Depends on the restaurant, indeed! At a run-of-the-mill chain restaurant it wouldn't look right. But at a finer, more personal restaurant where the host wants to explore your tastes and make appropriate food and wine recommendations (or alterations to menu items ad lib.), and where taking your order becomes a non-superficial conversation instead, the experience can be mind-blowing. Example: Dom's in Boston's North End. It's been around for years, the host sits down with you patiently and helps you customize your meal, you feast and swill, and at the last you and your guests leave mightily fulfilled and cared for.