If we seat you without your friends then we have to seat everyone else without their friends. Then we end up with a restaurant full of people waiting for friends. Cooks not cooking, servers not serving and a longer wait time for everyone else. We're ready to go - it's your friends who are not. We want to make waiting as painless as possible but for everyone.
We will move your party down the waitlist. You will only make it to next in line after your friends arrive.