Eating out in capital cities often means restaurant-goers are spoilt for choice, with a huge variety of restaurants offering cuisine from all the wonderful corners of the world. Here’s the lowdown on what experienced diners have said they look for when they go out to eat.
- Great customer service
This is nothing to do with juggling plates, although maybe that’s a fun activity for the waiters, and everything to do with getting the waiting service right.
- The best service is appropriately attentive, not overly fussy or self-conscious and definitely not ingratiating.
- It’s great to catch a waiter’s eye when you need to, but when staff hover around the dinner table it’s distracting.
- Friendly service is fine, but most people don’t want to engage in too much conversation with staff.
- Timing is really important – there should be a sufficient gap between courses for people to digest their food without it feeling like they’re being hurried, or waiting for ages.
- Positive atmosphere
Most people are looking for a seamless dining experience and it’s a fact that we often only notice when something isn’t working – such as poor quality service.
- It’s best to eat in a restaurant that is just busy enough to have a pleasant ambiance. Most people do not want an atmosphere that is eerily quiet or so full of people and noise that you can’t hold a civilised conversation with your companions.
- Feeing de-stressed and unhurried is good.
- A wine list
A wine list should be imaginative and offer plenty of choice, without being overpriced.
- Some thought and work should go into a wine list so that it provides something for everyone – meaning that whether you’re eating oysters, steak or dessert, you have the right wine to accompany it.
- Mature vintages of fine wines are much more impressive than inferior vintages of famous names.
- The glassware is important. Even a relatively humble house wine will taste much more interesting if it’s served in appropriate, generous-sized glasses.
- Food for thought
Was there something else? Oh yes, the food! Lovingly prepared food with great quality ingredients is essential to any restaurant experience. With so many styles of food to choose from often the somewhat British restaurant is overlooked, yet the menu at many is the perfect example of delicious simple cooking.
If you like to finish your evening meal with a good cigar and a tot of fine Scotch whisky, the well-informed staff at Boisdale of Bishopsgate“deliver ‘really good’ service – particularly when it comes to admirable whisky-and-cigar pairing suggestions”, according to a recent review by online restaurant guide Square Meal.
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