> How long I would wait for a restaurant to prepare my food depends on a hefty variety of things. Foremost, of course, is the type of restaurant. I might wait 15 minutes at a fast food joint but over an hour if it would be fine dining, and especially if I knew the meal was unusually time-consuming to prepare. Then there are other complications such as who drove, whether the event was planned ahead of time, whether I'd paid already, if there was something I might be late to, what other people in the group (if any) want, and more.
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> In any case, I'm still bitter toward an Olive Garden waitress who insisted every five minutes that our food would be out in just a moment. We left after roughly a couple hours. All of the 'other complications' above were against leaving, but the wait still irks me because I'm very fond of dinner.

You know what is also irritating? When the waiter forgets your order. I've had that happen to me twice now.