# What is "standard" flatware in country X? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2021, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386 "2021-04-20T15:32:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2021, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/41 "2021-04-28T14:42:42Z")
In the UK at least, there is a thing called a “fish knife” which is part of fancy cutlery sets. [![](https://ehire.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/cutlery-vision-fish-knife.jpg) ](https://ehire.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/cutlery-vision-fish-knife.jpg) This is for eating fish, of course, not gutting or processing it. I have used one occasionally, but it doesn’t seem to have any real advantage over a normal table knife. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/44 "2021-07-17T19:07:12Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > “Standard” place setting in a restaurant is dinner fork, dinner knife and a dessert spoon, I would say. Gee, I don’t recall ever getting a spoon at a restaurant unless you order soup. Then the spoon comes with the soup. Standard to me is knife and fork, better places have two forks. My wife is Thai and they eat with a spoon. Just a regular tablespoon. The Asian style spoons are for soup. Chopsticks are for noodles. Everything else, just a spoon. I’m totally used to it. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/45 "2021-07-17T19:10:39Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > Gee, I don’t recall ever getting a spoon at a restaurant unless you order soup. Then the spoon comes with the soup. Standard to me is knife and fork, better places have two forks. In my experience, at “sit down” (table service) U.S. restaurants, the standard is typically a dinner fork, a table knife, and a teaspoon; fancier places may also provide a smaller fork (salad fork/dessert fork) as part of that standard place setting. And, if you order soup, they bring a soup spoon along with it. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/46 "2021-07-17T19:21:35Z")
It depends on what sort of restaurant you’re talking about and to some extent the meal - whenever I have breakfast at a restaurant, even a diner, I get a fork, knife and teaspoon. For lunch or dinner at a casual restaurant (something like Outback or Applebees’s but not necessarily a chain ) , it’s usually a knife and fork and they bring you a spoon if you order something that needs a spoon ( like soup or coffee). The next level up from a casual restaurant , the setting is a knife, fork and teaspoon. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/47 "2021-07-17T20:55:47Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > Gee, I don’t recall ever getting a spoon at a restaurant “Restaurant”, here, did not mean steakhouse or the like. It meant _haute cuisine_. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/48 "2021-07-18T12:34:48Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > “Restaurant”, here, did not mean steakhouse or the like. It meant _haute cuisine_ . I don’t care how hot your cousin is. The topic of the thread is home flatware! Coincidentally we had dinner yesterday with acquaintances and they set the table with salad forks. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/49 "2021-07-18T12:46:57Z")
One thing I like about formal dining is the attention to cutlery detail. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/50 "2021-07-18T16:25:01Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > “Restaurant”, here, did not mean steakhouse or the like. It meant _haute cuisine_ . Ah, I guess I have never been to one. We do eat at the local Brown Derby every month or so. No spoon. Two forks. To me a steakhouse is the quintessential restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![mtnmatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@mtnmatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtnmatt)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/51 "2021-07-18T17:21:35Z")
Based on the OP, I thought this website might have the answer to the initial question. While it does not get into nuance of fine cutlery in restaurants that the thread went toward, it is pretty interesting nonetheless: > **[Dollar Street - photos as data to kill country stereotypes](https://www.gapminder.org/dollar-street)** > > Imagine the world as a street. Everyone lives on Dollar Street. The poorest to the left and the richest on the right. Every else live somewhere in between. Where would you live? Visit Dollar Street and see homes from hundreds of homes from all over... ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/52 "2021-07-18T20:34:29Z")
> [@mtnmatt](#): > > Based on the OP, I thought this website might have the answer to the initial question. While it does not get into nuance of fine cutlery in restaurants that the thread went toward, it is pretty interesting nonetheless: Is there a way to narrow down the pictures to ones showing cutlery? ---
**Author:** ![mtnmatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@mtnmatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtnmatt)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/53 "2021-07-18T21:16:34Z")
Try this: > **[Dollar Street - photos as data to kill country stereotypes](https://www.gapminder.org/dollar-street?topic=cutlery)** > > Imagine the world as a street. Everyone lives on Dollar Street. The poorest to the left and the richest on the right. Every else live somewhere in between. Where would you live? Visit Dollar Street and see homes from hundreds of homes from all over... I don’t think it will be a comprehensive list of all types globally but does seem to give representative images across the economic spectrum ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/54 "2021-07-19T13:56:07Z")
> [@mtnmatt](#): > > I don’t think it will be a comprehensive list of all types globally but does seem to give representative images across the economic spectrum Cool! I finally cracked down and did an informal “IKEA-test” as well. Looking at the 8 first results given when opening “cutlery sets” on local ikea pages I get that: US and Mexico IKEA-shoppers are presumed to be two fork buyers. Norwegian, Swedish, French and UK shoppers are presumed to mostly want one fork cutlery sets. And Chinese IKEA-shoppers are presumed to want a two fork set, or sets of just chopsticks or just spoons. Of course who shops at IKEA might be different in different nations. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/55 "2021-07-19T14:04:47Z")
That’s an interesting way of finding cultural differences. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386/56 "2021-07-19T14:33:28Z")
Somewhere, a company making ice cream forks is hard at work? [https://www.lubbockonline.com/article/20130209/lifestyle/302099805](https://www.lubbockonline.com/article/20130209/lifestyle/302099805) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-standard-flatware-in-country-x/940386.md?page=2)