ten dinning mistakes
Ten Common Dining Mistakes
1:Cutlery. Don't hold your fork like a cello. Also, don't wave your cutlery triumphantly in the air to emphasize a point and don't put silverware partly on the table and partly on the plate. After you pick up a piece of cutlery, it should never touch the table again. Knives go on the plate, blade facing in and touching the inside of the plate. Only the handle should rest on the rim of the plate.
2:Napkins. Don't blot or rub the lower half of your face. Don't flap your napkin to unfold it and don't wave it around like a flag. It belongs unfolded on your lap. If you leave the table, place your napkin on the chair and push the chair back under the table. Gently.Don't refold your napkin at the end of the meal because an unknowing server might give it to another diner. Pick up the napkin from the center and place it loosely on the table to the left of your plate.
3:Chewing. Never chew with your mouth open. Also, no matter how urgently you want to inject the perfect kernel of wit and wisdom at just the right moment, don't do it with food in your mouth. And don't gulp and blurt. Finish chewing, swallow, and smile content in the knowledge that you could have said just the right thing, but had too much class to speak with food in your mouth.
4:Appearance. Remember what your mother said: Sit up straight and keep your elbows off the table. If you have any doubt about where your hands belong, put them in your lap.
5:Breaking bread. Here is a real bread-and-butter tip. Tear bread into bite-size pieces and butter each piece just before you eat it. Don't butter the entire slice of bread or the entire roll to get it ready for occasional bites during the course of the meal.
6:Speed. Take it easy. Whether you're at the Ritz Carlton , gulping down food is not only unhealthy but also unattractive, and it can cross the line into rudeness when dining with others. Dining partners should have the same number of courses and start and finish each one at about the same time. Don't be huddling over your soup while others are salivating for dessert or vice versa.
7:Don't pick! If you have something trapped between your teeth, don't pick at it while you are at the table. If it's really driving you nuts, excuse yourself, go to the restroom, and pick to your heart's content.
8:Lipstick etiquette. Leaving a lipstick trail behind on stemware and flatware is bad form, especially at a business meal. If you apply lipstick in the restaurant and don't have a blotting tissue with you, make a detour to the restroom or nab a cocktail napkin from the bar on your way to the table.
9:Smoking. Even if you're sitting in the smoking section of the restaurant, you should never light up between courses. It affects your dining partners'. Wait until the meal is over and, even then, ask if anyone minds if you smoke. If anyone does object, offer to wait or to smoke at the bar. And, please, never use a plate as an ashtray.
10:Purses and briefcases. Keep them off the table. And this rule goes for keys, hats, gloves, eyeglasses, eyeglass cases, and cigarette packs. In short, if it isn't part of the meal, it shouldn't be on the table.
no 7 iz nt aceptable
This post is really helpful. Especially for the ones doing business with other people. You need to show them you are business-like, proper. Its not really about acting all high class and everything.
You can do whatever you want when dining with friends or at home. No one is stopping you.
And yes, things are different for other cultures. There's no harm in trying to learn or being informed with these things.
Thats just got to be a Cut and paste from Mrs Beetons circa 1924.
More... more... more..
or overly formal in the list of good manners. The first and basic one should be the reminder that etiquette isn't about impressing people, it is about not making others uncomfortable-and elbows on tables displace food, cutlery and glassware. Open mouths with food-well, duh. Non food items on the table-dirty-who would want that? If you need your phone/purse, put it in your lap with phone on vibrate mode. Purses get set on the floor in bathrooms, public places etc. You really want it where your forks are?
I never really got the bread/butter one, but I can live with it.
you forget to add,do not stab the steak off your friends plate without permission, or youll end up getting stabbed instead....
*Aboove!!*
Ok, well lets say this is good British manners then, obviously table manners are different the world over. The aboove rules are basic table manners and obviously should be borne in mind for educated Brits.....the others can do what they like! Mobile phones on tables are disgusting, I would just love an ear wax ridden object next to my butter knife! Revolting!
Our Transatlantic cousins eat using spoons and forks..
What can you do ?
oh....! these were the same letter content i was supposed to give to a very close friend JACK DAWSON a minute upon onboard to TITANIC...:D
how did u find it men?
~~Life's Cycle~~~
Good table manners - whose table? That's the fundamental question. Btw, thank you for the informative OP on fine dining.
But note that Chinese culture requires that you burp loudly and chomp your food loudly, to show your hosts that you appreciate the good food they have prepared for you. Also slurp your tea and soup. The louder the better. Some may say that it's rude and barbaric but they will say, "It's our culture, take it or leave it. we don't need to follow what you say just because you say it."
/If they are in your country, they will have to adapt but if you are in their country, YOU will have to adapt.
//So Flan and Popie - loud farts and burps are the way to go! ;0)
//Actually, I also think that "mouth open while eating" is rude, etc but that's just me. I'm halfway between barbaric and prim and proper.
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Don't want no drama,
No, no drama, no, no, no, no drama
Help people, the Allah ( God) will help you
Are we back to Victorian Days? Some of them are just basic good manners. Most of it was pure trash. If you are sat in the smoking section of a restaurant, smoke when you like. You are either with fellow smokers or those that don't mind. Also if the restaurant has a smoking section, other diners would know this and if they still come, tough that others smoke.
Elbows on tables. What a crock of shit, that is sooooooooooo old fashioned and has no bearing on what happens now. Even the Queen has been seen to put elbows on table. Who made that rule up anyway?
I am sorry, but if I want my mobile phone on the table, it is there. I don't want to miss a call from my kids or the babysitter and sometimes it is hard to hear in a busy place. I will end the call and walk away to make a new call but it is there so I can see and hear it.
Napkins should be taken and washed AFTER every meal, you never know if somebody has borrowed that napkin, as they could not find their own.
If I want to butter the whole of mr roll or bread I will. These are stupid rules. Pure Victorian.
i thought it is a dining mistake? seems to me it is a guideline or somethin'
yeah the standards are great but you can apply it depends on the place & who you're dinning with . try applying it at a cheap restau, everyone will think your a jerk!RYT? lol.
yes, that'll look good in a 5 star restaurant, who eats with a spoon and fork?
eat with your fingers. not spoon and fork :(
ex-expat...Garveys is no more, didn't you know?
Elbows on the table is bad mannered, its not about insulting its just not done...
Purses etc should be kept in a handbag which also should not be near the table!
These are just basic table manners.....
Good points...
but I did have problems with (4) and (10)
- what is wrong, if I keep elbows on the table?
Is it really insulting to others ?
- Purses, Eyeglasses .... where we should keep them
An honest reply is expected...even from other ladies
So I assume Red Rose went to Ritz Carlton and got offended by a teenie who had been dragged there by it's parents :P :P
Kidding aside, an amount of ethic is required at the table, but you ought to break some of those 'guidelines' in order to appear human and not robotic. eating with you elbows away from the table for example is a useful guideline to show people you are uncomfortable in their company. The first few 'dinners' with a guest require those guidelines, but as you loosen up and get to know the people you eat with better, you ought to be confortable and have a little fun and not spend the whole evening thinking about how to impress your friends with the application of these.
Thank you ..
I just can't keep my elbows off the table.. I just can't..
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A very informative post, but unfortunately it does not apply in the majority (or actually any!) of the eating establishments here. Just have a look at any eatery in any one of the major hotels, or maybe the Rugby Club or Garveys!
This is cloud cuckoo land BR.
"It was a woman who drove me to drink, and I never had the courtesy to thank her for it."
W. C. Fields.
lol red-pope...me too, but only at home ;p
I like to think I follow those guidelines pretty well. The speed is an issue sometimes. I can finish meals quite quickly, but I do this while following the rest of those guidelines and not coming off as rude.
Mouth open while eating is what gets me. Not only does it look horrible, but it sounds horrible too. It's that one fundamental dining rule that just about everyone should know.
lol flanotsu.. :D
[img_assist|nid=12867|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
Eerrr I'm hoping that the majority of people here don't need that advice! If you do its a bloody disgrace!
I like to burp real loud in front of everyone, blame the vikings for teaching me some real table manners.....
nothing feels better than a massive fart after a good meal.
seriously, are we getting to the stage where we need to remind people how to eat now?
Helpful indeed! Drunk teddy, not walkin steady, but I'm about to live life so I've to get ready. Munch, munch, munch.. (:
Thank you, darlin', that was very helpful (but it's "dining.")
Mandi