Pav Explains... Dining Out

Typical, crowded street cafés

I feel it is my duty to ready those of you about to come to Europe for the first time. Do yourself a favor and forget everything you have ever come to know about service - it simply doesn't exist in Europe. In the summer, when everyone wants to sit in a great streetside café and relax, forget giving your name to a hostess and waiting for your turn for a table to free up. It's a free-for-all, hopefully you're standing near the next table that leaves, otherwise you probably won't get a seat. Dining inside can be the same, but you can usually give your name if there is a wait.

Next comes waiting for the waiter - whom you'll probably see sitting at the bar smoking, despite the fact that he/she has 10 tables all waiting to order. Not that they try to fix the situation, but European waiters have the odds stacked against them anyways. It's typical to have between 1-3 waiters handle the entire restaurant, with no regard for who works in which section.

Go ahead and prepare yourself for a long evening as well. It is almost impossible to get in and out of a restaurant in under an hour. This is probably one big difference from American restaurants - there they try to get you in and out as soon as possible. In Europe, sometimes they literally forget about you - you'll have to get up and track your waiter down.

When it comes time to pay, you pay right then, and give the waiter his tip before he walks off to have another smoke at the bar.

All in all, it is nice to not be shoved in and out in a hurry as is the case in many American restaurants. You can relax and know that you aren't going to be bothered every two minutes by some over-zealous chirpy waitress asking if you saved room for dessert. As long as you're not in a hurry, dining out in Europe can be a great experience.