Applied to 8 high end restaurants in person, no response.

Fine-dining service doesn't fit that description at all then. It is an industry that requires quite a bit of experience to be successful in if you are not starting from the bottom. It is also a lot of work. You don't just show up on the floor and start serving. You need to study the menus (lunch/brunch/dinner, they change seasonally), the wine-list, cocktail list, what is available at the bar, know about alcohol, know about pairing, know how to do wine-service, table etiquette, timing, have your own serving tools, be ultra-conscientious of your appearance (pressed clothing, well-groomed, no crazy colours or edgy cuts, no visible piercings beside ears, no tattoos). Also, there is even a hierarchy among FD servers themselves based on experience. If you are a little less experienced, you do brunch/lunch service. You get to do dinner service when you are more experienced.

There are probably already serving assistants/hosts who are waiting to be moved up to a server position, who already know the restaurant/the dynamics/the menus. There is no reason to hire some random to serve, over them.

Also, festival bar-tending < FD bar-tending. On an ENTIRELY different level. Someone already mentioned where bar-tenders fall in the FD hierarchy.

I FD serve part-time while studying in university...but I've been serving in a variety of restaurants since high school.

I guess your best bet would be to pick a restaurant, study the hell out of all their menus/lists, study fine-dining service, and then somehow convince a manager that this is sufficient. Not likely going to work, but more likely than your current method.

Tipping/gratuities seem to work differently in the UK, otherwise I would have suggested finding a high-volume, casual service restaurant job.

/r/TalesFromYourServer Thread Parent