Restaurants are “lacking the Bermuda element” as overseas wait staff don’t offer the same friendly and welcoming service, according to Government backbencher Dennis Lister.Mr Lister told the House of Assembly that tourists weren’t being encouraged to return to Bermuda as “there’s something missing” from many restaurants.He complained that waiters and waitresses “from elsewhere” don’t tend to chat, laugh and joke with the customers they were serving.It comes as the restaurant industry is said to be deeply concerned and frustrated about the trend of apathy by Bermudians towards jobs in the hospitality and service sector.As The Royal Gazette reported, a waiting course, which was due to start last week, has now been pushed back to September as only one Bermudian registered.Mr Lister, PLP MP for Sandys North Central, said: “The food is nice in our restaurants but you can get nice food anywhere, that is not going to bring people back to Bermuda.“You can go anywhere for good food; London, New York, Paris.“Anyone can bring the food out and anyone can top up your water, but there’s not that Bermuda element.“In most restaurants what is missing is the local service of yesterday, the service that takes us back to how Bermuda used to be. The service that makes you feel like you are old friends with the staff.“The Bermuda product is really longing for this type of service but we seem to be having great difficulty in bringing it back.”Mr Lister said “allow me to digress” and gave a five-minute speech about wait staff in restaurants during a debate on the new Railway Trail Training Programme.The debate had prompted several comments about the work ethics of Bermudians, in particular those who are repeatedly late for work and spend most of their days on their BlackBerrys.Mr Lister said he had picked up on the level of service in Bermuda restaurants when he had overseas business partners visiting the Island. He said he had the opportunity “to do what I don’t normally do” eat out for lunch and dinner on a daily basis.He said his business partners only realised that most restaurants were missing “the Bermuda element” when they witnessed it for the first time.Mr Lister publicly praised the Wahoo Grill on Water Street in St George’s for being the only restaurant where they ate where they were served by a Bermudian.He said: “The waitress chatted to us, she joked with us and we had a laugh. This is the interaction we were looking for, it was a testimony to Bermuda.“This is what people will come back to Bermuda for; the service, good Bermudian service.“This is the opportunity we have to turn around tourism, individuals need to clasp onto this.”Mr Lister’s comments come just days after restaurateur Walter Simmons, who owns Bouchee and the Rotisserie Grill, said not all Bermudians were serious about offering a first-class service.He said: “The reality is that all too often we get people who just want a job for work’s sake and we hire them, train them up and invest time and money in them, as well as putting them on our health insurance and pension plans, and they usually last anywhere from one day to three months because it isn’t what they really want to be doing.”Mr Simmons, who is a former chairman of the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce’s nightclub and restaurant division, estimated that guest workers make up 80 percent of the industry and urged Bermudians to put up or shut up and take up the job opportunities.