In Ireland, restaurant culture is different from how it is in the United States. First of all, if you want to sit down somewhere for dinner, more often than not you have to call ahead and make a reservation. With no reservation, they won’t give you a wait time or put you on a list, they will just turn you away because they simply have no room. The reason for this is that they have no idea how long people will take to eat and they certainly won’t hurry them along to free up the table. It is not uncommon there for a meal to last two or more hours. During your meal, the server generally won’t come to the table until you look like you know what you’re ordering, and they won’t come over very many times during the meal unless they are called over. Finally, they absolutely will never bring the check until it is asked for. This is all in an effort to not rush customers along and to allow them to enjoy their meal and their company for as long as they wish.
At first, this was difficult to adjust to. It was irritating before we knew we had to make a reservation when we would be turned away when there were no tables, we couldn’t understand why the waiters wouldn’t come to the table to check on things, and it always took forever to get the check to the table. After several weeks, however, we started to understand why that was happening and learned the tricks to combat it. Then, after we had been there for a good while, we started to prefer that way of eating out to how it is done in the states. We were never rushed, and we got to fully enjoy our time with each other without worrying about holding up a table. People who grew up in Ireland would never blink twice at this restaurant experience. It is normal for them to have to make a reservation, call servers over, ask for checks, and sit at dinner for two hours. They would probably be shocked at how people are rushed through their meals in America.
This initial irritation, that eventually turned into acceptance, that then turned to preference, taught me to not judge something different from what I’m used to so quickly. I did not like it at first and it was a full-blown inconvenience. At that point, I didn’t yet see the benefits to each of the differences in their restaurant culture when I was comparing them to mine. That was another lesson I learned- do not compare. They more comparisons that are made, the more difficult it will be to adjust to something new. It is better to just accept the situation as it is and try and see the why behind it all. When I started doing that, it made my time in Ireland even more incredible than it already was- and it was already pretty great.