I love dining shops. If you are calm and act normal, you can easily ask the manager what their name is without seeming out of place. I always lead in with some comment about the current situation and get them chatty and then it's easy to slip in the question. I'll often tell them my first name and they will parrot me and then tell me theirs without actually asking them. If you give a compliment to the manager about something and ask them a question, then it's not awkward. You don't just open up with "What is your name?" when they visit your table and your going to be just fine.
The only time I feel any pressure is when it's a recorded pre-visit call and I need the name and they don't offer it and I have to ask for it at the end of the call.
Same thing with taking required photo's of your food. I may wait 2 seconds till they turn around and take a few steps away before I pick up my phone and shoot the plates. Your just another obsessed foodie who has to share a photo of everything you eat on Facebook or Yelp. It's so common that they think nothing of it. I know people that do this all the time.
When you are doing it and they see you and you try to hide what your doing that will cause suspicion and set off alarm bells. I'll even stand up to get a good angle of my partners plate.
The only time I may want to wait till no server is looking is when they require you photo a mixed drink, as nobody does that for Yelp. You can leave a drink sit for a few minutes until your server steps out of the section.
I think many people are over thinking this. I caught the Cheesecake factory shop again today. It was like catching a fastball.
I was reviewing a seafood buffet that popped up for yesterday and then the website went down. I started hitting F5 (reload page) Then I saw the Cheesecake shops. I tried twice to click accept and it gave me an SQL error due to the overload of other shoppers trying to get one.
The third try was the charm. I got a dinner shop and within a matter of minutes the rest of them were all gone!
I'm still trying to digest the 6 lobster tails and 3 plates of crab legs I ate last night. I need to avoid that shop next month. It's just too tempting to over eat. Then I tried the sea bass and fried shrimp and clams. This is more unhealthy than doing three FF shops in one day.
I did prepare myself for the shop by fasting all day and only drinking water. I have eaten there on my own dime before I did MS and at $42 a plate for buffet style all you can eat lobster, crab, shrimp, scallops and clams, I had to be completely on empty to go into this shop.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2015 09:25AM by scanman1.