The sort of thing you should not do in a restaurant.

The sort of thing you should not do in a restaurant and should do depends on the restaurant. You could say that it is not expectable to eat with your fingers. But that is not always the case in some case you are positively encouraged to use your finger as it would be the most sensible option.

And now you have a number of things that you can not do in a public space such a smoking. Once this would have been acceptable and now is legislated against so you can not.

So to start with let’s just cover the basics.

A restaurant is a public place but you do not want to be too loud or invasive. Not to say you can not enjoy your self and have a good time but not every one in the whole restaurant will want to know what you are talking about.

Remain seated and do not wander about with out a good reason. And be polite to the staff and other dinners. Do as you would be done by, as in life as in the restaurant.

When you are ordering your food and drinks do not all talk at once. Take it in turns to order and this way you will not confuse the waiting staff. Also if you make sure that you have all order correctly you will get what you want and hopefully on mistakes will be made.

If you walk in to the restaurant and you do not know were to sit just catch a member of staff eye and ask. If you sit just any where then you could be making problems for your self and for the member of staff that is serving you. A restaurant can be split in to sections and you go and sit in the one that has twenty people in it already. On the other side is a section that only has ten sitting in it and you just make life harder for the member of staff in your section. Also the table could have been reserved for some one or a regular who always comes in at that time of day sits there. So always check or wait to be seated.

When the food comes to the table make way for the member of staff to get the food to the place in front of you. Classically all food should be served from the left so lean a little to the right. All drinks should be served from the right so lean a little to the left. But from what ever side you are being served from make room.


Listen to what the waiting staffs are saying to your table. If they are asking who wanted the lamb and it was you then acknowledge them. Saves you getting cold food and speed up the service.

If you need any thing more try and catch the member of staff eye. Do not shout, click your fingers, wave or run around after them to ask for it. If the staff are well trained they will be back shortly after you have been served to make sure that you have all that you need.

And finally if you have to complain do not make a song and dance about it. Discreetly just ask fro something to be done and it should not be too much of a problem.

And that is about it. I know that it all sounds very easy and well that is because it is. But the more that you help the staff in the small ways the better it will be for you in the long run.