Where I live it's been about a decade since waiters were anything except glorified conveyer belts that serve no purpose except to move my food from the kitchen to my table, and if anything that has drastically increased the quality of my meals. I'm not really sure what value an experienced waiter would provide.
I recommend you try some well-rated restaurants where the waiter explains the food carefully, tells you where it’s sourced and with which wine to pair it all. Maybe that’s not your thing but I’ve been to many restaurants lately where the staff doesn’t even know the menu.
> where the waiter explains the food carefully, tells you where it’s sourced and with which wine to pair it all.
These are all functions that can be served equally well by an inanimate object. Why pay someone $25/hr every night to say where a dish was sourced when you can just add a couple of lines to the description of that item on your website? I'd definitely have a much better experience if that money was spent on better ingredients, or just not spent and reducing the cost of my meal.
> Maybe that’s not your thing
There's no maybe about it, but I don't think it affects my point.
I prefer restaurants where I pick up the food at the counter and bus my own dishes. Saves me time and hopefully some of the money saved by not having waiters goes towards reducing prices, better quality ingredients, and better paid cooks.
