We’ve all been there: trapped in the service-industry-equivalent of unrequited love, foolishly trying to win the affections, or at least the attentions, of a server. Hand waving fruitlessly in the air, you attempt to catch the eye of the one person determined to ignore you.

“Fuwuyuan!”

Your cries echo unheeded. The beer bottle is empty. The plates of steaming hot delicacies ordered have yet to appear. Desperation mounts.

Service in Beijing has gained a reputation as hit-and-miss at best. “People in Beijing lack the sense of a service mindset,” says American-born Chinese professor and social critic Dr. Hedy Lee (Li Wen). “But if I don’t get what I want, I feel like I’m getting gipped.”

Not only is staff loyalty scarce, which causes tremendous turnover rates and shoddy service, servers are often reluctant to call customers on rude behavior like smoking in non-smoking areas, she says.

“If I’m paying $20 for a French dinner, I don’t want ash in my food,” says Lee, who carries a notepad and pen to jot down constructive criticisms of dining establishments that she then relays to management, a pasttime that is not without its dangers.

“I choose restaurants that have open kitchens in case they spit in my food,” she says.

Fortunately, a number of the capital’s top restaurants are turning the tables on Beijing’s bad rep.

Lessons from Ratatoille

At Maison Boulud à la Pékin, a French restaurant located in Beijing’s snazzily renovated Legation Quarter, General Manager Ignace Lecleir used Disney’s Ratatouille as inspiration for his staff.

“It shows how a kitchen works. (The film) is a tool for understanding the psychology of service. It shows them the soul of a kitchen,” says Lecleir.

He handpicked his staff, hiring solely on personality and attitude and ignoring lack of experience. For Maison Boulud staff, each shift starts with one and a half hours of training in service, English and even wine tasting.

Cultural differences mean that servers must be trained in body language, identifying the host of a table, how to pour wine and reading the mood of the table, says Lecleir. Maison Boulud’s five percent gratuity fee is fed into the staff’s education, financing staff dinner parties, English lessons and trips to New York for staff interested in becoming sommeliers.

It is important for staff to understand the customers’ view, says Lecleir. So once a week or so, Lecleir will pull aside a server or two, hand them money for a cab, tell them to drive around Tiananmen Square and re-enter the restaurant as guests. Dinner, of course, is on the house.

“It’s about making decisions with the staff, rather than imposing decisions on them,” says Lecleir.

Made In Beijing

The Grand Hyatt’s Made In China is an example of fine dining Chinese-style done right, and is known throughout the city and by industry people for its stellar service.

“Our recruitment principle is to place the right people in the right position at the right time,” says Beijing Grand Hyatt public relations manager Jane Ji. Whether through professional job networks, personal reference or from the graduating classes of tourism vocational schools, Hyatt’s Made In China and Redmoon staff have the potential to rise within the Hyatt hierarchy, she says. The Grand Hyatt farms out staff training to service training companies, says Li, but managerial staff makes a concentrated effort to talk with servers regularly about their concerns and satisfaction.

It’s a matter of making the staff feel as though they are part of a family, and that they have a stake in the success of the restaurant, says Li. The more someone feels they have a role in how successful the restaurant is, the more they are going to do to ensure that result.

Turning Tables

“It’s tricky to find a good team,” says Gaby Alves, owner of the popular restaurant SALT and former co-owner of Alameda. But find a good team she did. Anyone who has stopped by SALT during Sunday brunch knows that the service here isn’t just friendly and polite; the waitstaff knows how to work together to turn around tables efficiently when the place is packed.

“Service is an endless job, like housekeeping,” says Alves. Training is a constant process, but what Alves strives for is to instill in her staff a sense of consistency.

“Every little detail makes a huge difference,” she says. From the distance servers stand from the table, to leaving the floor if they have to attend to a runny nose or cough, the little stuff matters, says Alves.

“Customers pay attention.”

Service With A Smile

Part of getting better service in Beijing is, of course, being aware as a customer. That’s why Hedy Lee rewards good service with a small tip.

“Small change is not a big deal for me but it is a great encouragement for their efforts,” Lee says. “When they know their work has been appreciated, they will cherish it more and tend to work harder.” It can be hard to find good staff, she says, “but it doesn’t mean they cannot make the effort to be better.”

As competition in Beijing’s service sector increases, service standards will inevitably rise. It’s not rocket science to figure out that customers will return to a place where they feel welcome. The trick is to figure out what, exactly, makes them feel welcome.

“I’m sure local and international consumers are getting savvier and they will refuse to accept bad management and bad service,” says Lee, who has included a Top 40 Server No Nos list in her new book Playing by the Rules, Dr. Hedy’s Guide to Manners and Morality in Modern China. “No one wants to see that they don’t get their money’s worth, especially in this economy when your hard-earned money means everything.”

Good service can be hard to come by, but Beijing offers far more options than just the three we mention above. At Gen Lai Ken New Japanese Cuisine (Tel: 6468-5579), the wait staff watches over the small grouping of tables like well-meaning hawks. Just lift a finger and a smiling server appears at your side, ready to assist. The Village Café (Tel: 6410-5210) in the Opposite House in Sanlitun is another choice for days when you don’t have the heart to deal with a server who doesn’t want to deal with you.

Take heart, dear consumer. The dawn of a new service era in Beijing has begun. May you now go forth and lift your chopsticks not in anger and frustration, but safe in the knowledge that someday soon, you will no longer be invisible.

By Laura Fitch