Italian restaurants in the U.S. tend to be friendly places where the servers and hosts treat you almost like family. Nobody is going to be too offended if you don't completely adhere to the strictest of etiquette rules. However, there is something to be said for fitting in and looking the part. If you want to look like you know what you're doing at an Italian restaurant, here are a few rules to follow.
Never cut the pasta.
Long pasta noodles, like spaghetti and linguine, are meant to be twirled on a fork and eaten in their entirely. Cutting them is definitely a faux pas. If you're not amazing at twirling your pasta onto a fork, just do your best — it's better to be a little sloppy than to slice the spaghetti.
Let the host eat first.
If you are dining with a group, the person who invited everyone to dinner (in other words, the host) should be the first one to take a bite. If they are really experienced with Italian dining, they may announce "bon appetit" as they gesture with their fork, telling you all that it's time to eat.
Don't ask for butter.
Italians don't butter their bread. They either use it to soak up the extra sauce from the dish they are eating, or they dip it in olive oil. If olive oil is provided, definitely give this a try — you might not go back to using butter at home. The exception is if the restaurant serves a compound butter for you to spread on the bread. This is becoming more modern in Italian-American restaurants.
Ask for the check.
In many Italian restaurants, if you sit and just wait for them to bring you the check, it may never come. Italians do not like to rush anything when it comes to food, and bringing you the check may be seen as a sign they're trying to get you to leave. Take your time, and ask for the check when you're ready.
Pour wine for your neighbor.
If you order a bottle of wine, never fill up your own glass without first filling up your neighbor's glass. This is just considered a friendly gesture and is pretty ubiquitous in Italian culture.
If you adhere to these guidelines when visiting an Italian restaurant, you will appear polite and knowledgeable, which is likely to result in even better service from the hosts and other staff.
For more information, contact companies like Tony & Joe's Pizzeria.
Share27 October 2019
As soon as I started traveling a lot for work, I realized that I was going to be eating out--a lot. Instead of just visiting the same old fast-food restaurants that I had grown up with, I decided that it would be great to explore exciting new restaurants. I started small, by going to little places that had earned high ratings, and then I worked my way up to some of the more fancy establishments in the area. It was really great to see what I was able to find, and I was super pleased to explore so many new kinds of foods. Check out this blog for tips on enjoying new restaurants.
