6x astonishing behavior by American restaurant guests abroad
Of course, you can never tar an entire nation with the same brush. But tourists who venture into the hospitality industry sometimes do make it a little hard not to give them, together with their fellow countrymen, a certain label. Hospitality workers abroad probably also have their opinions about us Dutch people when we visit… But this time, the stereotypical American restaurant guest is put under the microscope.
Because the American culinary platform Food and Wine, of all places, collected responses from hospitality workers all over the world about how they see the typical American guest. And if I may start:
I worked for years in a wonderful little restaurant, the kind of cosy family business that feels like a living room, but which was famous in many guidebooks around the world. It was an unquestionable priority to make every guest, including the (generally very well-mannered) tourist, feel welcome and happy, and we almost always had a genuinely lovely evening with our guests. One evening, a flashy young American couple came in. I still can’t quite put my finger on the dynamic that developed, but this woman was SO ANNOYING.
Thank youuuuuuu
She just about stopped short of snapping her fingers, was extremely haughty and grumpy (I kept thinking, poor man), had 0.0 patience, and the worst part? After every snippy question she asked or remark she made, she very quickly threw in the words ’thank you’. Which made the whole thing even more absurd… “Can you take this bread away I don’t eat breadThankyou”, “It’s so loud here do you have a different table[no sorry, we’re completely full, just look around you at the other 14 tables]Thankyou” “I dropped my napkin can you pick it upThankyou”, in such an unpleasant nasal tone and with semi-furious eyes that not a single hint of thankfulness came through. I genuinely no longer knew what to do with myself. How someone’s words and attitude can be so far apart is still a mystery to me. Now you might think, ‘But she is asking politely, isn’t she, and besides, she’s the guest’, but that is precisely what was so strange about it: I had actually never encountered such a rude guest before.
Don’t worry: the other examples are much shorter!
Early bird
A waiter from Rome is constantly amazed by this: “Americans want to come for dinner at half past five or six in the evening! People are practically still having lunch then!”
Extra protein please
The same Roman waiter finds it even more annoying when Americans ask for extra protein with their meal. For example, they might say, “I’d like chicken with this linguine”. He then replies very politely, “No, that would really be sacrilege”…
Biero hiero
A guide from San Sebastian, Spain, who leads culinary pinxto tours through the town, says that Americans ignore the wine-and-food pairings she suggests and always want to order beer. “They don’t eat and drink the way we do, either. Most of the time, they just drink and drink and drink.”
Butchering the pronunciation
Another Italian waiter says he knows this is nitpicking, but finds it irritating when an American pretends to speak perfect Italian and then orders for everyone, but gets it completely wrong. “I always pretend I have no idea what they’re talking about, to embarrass them”. [Ahhh, I think this one is mean… Isn’t it actually sweet when someone does their best to speak the language?!]
Borderless
Hospitality workers in Mexico, Spain, and various places in Latin America say they find it annoying and uninterested when Americans simply lump all those cultures together mentally, and then become offended that they can’t find tapas everywhere in Mexico. Or guacamole in Spain. Sigh…
Read also:
- A beer? Cerveza? Bière? Know what kind of beer you’re ordering on holiday
- 10 things restaurant guests do that they think are polite but are incredibly irritating
- What expats and tourists think of Dutch service
Source: Food and Wine
