How to dress for "upscale trendy" restaurant? - Page 2

New black Nudie jeans.


- B

Mate, seriously...

Ahh...I actually have some thoughts on this. I happen to work as a waiter at one of the best restaurants in Sydney, and my collegues and I are all professional enough to make any dude, no matter how well dressed, look like a douche in front of his date. So I'm glad you realise the importance of knowing how to order or conduct yourself in front of your waiter and your date.
1. Know your wines, but don't flaunt your wine knowledge. Chances are the waiter would know more about it than you. It's their job.
2. Don't take forever with the menu. It'll make you look like you have no idea.
3. When the waiter brings the wine to the table and offer you to try it, try it if you feel like it, but only if it's a bottle with a cork. You won't need to with screw caps as they're almost never off.
When you try it, FFS don't swirl it around like crazy, you don't want to spill it. When you give the go-ahead don't say the wine tastes good as you're not tasting it to see if it's good then you'll have it, you're tasting it to see if it's off. Chances are it's not, so just give the waiter a nod or a quick wink is what I usually do.

Last night I went out with my mate and his father to an Italian place and I know jack-all about Italian cuisine. So I didn't even bother to look at the menu and I just got the waitress to order an entree and a main for me, and got her to bring the most expensive bottle (safe in the knowledge they don't have a cellar list ) of riesling. What happened afterwards in a dark back alley close to home, you can click on the link a couple of posts up.

Do you steal their lunch money also? fucking bully.

Maybe something like this...very upscale, trendy and assertive as the devil : PS...note the sgian dubh and the blackthorn walking stick. You gotta respect weaponry as part of any trendy outfit.

Dude I was just trying to help.

When I hear "upscale trendy" I automatically think: blazer and cuffed, selvedge denim. I could be way off, though.

Navy suit, possibly button-down collar shirt (white or pink) and for god's sake BLACK SHOES.

I always see these bloody idiots walking around in brown shoes, that might be acceptable in the dominions and amongst the Italian metropolitan elite, but it certainly doesn't pass muster in reality.

What real restaurant does that to anyone in this economy?

It's best to dress appropriately, but unless you look like you have changed your oil and not showered since, they will take your money (unless they really have a strictly enforced dress code.)

This restaurant does not sound like it has a strict code.

Am sorry, but this is wrong on so many levels.

First, very few restaurants have waiters who have greater knowledge about wines than a reasonably informed wine enthusiast. At least in the US, it is not a pre-requisite to being hired and only the top tier restaurant will invest in educating their waiters on the wine list;

Second, a wink to indicate the wine is good?? Sorry, but in the US, a simple thank you and indication that the wine is good is a fine way of communicating. Certainly, the purpose of tasting is not to indicate whether the customer is likely to enjoy the wine, but indicating that is good is perfectly acceptable and far less open to ambiguity than a wink. Also, swirling to aerate is fine.

Third, you cannot order your own dishes in an Italian restaurant. If we were talking something relatively exotic, say Basque cuisne without the translations, ok - but Italian, really? You did not even indicate fish or veal, pasta or not? No wonder you got stuck with Mussels and fettuccine. p.s. the irony of asking the waitress to order for you and then counseling folk how to not look as if they have no idea when ordering is delicious.

Finally, a Riesling?? A high acid flowery wine typically running to sweet in the bottles that one finds in mid to low-brow restaurants to go with whatever random dishes the waitress may select? I do recognize that a Riesling can be versatile and hold up to spicier dishes (hence it is appreciated with spicier Chinese for example), but it is still an odd choice.

+1

I'm also not impressed with waiters who take pleasure in making people look bad, if many of them exist outside of sit-coms and movies.

You said it, its best to dress appropriately, or you can expect a few disapproving glances, not from the staff they have nothing to do with it. The glances will come from the customers, and who can blame them. They've gone through the trouble of dressing appropriately only to have some idiot wearing a baseball hat and t-shirt show up sitting next to them. They'll certainly take your money, but that doesnt mean your making a good impression.

Good point. I don't recommend going to any restaurant except maybe fast food and wearing your baseball cap and t-shirt while you eat. (I also don't put on a coat and tie just to eat out most of the time; if I happen to be wearing that, it's what I'll wear.)

You are right about not making a good impression by under-dressing when you eat in a nicer restaurant. Even a shirt and jeans can be either awful or great depending on what you pick, how it fits, if it's clean, etc.

Do you really care how the other customers are dressed? Is it any of your business? Better cancel that Carnival cruise you've been saving for:

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