Be Careful That Plate is Hot!

You walk into a restaurant with your family and expect to have a wonderful meal. You place your order and wait patiently while your food is being prepared. You sit anxiously waiting and notice your server is approaching your table. As she looks around the table trying to figure out which plate goes to whom, you notice that she has a potholder on her hand as she places a meal in front of your young daughter and sweetly cautions, "Be careful! That plate is hot!"

Not only is your child hungry but she isn't really paying attention to the server as she continues to place plates on the table for everyone else in your party. She reaches out to move her plate closer and she gets burned.

Since when did this practice of serving hot plates of food to young children become acceptable?

Do the words of caution release the server from the liability of placing the food in front of a young child?

If the plate is so hot that the server is forced to wear pot holders to serve it or use extra napkins, should they be placing that plate on your table?

What actions would you take, if any?

Whose responsibility is it anyway?

I would think that even while food is waiting to be cooked, that placing it under warmers or heat lamps would in fact make those ceramic or stoneware plates a bit on the warm side. I know some party's don't like to be served until all the meals are ready, but I wonder if there isn't a better way to deal with this?

I am opening this up for discussion on my Facebook page as well as my blog for parents, food servers and others to please comment. Is there anything we can do to alleviate this unacceptable practice that I see happening more and more? What should be done?

Please leave your comments below!