So I was talking recently with a couple of my local food commandos–folks who eat out nearly as much as I do, who seem sometimes to live their entire lives at the tables of various restaurants and mark time not with calendars or wristwatches, but by hunger, credit limit and the reservation book. And once we’d finished discussing late-night eats in Seattle, the arguable brilliance of Rene Redzepi and what kind of effort it would take to make a food truck that served nothing but pie (not too much, actually), the conversation turned to the topic of restaurant pet peeves–the things that can turn an otherwise good dinner into a disaster.Food coming cold, poor timing, getting the order wrong, some junior server putting his thumb in the soup–these are all things that piss everyone off more or less equally. Spotty silverware or bathrooms that look like they just served as the only toilets within fifty miles of a chili eating contest? Those are problems for anyone.What we were after are the things that really get to you personally–little mistakes or small details that the average diner might not even notice but just drive you out-of-your-mind crazy?For my friend Vic, it was people who handle both money and food at the same time at small restaurants–sandwich shops, burger stands or places like that. Employees who go straight from manning the register to touching the grub without putting on or taking off gloves or washing their hands or anything. Vic is also one of those people who goes nuts over misspellings on menus–having been born with a copyeditor’s eye and the rage issues of a drunken Viking.Ian was incensed mostly by service and front-of-the-house issues: glass-topped tables (he won’t eat at a restaurant that uses glass-over-cloth as a table-covering), using the wrong wine glasses, servers who act too friendly (sitting down at the table to take an order, talking about other customers, discussing their recent foot surgery, whatever) and servers who aren’t friendly enough.For me, it was a balance of annoyances. In the back-of-the-house, it drives me nuts when cooks don’t stem their greens (which I dealt with in last week’s review of Smith) and double-nuts when, in an attempt to fancy-up some regional staple (a cheesesteak, torta, plate of fish and chips, what-have-you), just start adding a bunch of crap to the plate and/or recipe. I hate it when I get nice piece of meat but some cheap, flimsy knife to cut it with. And the one thing that will ruin an otherwise good meal faster than anything for me is having to wait for the check. This may be a function of my dinners being an extension of my workday, but seriously–when I’m done, I just want to be gone, and my opinion of any restaurant will plummet in direct proportion to the amount of time it takes me to get the bill once the last of the plates have been cleared.So now I’m curious. What is it that drives you nuts about the restaurant experience? What is it that can completely wreck a great meal for you–or at least burst the bubble of suspended reality that a great meal can create and bring you crashing back into the real world of dashed dreams and diminished expectations? Everyone has something, so here’s your chance to let everyone hear about it. Pull no punches, folks. No annoyance is too small, no detail unimportant.Comments below. You know the drill.