Miss Manners: At a busy restaurant, is it acceptable to ask someone other than your waiter for help?

DEAR MISS MANNERS: At a restaurant, if my food is served by someone other than my waiter and I need to request an additional or missing item (e.g., extra sauce or sour cream), do I make that request to the person who served the food? Or do I wait for the waiter to come over and ask if everything is OK?

Does it even matter? Sometimes the waiter doesn’t come over for a few minutes and I’d prefer not to let my food get cold.

GENTLE READER: Although not in the habit of being intimidated by waiters, Miss Manners knows that any answer she gives will elicit a flood of responses from professionals explaining the system in use at their restaurant -- and why it is the only possible solution, which must perforce be universally and instantly adopted.

Before that happens: Listen up, restaurant folks