You raise your hand as high as possible and even wave them just to get the waiter’s attention.  If you’re lucky, the waiter will notice you and come to your table immediately.  This is the standard.

Recently (but not fairly new), I’ve come across some restaurants that have buzzers on each table along with a table number.  Now, that explains the sound I hear (which sounds like a door bell ringing) in the establishment.  It’s another way to call a waiter’s attention and get serviced.

So how do they know which table is pressing the button?

There is a board near an area where all waiters converge that has about 6-8 slots.  A number will appear when the buzzer is pressed – this is the table number.  Once someone notices it and is ready to go to the table, they press a small button above the number to free up the slot.

This is a good alternative to improve your diner’s experience in your restaurant.  There are other versions of the buzzer and the coolest I’ve seen is from ESP Systems.  It’s a complete solution from the host to the server, kitchen and bartender.

Now you have that tool, what’s important is how fast your waiters respond to the buzzer.  I’ve seen some restaurants like Marina in Timog Avenue, which has this system but it was a bit useless.  I noticed waiters ignoring it and still relied on customers raising their hand.  It also took a long time before they serviced one table – more than 5 minutes (which is long).  The point here is to ensure there is some kind of check and balance system for it to be effective.  The restaurant manager can spot check ever so often and perhaps remind the staff to be more attentive to the board.

If you don’t like the idea of a buzzer, you can get creative and find a system that would be unique to your restaurant.