5 Restaurant Etiquette You Must Follow

Tips or no tips, serving in a restaurant can be a pretty thankless task at times. In just one night, staff can serve hundreds of people, many of them hungry, some of them just plain rude. They’ll clock up the equivalent of a half-marathon between the tables and the kitchen, all the while dealing with fed-up coworkers, a backlog of orders, and anything else the night throws their way.

To find out what your overworked waiters really think about you, we spoke to restaurant staff at some of the best London eateries. Read on to find out what their biggest pet peeves are while they’re on the clock. Hopefully you won’t see some of your “helpful” behaviours in the responses.

# Good Manners Cost Nothing

It’s basics: be nice to someone and they’ll be nice back. Just because you’re paying a restaurant for a meal, it doesn’t mean the waiter is in your employ. Would you snap your fingers at your hairstylist to get a quicker haircut? We’d hope not.

# Don’t Tweak Our Recipes For Us

The chef and his team have spent weeks, even months perfecting a particular dish. If you don’t like one particular element on it, don’t order it. By the time you’ve swapped out aubergine for carrots and potato gratin for fries, not only have you marked yourself out as a philistine, but you’re creating a completely different dish. The flavor profiles don’t pair and any element of ingredient harmony has been lost. Unless, of course, you’re in a diner that mainly serves grease. Set Breakfast #5 can happily switch fried eggs for scrambled.

# Don’t Ask For More Salt

People’s palates react differently to seasoning – courtesy of a misspent youth on the smokes, perhaps. If you don’t see salt on the table, taste the food first before you ask for extra. At least then you’ll be able to explain to your waiter (and the chef, should he come blustering out of the kitchen) which elements on the plate require an extra dredge of the white stuff.

# Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone

It’s all too easy to stick to what you know when going out for dinner. But surely the whole point of eating in a restaurant is to try food you don’t usually have at home? We’re not saying tear up the rule book completely, but if something is a restaurant’s speciality, it’s worth giving it a go. On a very base level, as they’re shifting so much of it, it’s likely to be the most fresh. Ask your waiter to guide you around the menu and explain each dish in more detail and get a clue as to its genesis.

# Make Eyes

You’re not Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, so stop staring at your feet. Unless you’re looking over the bartender’s shoulder to admire his back bar, make eye contact with the guy who’s about to pour you a drink or take your order. You never know, there might be an extra measure in it for you.