You decide to go out and make a reservation fully expecting a pleasant experience. After all, the restaurant took the reservation so they must have some idea where they plan to seat you. A decent enough table is not too complicated an expectation; after all you planned ahead, and they knew you were coming.

How many people can you squeeze into a popular restaurant on any given night of the week? That’s an interesting question. When does your table become an unwanted section of the restaurant with a perfect view of the rest rooms and so close to the next table that you’re almost touching the person sitting in the aisle? When it’s unacceptable.

This table was not going to pass muster or mustard, for that matter. Yes, the aisle; the passageway for wait staff to move freely among the tables was surrendered to extra bodies. No aisle; no free space separating tables from each other. When a restaurant which normally has a strict policy in terms of how many people can be seated at a table or a booth goes for the money instead of civility, they have created a situation that is untenable. A booth for 6 should not be added to making it an extension arena for 10. What happened to the aisle? No more. Gone. What that translates into is greed: Trying to fit too many people into one very tight space. Where is the fire marshall at a time like this? No exit would have been possible. Our crammed table worked for under 5 minutes while we assessed the restaurant and determined what table might open up. Nothing. Looked bleak. We spoke to the manager who shrugged.

We left. One does not need to spend money–this is not an inexpensive restaurant–to be cramped into quarters so tight you might as well join the new 10-top. The food is good. Certainly not worth this level of claustrophobia.

The question is will we return. The answer: Why?

Get over yourselves. Treat customers as guests, not as stowaways. This attitude is unacceptable.