Logos? Shrimp Cocktail? People in cheap penguin suits rather than a smart uniform ensemble? Ketchup? Having to ask for fizzy water rather than them asking whether you would like some water, and which kind would you prefer? Things are clearly different over there…
But surely the napkin should be folded into an artistic arrangement on the table next to the bread plate. The eating plates arrive with each course…
You have to hang your own coat? :eek:
Yeah - if the table starts off with a forest of glassware and then half of it is whisked away as soon as you’ve ordered the wine, it’s usually an indication they take things pretty seriously.
But that’s what they’re there for! Really good waiters nail that fine balance between filling your glass whenever you’re running low, without irritating you by topping it up every ten seconds. Just as they are always at your table when you want to ask for something, but are invisible the rest of the time.
I’ll add another - if you have no idea what wine to order, you get quizzed about what you like and what you intend to eat before being offered a couple of recommendations, with a brief description of each. Bonus points if they let you taste two or three to find which you prefer.
Obviously, this is all dependent on how restaurants operate round your neck of the woods - here things tend to be very influenced by the French/Italian style of more formal dining. And you can obviously get some frighteningly good meals in the most unexpected locations. One of my favourite restaurants, The Spread Eagle was in a converted 17th century coaching inn, decorated with random bits of antique clutter and old flyers of various kinds. It did look like a bit of a themed tourist trap but had fantastic old-school french cuisine, right down to the frogs-legs. It’s now closed for refurbishment and I’m praying it doesn’t change much.
Absolutely. I just can’t usually afford the kind of restaurant that hires the good waiters (you know, the ones who are waiting tables 'cause they’re good at it and may even like it? The ones for whom this isn’t “something to do until a real gig comes along”.) And the guy was good. He recommended (created, actually) a dish that wasn’t on the menu for our little ones, using his knowledge of what the kitchen had on hand and what toddlers can physically eat - it was not the kind of place with a kid’s menu. (Although WhyBaby liked the roast garlic spread on bread and bits of Mommy’s rack of lamb, she really went to town on the “mac and cheese” aka fusili pasta with alfredo sauce, sliced handmade sausage and sliced cherry tomatoes with basil and wine vinegar on the side.) He was present when needed, invisible when not, and even put up with my father-in-law’s boorish questions about his accent with good grace and a smile.
Yeah, I like going out to dinner when my brother-in-law is picking up the tab. It introduces my kids and I to a whole world we wouldn’t experience otherwise.
There’s another distinction: kid’s menu, type II; waiter or chef creates a customized meal for your kid, type I.
Some restaurants are so busy that there is a wait of 20+ minutes to get seated. Instead of making you wait in the lobby or gift shop, some will give you a pager set to vibrate, so you can walk around town while you wait.
What’s fun is to go to like 10 places like that, and stuuf the pagers down your pants. Woo hoo, table’s ready! Woo hoo, table’s ready! Woo hoo, table’s ready!
I remember the first time I went on holiday with my girlfriend and her parents (who are, let’s say, several orders of magnitude wealthier than mine). We went to a very nice restaurant in the Channel Islands, and after draining — er, I mean, delicately sipping the last of — my wine, I grabbed the bottle out of the ice bucket and went for a top-up. The waiter stopped short of wrestling it from my grip, but looked quite taken aback that I had poured my own wine :eek:
I guess inserting one of those long curly straws into the bottle is considered infra dig?
Bonus Type II-ness - After they swab the table with that fetid towel, they take a swat at the seats with it, so the next party seated gets damp asses all around.
There are always exceptions. There was a wonderful seafood restaurant in Salt Lake City that only used paper plates, plasticware, and paper napkins, but was definitely Type I in its style, ambience, and food.
