Quick answer
First confirm v1.007 or later. Check whether the tray has correctly entered Ready to Serve status, then read the reason the employee gives for being stuck or unable to complete the task.
Normal delivery conditions to check
Official v1.006 notes added a Serving Trays tutorial and fixed cases where a slightly misplaced receipt prevented a tray from becoming Ready to Serve. They also fixed delayed green Ready to Serve status for multiplayer clients.
What v1.007 records as fixed
- Waiter and Busser pathfinding improvements.
- Waiter workflow problems and permanently frozen employees.
- A Waiter repeatedly picking up and putting down a tray without delivering it.
- Multiplayer clients not seeing a tray marked ready for delivery.
Community suggestion
A single Steam reply suggests pressing E on the server tray after completing an order to prompt pickup. Treat this only as a community suggestion: the key, interface wording, and controller behavior have not been verified for every v1.007 setup.
If the Waiter is still stuck
Record the version, whether Ready to Serve appears, the employee's stated reason, whether the problem is solo or multiplayer, and the exact repeated behavior. The sources do not show that every Waiter issue has the same cause.
Sources
- Official v1.006 announcement — tray tutorial and status fixes.
- v1.007 patch archive — staff feedback, pathfinding, and workflow fixes.
- Waiter discussion — the attributed, unverified E-key suggestion.
FAQ
Does pressing E always fix the Waiter?
No. It is one community reply, not an officially verified universal step.
Related guides
This unofficial guide reflects the sources listed above and may change as launch-week updates continue.