1. How often do you eat out?
2. When choosing a restaurant, what criteria do you use? Is your choice based on the menu, the chef, the clientele of the establishment, the day of the week? How do you know if a restaurant is worth a visit? Do you read food reviews or rely on word-of-mouth recommendations from friends? Which is the most reliable?
3. If I were to visit the last restaurant you visited, what advice would you give me?
4. Do you agree with the following:
a) The customer is always right on how food should be served
b) Michelin stars are always an indicator of a restaurant's quality
c) Never order fish on a Monday
d) The service charge goes to the staff
e) Early sittings are best?
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5. Read article here: Restaurant Myth Reading
6. Do you have any questions on the language/cultural points used in the article?
7. Did your answers to question 4 (above) change after having read the article?
8. Are there any beliefs or misconceptions about restaurant dining in your country, such as the best time to book a table, the quality of the house wine, and the etiquette of tipping and complaining?
9. When is your preferred time to go to a restaurant and why? In your experience, are restaurants more relaxed earlier in the day, and more lively at night?
10. How do you choose a wine when you dine out? Do you have a favourite type or region? Do you ask the waiter/waitress for a recommendation?
11. How do you tip in restaurants? Do you follow a rule or a percentage? When you tip, are you tipping (in your mind) just the person who served you, or are you tipping everybody i.e. the cleaners, the marketing staff etc?
12. Have you ever complained in a restaurant? What was the reason and how did the staff handle it? Do you prefer to complain after leaving the restaurant (on social media etc.)?
13. Have you ever seen/heard of people complaining in order to get a discount or freebies? What effect can a loud complainer have on other diners/staff?
14. Have you ever seen/heard of staff complaining about customers' behaviour?
15. Is taking photos of your food in a restaurant acceptable behaviour?
16. Are there any restaurant critics in your country that have quite a lot of power/influence over eating establishments?
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Situation
You host a podcast on gastronomy/eating out. You've invited a London-based restaurant critic (your teacher) to your show to talk about restaurant 'myths'. Ask him any questions you or your listeners might have.
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Discuss quotes
"If I can't eat a meal in a restaurant, and the waiter asks, 'Is everything all right, Madam?', I tell them that I'm on a diet."
--- Cilla Black
"You can put the greatest seafood restaurant next to an average steak house in an urban area, and that steak house will do more business than the seafood place. If you go to the seaside, you can put an average seafood place next to the greatest steak house, people are going to eat seafood.
--- Tilman J. Fertitta
"Although a great restaurant experience must include great food, a bad restaurant experience can be achieved through bad service alone. Ideally, service is invisible.
You notice it only when something goes wrong."
--- Dana Spiotta
A: "Do they allow tipping in this restaurant?
B: Yes, sir.
A: Have you got two fives?
B: Oh, yes, sir.
A: Then you won't need the ten cents I was going to give you."
--- Groucho Marx
“What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.”
― Maya Angelou
Student Handout PDF: Restaurant Myth
Photo: Mikkel Bendix
