The main dining room is often filled with a variety of different people who have different table customs and ideas of how to conduct themselves in a formal dining setting. All people will not completely agree on how to behave in a main dining room, but please keep an open mind towards the ideas that I present in this article. However, there are some common guidelines that all should follow in the main dining in order not to disrupt service or make the dining experience unpleasant for tablemates and others in the main dining room.
| Do's Use a normal voice (a.k.a. "inside voice") in the dining room. Talk quietly and use language that is appropriate. Place your napkin in your lap. If this is not a custom you follow use your napkin in a presentable manner. When entering and exiting the dining room walk and be careful because waiters and waitresses may be serving food to others and you would not want to knock them down. Be polite to your service waiter and his/her team. Wait until they are finished with another table before calling them to your own table because you need something. Keep your chair close to the table and scoot up to the table especially if a walkway or another table is directly behind you. Excuse yourself from dinner if you are leaving or need to temporarily leave to take care of any bodily functions. When leaving the dining room thank your servers and push your chair in. | Don'ts Do not scream or yell at your tablemates or other people in the dining room. This will make the experience less enjoyable for all. Do not put your napkin on your head as if it is a cap and/or swing your napkin around. Do not run in the dining room because you could run into a waiter or waitress and cause them to knock someone's food down. This would cause a delay for others to get their food and disrupt service. Do not be rude to your dining room servers. They will be less inclined to want to give you good service. Also do not disrupt them while serving others unless you have an emergency. Do not intentionally push your chair back to bother someone behind you. Also do not situate your chair directly in a walkway in order to cause obstruction to others that are dining. Do not burp at the table or make a joke about any of your bodily functions. This could cause someone else to lose their appetite. Do not throw leftover food at your servers or push them aside when leaving. Also do not leave your chair in the middle of a walkway. |