Want to keep from driving your waiter crazy? Here are the pet peeves of restaurant workers, courtesy of Steve Dublanica – author of the bestselling book Waiter Rant.

• Campers. Campers are customers who stay a long time after paying, and don’t tip extra, even though they keep getting refills on their coffee or soda – and keep other paying customers from taking the table. 
• Another pet peeve of restaurant staff: Customers who aren’t considerate of closing times, like those who expect to be seated and served at 9:45 when the restaurant closes at 10:00. Or people who don’t realize - or don’t care - that a restaurant worker’s day doesn’t end when the doors are locked. There’s nothing waiters hate more than having to start stacking the chairs or mopping the floors with strong-smelling chemicals for customers to get the hint and go.
• What else drives restaurant workers crazy? Customers who arrive on a busy Saturday night and demand the best table in the house, and when they’re asked to wait, say things like, “I come here all the time” or “I know the owner.” If you really were a regular, you’d already know there’d be a wait on a Saturday night.
• Also, the wait staff hates it when customers order something that’s not on the menu. That's because the customer is rarely happy with the results, so they end up tipping less. However, if you can’t live without your special order, don’t get angry if it doesn’t taste good. Remember: the items on the menu get cooked over and over again, and the cook who’s in the kitchen may have no idea how to make anything different.
• What else drives waiters crazy? Customers who get offended when they put the check in the middle of the table. It’s politically correct to let the diners decide who pays. Even when a couple’s on a date, you can’t assume that the man is paying the check.
• One final pet peeve of restaurant workers: Customers with messy kids who don’t tip any extra for the cleanup. In most restaurants, it’s the server’s responsibility to clean up after their customers. So, make it worth their while to crawl under the table to retrieve silverware, crumpled napkins, and pick up all those spilled Cheerios.