The worker cleaning your table should not have to clean up a performance of your importance.

Rudeness to service staff is usually a performance aimed at the table. The tone, the impatience, the mess left as though clearing it were beneath comment: it is a small display staged for an audience with no ability to walk away. None of it is really about the food or the table. Whoever cleans up afterwards is left holding the plates and the attitude together.

Stack what you can, say thank you, and speak to service staff the way you would to a colleague. Watch how you behave when you are tired or trying to impress somebody at the table.