We all like to go out for lunch or dinner, and we all dislike negative experiences when we go to a restaurant. However, sometimes diners themselves are to some extent responsible for the disaster, by not following minimum basic rules that would save us and our banquet companions frustration. These are the nine things that you should never do.
Remember that if you want to try excellent Italian food at an authentic Italian restaurant in Australia, you must visit Fernando’s Italian.
- Eat whatever they throw at you
If any dish is seriously lacking, we should swallow the embarrassments and return it to the kitchen, explaining why to the waiter with much education. Basically, we are doing the restaurant a favor, so that it can correct the error, improve and eventually earn more money. Of course, the claim must be in accordance with the establishment: you cannot demand the same in a menu house at 9 euros as in a gastronomic restaurant of more than 100. But it is precisely in fine places where we hold back the most. time to complain perhaps about the fear of being ignorant, when it should be just the opposite.
- Not ordering your beef the right way
New York chef Anthony Bourdain recounts it in his ‘Confessions of a Chef’: restaurants devote the worst chunks of beef to customers who order it well cooked. It is much easier to camouflage a bad piece if served almost burnt, while in the meats to the point or bleeding the deception is more complicated.
- Ignoring the seasons
We have all done it once, but there is no more direct way to failure than choosing a dish with ingredients (especially vegetables and fruits) that are not in season. Tomato salad in winter? You will take red dyed polyester. Artichokes with ham in summer? They will be boats and victims of citric acid will have died. Strawberries in the fall? If the calendar is unknown, it is best to ask if the main ingredient of the dish is fresh and local, or to be guided by a basic principle that is almost always true in vegetables: leaves, autumn-winter; fruits, spring-summer.
- Be nosy with the ingredients
When you put on pasta with the ingredients of the dishes – “can it be without avocado, without onion and without cumin, which I do not like?” – you are not only irritating the other diners by lengthening the requests with your doubts. If the cook agrees to remove them, it is more than possible that you destroy the balance they were looking for when preparing the recipe. When you don’t like something on a plate, better ask for something else. And if you do not like many things, stay at home, hold your parents to account for not having taught you to eat as God commands or wake up at once, since you are no longer 10 years old.
- Going to smoke or to the bathroom when you don’t touch
Going out to smoke or to the bathroom should always be done at times when they do not interrupt the rhythm of command or service. If you go before you start eating, do so after you have asked so that the process is not delayed because of you. During the meal, it is very bad education to take a cigarette and force the rest of the table to wait for your return for the second or dessert. It is not a question of intolerance, but of respect for others.
- Thinking the waiter is your friend, or your enemy
Thanks to their advice, advice and kindness, good waiters make the dining experience much more pleasant. Unfortunately, they are a professional species in danger of extinction, since many hoteliers believe that it does not take any kind of talent or qualification to carry out this task. In this context, it is convenient to maintain a cordial relationship with those who are serving you – being rude ends up playing against you – but without yielding to the pressure of their recommendations – they can be aimed at fooling you with things that should come out of the kitchen or stick you in bill. Keep in mind what they say … but ask for what you want.
- Ordering fish on a Monday
In the days when most people shopped in the markets, this did not even need to be explained. But with the implantation of supermarkets and their obsession with giving everything every day, we have forgotten that on Mondays there is no fresh fish. Consequence: if that day of the week you eat something in a restaurant that has come out of the sea, it will be frozen or from days ago.
- Using the cellphone
Being with the mobile back and forth during a meal is not only rude, but also a tacky sovereign. In addition to filling the crop, when we eat, we are enjoying a pleasure and communicating with our table companions. And calls, messages, whatsapp and tweets interrupt both. 99.9% of your communications have absolutely nothing to do with waiting an hour and a half, so silence your iPhone and stop bothering.
- Not looking at the receipt
Some people find it vulgar to check that the account is fine; others pass by simple carelessness. All of them risk paying for dishes or drinks that they have not consumed. Restaurants don’t try to get it folded – well, a few do – but an overly busy waiter can make mistakes on the count. It is not a matter of adding up as if you were an accountant or a descendant of Mr. Scrooge: it is enough to quickly make sure that the list is correct.
Remember that you can try real Italian food at our excellent restaurant. If you want to make a reservation you can call at: (02) 9560 7957 and we will be happy to have you within our guests for another wonderful night here at Fernando’s Italian.