Just a heads up in case you're lucky enough to find yourself on the South Island of New Zealand at mealtime.

RadioGuy and I stayed in a few small/medium towns and ate at the sort of informal places the locals visited. Our first several dinners, the service seemed *really* slow (long wait to be seated, long wait for menus, long wait for meals, long wait for offer of dessert/coffee). We were getting a bit irritated until the next evening when I remembered the classic travel advice and looked at what the locals were doing. They arrived (a group of friends, a family with school-age children, etc) and hung around the bar area for a while, talking to each other. Then they were seated (when the hostess got to it) and talked to each other. Eventually menu were brought and they spent some time deciding. And talking to each other. Eventually (to me it was excruciatingly slow) the waitress took an order. But they passed the time chatting. And after a short eternity, food arrived and they enjoyed that too.

Bottom line (my theory - anyone from NZ welcome to contradict me) was that people viewed going to dinner with their family or friends as the evening's entertainment. They weren't rushing home to watch the (virtually non-existent) NZ television programming, they were having An Evening Out and enjoying their time together. Once we knew what to expect and did the same, it was quite enjoyable. (We only had a few more evenings there, so my data is limited.)

I don't recommend this as a universal pattern (in the US or Australia I would complain if I thought the service was slow) but as a reminder of different local customs.