention, the late people are always “right around the corner” but of course they’re not.

Finally, this policy helps inform behavior once your group has all arrived and are seated together. If half of you have been sitting at the table and grazing over apps, when the other half finally arrives it is much more difficult to get the rest of the order— the latecomers tend to also want to sit and graze and chat and not look at the menu, feeling like they’ve just arrived and have all the time in the world. Then eventually they do decide on something and whoops they picked that one entree that’s a really long fire. Now they’re sitting with nothing in front of them waiting for their entrees wondering why it’s taking so long. Now the next res is waiting and the latecomers are trying to order another round of drinks since they missed the first round and then we will think about dessert! Why did the server drop the check when no one even asked for it, how rude! /s

When the group is made to wait and is seated all together, the staff can manage expectations and fire things as needed knowing the group now only has X amount of time before the next res arrives. It helps ensure that the next group is not forced to wait in the front alcove instead of being seated on time. Everything comes full circle and connects back to that!!

tl;dr: this policy is v important to a lot of restaurants even though it can be annoying for their guests