6 things you should never do at a fine dining restaurant, from fighting over the bill to ordering cheap wine – according to a Michelin-starred restaurant manager
- Matthew Mawtus, general manager at Hide restaurant in London, encourages guests to ask the sommelier about complex wine menus and be upfront about your budget
- Highlight your dietary restrictions in advance and, instead of saving your complaints for the internet, see if staff can fix the problem during your meal
Michelin-starred restaurants are a high-pressure environment. Staff work the craziest hours to bring diners multi-course tasting menus with fresh-caught seafood and wines sourced from volcanic vineyards. Even the crisp linen tablecloths are measured with a ruler to make sure each guest’s dining experience is impeccable.
But although the staff would never say it, not every customer is as dreamy as the feather-light soufflé they’re served for dessert. So how can you make sure you’re not memorable for all the wrong reasons when you next go out for a meal?
Matthew Mawtus, the general manager of Michelin-starred restaurant Hide in London, says you can stay in your waiter’s good graces with proper etiquette and just a few smart moves.
Don’t re-seat yourself – ask the manager to move you
Michelin-starred restaurants run like clockwork due to all the planning behind the scenes. When a guest switches tables it might seem like a simple move, but it can actually throw the staff’s workload completely out of sync.
“We divide the restaurant up into sections, with a head waiter for each section,” says Mawtus. “Restaurants sit people at specific tables because they don’t want to fill up one section first and leave the others empty. The team will want to spread out the workload for the waitstaff so they don’t become overloaded and our guests receive an equal amount of attention.”
Don’t fight over the bill
Fighting over the bill may be rooted in generosity, but when you all thrust your credit cards at the waiter, it can send them into a blind panic.
“I have been caught out by this in the past where it becomes my decision to make,” says Mawtus. “It’s like, ‘I don’t really know either of you, I really wish you could sort this out between you.’ I had two ladies insist they each wanted to pay the whole bill – one had a credit card and one was paying with Apple Pay. The one who was paying by Apple Pay won because she got her iPhone closer to the card machine.”