Immigrating to the United States requires an understanding of the dining culture in American life: American restaurants are different from those in China and have many taboos. If you violate these taboos and cause a misunderstanding, it could potentially lead to a confrontation.
1. Avoid dining out on holidays or Saturday nights. Due to the high volume of guests, many restaurant kitchens cannot maintain quality and quantity.
2. Restaurant work rarely includes sick leave. A restaurant worker with children to support will not stay home just because they have a sore throat, yet these are the people preparing your food.
3. When a customer's dissatisfaction turns into a personal attack, tampering with food or drinks is a common means of retaliation by servers. Some servers may indeed spit in a customer's food.
4. Never say, "I am a friend of the owner." Since restaurant owners do not have friends in this context, your statement will immediately make you appear self-important.
5. Treat others as you would like to be treated.
6. Do not snap your fingers to call a server.
7. Do not order items not on the menu. By doing so, you are forcing the chef to prepare something they have not practiced. If they have prepared the same dish over ten thousand times in a month, they will certainly make it delicious.
8. Sharing an entree between two people is acceptable, but do not proceed to ask for water, lemons, and sugar to mix your own soda.
9. Encourage servers you are satisfied with. If you find a server you are happy with, frequently sit in their service area. Tell your friends to let this server assist them as well. This will make the restaurant owner feel that the server is indispensable. The server will be very grateful to you and provide you with even better service.
10. If you cannot afford to tip, you cannot afford to dine out.
11. Always check your bill. In large parties, servers may secretly add a "gratuity" without you noticing.
12. If you take a long time to eat, that is not a problem, but you should provide a larger tip to compensate the server for the loss of potential tips from another table.
13. Never arrive to dine 15 minutes before a restaurant closes. By this time, the chef is already exhausted and will likely prepare your order in a rushed manner.
