According to a new study done in the UK, 60 per cent of people have been put off by their dining partner’s restaurant etiquette.
The top no-nos? Clicking your fingers to get a waiter’s attention, speaking with your mouth full and being too loud and raucous.
According to the poll of 1 500 adults by software partner to the hospitality industry Fourth, 11 per cent of Brits have been embarrassed by their partner’s behaviour in a restaurant, and 10 per cent have felt the need to apologise about their parents’ manners.
But the study revealed that many Brits have committed embarrassing faux-pas in restaurants – five per cent of people have complained to a waiter because their red wine was warm and the same number have mistakenly thought a finger bowl was clear soup.
Many people appear to believe the manners we were taught growing up need not apply any more, with 32 per cent of people saying they think some table etiquette rules are too old-fashioned.
Case in point: 39 per cent of Brits consider it acceptable to get your phone out at the dinner table provided you only do so once or twice.
25 per cent deem it acceptable to use your phone to look up an ingredient on the menu and 41 per cent say using the calculator function to split a bill is fine.
Bad news for the Instagrammers – only one in five people think uploading a snap of your meal to social media is acceptable.
Here are the top 10 restaurant faux pas:
1. Clicking your fingers for the waiter’s attention
2. Talking with your mouth full
3. Being too loud and raucous
4. Wiping hands on the tablecloth
5. Blowing your nose in a napkin
6. Letting children come and go as they please from the table
7. Licking a knife
8. Letting children listen to videos on a phone
9. Texting at the table
10. Answering/making a phone call
