Get ready for a dose of snobbery: we’re revealing what else you should avoid doing in a restaurant so you don’t break the rules of etiquette.
Not putting your elbows on the tablecloth, not slurping, and not placing phones, glasses, keys, or other items on the table — almost everyone knows these simple table manners. But there are other common mistakes: they aren’t always obvious, yet they are considered incompatible with impeccable manners. Get ready for a dose of snobbery: we’re revealing what else you should avoid doing in a restaurant so you don’t break the rules of etiquette, even the least obvious ones.
1. Biting Into Bread
“There are many wrong ways to eat bread, but only one right way,” say dining etiquette experts. The main rule is not to bite into the bread, but to break it off and eat it in small pieces. You should follow this rule even when spreading butter on bread: you don’t hold the whole slice in your hand and spread it entirely, but place it on your plate, break off a piece, and butter that piece instead.
There is an exception: you can bite into bread if you are eating it with traditional Ukrainian soups.
2. Leaning Over the Soup Bowl
Soup, by the way, is one of the most challenging dishes from an etiquette perspective — mistakes in handling it are criticized most often. You should not lean over the bowl or your spoon, blow on hot soup, stir it too vigorously, or tilt the bowl to finish every last drop. Keep your back straight, scoop the soup away from you, and bring the spoon to your mouth parallel to the table. Don’t fill the spoon completely: only take as much as you can swallow in one go.
3. Holding the Glass by the Bowl
According to etiquette, a wine or champagne glass should only be held by the stem — no other way. If you hold it by the bowl, the wine will warm up quickly from the heat of your hands. You should hold the glass by the lower part of the stem, with two fingers — your thumb and index finger.
However, you can confidently hold a cognac glass by its bowl — that is perfectly fine.
4. Leaning Over Dessert
The same rule applies here as with soup: you should not lean over your dessert. Instead, sit up straight, take a teaspoon or dessert spoon, and bring it to your mouth. Soft cakes and creamy desserts like jelly, tiramisu, and panna cotta are usually eaten with a spoon. For pies, you’ll need a fork, and for meringue or shortbread cakes, a fork and a knife. Cookies, muffins, doughnuts, and small éclairs can be eaten with your hands.
5. Skimming Off the Coffee Foam
Coffee topped with milk foam should be drunk along with the foam — never scoop the foam off separately or stir it into the cup. A telltale sign that you’re doing it right is a milk mustache above your lip, which means everything is correct. You can gently blot the foamy ‘mustache’ with a napkin.
