I always thought those waiters and waitresses who could take your order without writing it down were pretty impressive. Not really amazing, but certainly above average. Sorta like Kronk, in Emperor's New Groove when he's in the restaurant. Kronk really is amazing, yet very below average in some ways.
In Lhasa, there was this one restaurant we liked to eat at, they served some excellent Tibetan cuisine. The waitresses, used to dealing with Westerners, would take our order and bring us our soup and yak meat and what-have-you. But then when you were ready to leave, you had to go into the kitchen and write sown everything you ordered and calculate the expenses and pay accordingly. It was actually kind of fun, but it made me laugh a little.
One time my friend and ex-room-mate Corey and I went in there and spontaneously started having a drawing contest, since we came prepared with pen and paper. There was a beautiful painting of a nomadic yak-herder on the wall, and we both did our best facsimile. The waitress thought this was very funny- really above average in hilarity, as she shyly watched us and giggled uncontrollably. I like to think she was laughing with us, and not at our sketching ability, which was certainly below average.
When we were finshed and I was judged the winner (if memory serves ;), we presented our efforts to the waitress and she put them up along with the original. So if you're ever in Lhasa you can go to the Tashi 1 restaurant and see some original Homie Bear artwork.