Absolutely! It´s common in Germany to sit a little bit at your table after dinner. Normally we only have one seating, so it doesn´t matter how long you stay. To be honest most Germans were shocked, if they eperience the speed of an American service. So it´s nothing bad or good, it´s only different:)

Of course even in Germany theit is a difference between the usual (and expected) relative slow service and too slow service

From my perspective, I miss the brötchen, aufschnitt, käse and other delights found in most hotels in Germany. I guess it's time to go visit my sister in Germany.

Though being called "hon" in America is a nice part of the American breakfast.

In my perspective and experience, "walking out of a restaurant" implies having entered, been seated (or, at least, having sought service).

Sticking your head in the door for what's little more than a windshield survey is simply "shopping". Leaving doesn't amount to an actual "walk out", which comes in several categories, the ultimate of which is "Walking out without paying, even after a management threat to call the local constabulary".

As for picking an ethnic restaurant based solely upon the presence of patrons of matching ethnicity, hardly a "sure thing", based upon a half century of experience in ethnic corners of the Western World (not a few of which seemed to have ample Asian restaurants and a a few ethnic patrons to match). I'll never forget being taken to lunch at a London Mexican food joint (Another was paying and enthusiastic about his choice!). The apparently Mexican diners observed had to have arrived based on the "Only tortillas in town" theory. The same could be said for curry joints in Valetta (Well, it was 50 years ago!), where obviously the former Ottoman Empire had opened restaurants with South Asian chefs charged with getting revenge for the Turkish failure to capture the place 500 years earlier. What could be more ethnic than a pizza joint in Naples? While a few patrons looked to be Italian, most were sailors, and the pizza (as it occasionally does in Italy) looked and tasted as if it had been run over by a large garbage truck. Of course, the name above the door, "Pizzeria Lowenbrau", suggested a non-Italian ethnic connection. Fortunately, I've never encountered a Canadian ethnic restaurant. Can you imagine a vast Formica wilderness full of folks whinnying at the end of every phrase, while dining on limp french fries lathered in gravy? (Don't be giving me that maple syrup is Canadian crap, for the sophisticated know that it's really from Vermont, and as for codfish - when there were still more than a scattered few - Newfoundland was actually a Portuguese dependency).

or "Shug..."

Many, many years ago, my grandmother took my sister and me to a Bob's Big Boy.

Thick dust covered the fake flowers. A smooshed fly was stuck on the wall above me where I was seated. Spaghetti had been spilled on the floor and the booth I was seated in. Dirty napkins lay crumpled everywhere. This place was a pig sty!

My grandmother gathered my sister and me, and marched us toward the exit. Eating here was not an option. As we were leaving, we noticed a big sign, proudly announcing that the restaurant had won a cleanliness award.

My grandmother, with all the disgust she could muster, told the hostess, "You really should take that sign down."

The hostess smiled sweetly and responded, "We didn't win it for the inside, we won it for the outside."

I never stepped foot in a Bob's Big Boy again.

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cblaisd
Moderator, Dining Buzz

Yes, and more than once. In Cologne, DE I waited forever for some service after eating my sauerbraten, so I just walked. Recently in Hanoi, VN I thought the place was just too hot for comfort, so I moved out to the patio for my pizza.

Whenever I feel uncomfortable, I get up and go!

Plenty of times because of temp... if I walk into a restaurant or other place and it's too warm to sit comfortably, I will do a 180 and walk out without remorse. I'll even tell them why I'm leaving if someone gives me that quizzical look.

same. not looking to sweat into my food.

Talking of walking out of restaurants ( ;) ) Gordon Ramsay has walked out of one in his Kitchen Nightmares show.

Seems like after nearly one hundred episodes he's finally found someone more obnoxious than himself.

http://youtu.be/XQDtoHpAWhg

Note: The off-topic posts regarding the relative costs and value of breakfasts have been split into their own thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/dinin...reakfasts.html

cblaisd, Moderator, Dining Buzz

Holy guacamole.

I've never watched Kitchen Nightmares. I've always gotten the impression from trailers and commercials that Gordon Ramsay is a major jerk who thinks he's absolute god in a kitchen and treats his staff like dirt...

Yet in this clip, he was being reasonable and calm while the owners acted like loony tunes.

I might watch the show once in a while. But if I'm ever in Scottsdale, you can bet I won't be eating at that place!

YouTube is blocked for me at work, but it's a link to Amy's Baking Company?

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.1344121

I suppose the funniest thing of all is they spent a million bucks and watching the show all they seem to be serving is pizzas.

That's one expensive pizza joint.

If you think any of it is real.... You're a bit naive...
Everything is staged for the ratings, not a single thing is real.