A discussion has begun in Montreal newspapers as to how the fine dining scene can be prevented from sliding into the horrible state so many North American restaurants of all price ranges are experiencing. Here are the questions that are being asked:
In an effort to be cutting back on waste, should customers be charged for bread?
What we should be asking instead of this meaningless question is why bread and butter even in good restaurants are always so horrible. I mean, salted butter! Bleh, brr, eww, barf, vomit. And then people wonder why they grow obese and sick. What do they expect if even butter is salted! What next? Salted apples? I would definitely pay extra just to see a non-disgusting piece of bread in an American restaurant, In Montreal, you can sometimes get good butter in restaurants but good bread of the kind you get anywhere in Western Europe, never. I will never forget this ultra-fancy restaurant visited by former Prime Ministers and such that served us these disgusting little bread rolls that never go stale or spoil. The ones that have a longer lifespan than I do because of how artificial they are.
Is the number of people taking pictures of their food in restaurants these days turning into a problem?
Only for bad restaurateurs who are afraid customers will inform the world of their sucky food.
Is it bad manners to request a doggy bag?
Again, the problem is badly stated. The real issue here is that portions you get served in the US are ridiculously huge. The size always comes at the expense of quality. As my sister told me after her recent trip to Vermont, “You know that I love to eat. But when I order a steak, I’m not prepared for the waiter to place an entire cow in front of me.” Remember, we don’t go to fast-food joints. We are talking about fairly expensive places here. Also, I hate the expression “doggy bag.” How disgusting is it? Why not just ask for a box?
Is there a dress code in upscale restaurants these days?
Sadly, almost never. People in North America are mostly unaware of the art of living and hate their bodies. This is why the food is unhealthy and the way most people dress is an exercise in self-hatred.
Should the tip be included in the bill?
I couldn’t care less because I’m not cheap and always leave very good tips. The whole idea of punishing waiters for not being perfect is so miserly as to be embarrassing.
Can customers ask that the music be turned down?
I hate restaurants that turn up the volume of the music to the point where patrons have to raise their voices to speak. Restaurants only do that when they are floundering, so this is a mark of a place on the verge of going broke. They turn up the music in hopes that customers will eat faster and leave, and then more people can be seated. If a restaurant does this, it means there is a lot of corner-cutting going on. Beware of loud-music places! They probably serve stuff that has been reheated in a microwave.
Should there be calorie counts on menus?
No, because that immediately marks a restaurant as a place for very weird people.
Do kids belong in high-end restaurants?
Kids and adults who can behave quietly and politely belong anywhere they want to be present. It is very annoying that this question is asked about kids but not about adults who get stupidly drunk and act in disorderly and threatening way or about adults who bray like horses with no regard for the auditory experiences of others.
Does a good restaurant always have a sommelier in the house?
I don’t care because I don’t understand wines but N. does and he would definitely appreciate seeing more people in restaurants than understand what he is trying to tell them.
This wasn’t asked so I will ask the question myself: What is your greatest restaurant-related dream?
Less salt in everything! American food is drowning in salt, even in very expensive restaurants! This is nothing but a trick to make people pay for more drinks but it kills the taste of everything. I still can’t get over this amazing risotto I ate in Madrid last month that contained absolutely no salt. The cheese gave it all the saltiness it needed, so why would anybody add any more salt? As a result, this mushroom risotto was practically breathing. Compare it to any North American risotto that arrives at the table slaughtered because of how much salt it has.
Clarissa's Blog 
I guess it depends where in the United States one lives. In Northern Virginia there are many world class restaurants, many serving top quality Mediterranean, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese cuisine. But this is a wealthy area of well over 1 million inhabitants. So the market is there. If one lives in a smaller, less well-off community, well away from the nation’s capital and well away from NYC, inevitably cuisine will be more restricted. That is life.
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Ive been all over the country. And lived for years next to NYC. The food was just as bad as everywhere.This is not a regional issue.
I’m a foodie, so I go to very expensive places. But it’s the same story everywhere : salt, salt, and more salt.
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And why there’s so much salt? (I know the answer!)
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David, I don’t want the name of the place where I live or my university to appear here in order to avoid people getting on the blog through Google searches. The blog is popular 🙂 🙂 and it always rises high in Google searches.
So let’s call it “the place that shall not be named” or PSNBN. 🙂
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Oh, sorry. I thought that this information was elsewhere in the blog.
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It’s not a small/average town in the Midwest.
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https://clarissasblog.com/2010/11/25/snow-in-edwardsville/
For the record…
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The blog has become very popular since then. This is the price of popularity. 🙂
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I had a terrible meal in a French restaurant once. It was a colonial sort, in Vanuatu, and everybody there was French. In the table behind us were a group of regulars where one of the older women was incontinent or something. As I recall there was some issue whereby she had to be ushered to the toilets tout ‘ suite. She moaned very loudly about her problems prior to this and kept regurgitating her food.
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As always you are completely right. I wonder, however, which restaurants in Montreal you visited that served such poor-quality bread. Over all bread is quite good there.
Don’t you find that food contains more salt in Canada than in the US? I have been living in both countries 50/50 in the last three years of my life and food in the US definitively contains less salt than in Canada.
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Really??? I mean, they are both salty, but the US is the worst. Even in super expensive restaurants.
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I think that you and I go to different restaurants and buy different products at the grocery store. I am ready to bet that food is saltier in Canada.
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OK. we’ll probably have to involve the experts. 🙂 🙂
Sister, are you around? Please share you opinion.
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@Ol: please let me where you eat in the States and I will put it on my list next time I go! There are of course exceptions and gourmet restaurants that provide high quality cuisine, but they are few and far in between (hello, Modern in New York!).
We spent last week-end in Vermont (Jay Peak ski resort) and the food was atrociously unhealthy. It’s important to mention that I am no health freak and enjoy large portions and often fatty meals. On the other hand though I do like it when vegetables taste like vegetables and fruit tastes like fruit. The issue of oversalting is of course also overwhelming. I literally put on weight every time I go to the States, even though I eat out almost daily at home.
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” It’s important to mention that I am no health freak and enjoy large portions and often fatty meals.”
– Very true. We have very similar eating patterns.
“On the other hand though I do like it when vegetables taste like vegetables and fruit tastes like fruit. ”
– Yes.
” I literally put on weight every time I go to the States, even though I eat out almost daily at home.”
– Very true.
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I was only talking about salt. I often find that food is less salty in the US, which does not mean more tasteful or healthier. My tastebuds may be mistaken.
It is just that the food that I have bought at the grocery store in the US in the last 3 years has always seemed less salty than the food I have bought in Canada.
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Do you mean raw food or cooked food from the grocery store?
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I meant cooked/processed food from the grocery store. Things like cheese, potato chips, or even canned tomatoes. These things always seem super salty in Canada.
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Ah, I see! We have been talking about different things. 🙂 🙂
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Also, I hate the expression “doggy bag.” How disgusting is it? Why not just ask for a box?
There was a time when it was considered embarrassing to ask to take home your leftover food from a restaurant. The idea that you were taking it to feed your dog apparently ameliorated the embarrassment.
There is no proper one size-fits-all portion size. My 91 year old mother eats far less at any meal than I do.
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In any case, nobody should eat the kind of portions that normally are served.
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Humm, this an USA problem. In Québec, there are many bourgeois restaurants where portions are reasonable. But at Québec City, I knew a restaurant called “La table du Roi” where portions were ridiculously small for high prices and bad food. It closed.
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This is making me want to re-start the restaurant review portion of my blog! Victoria has the most restaurants per capita in Canada and the second most in North America, and we’ve got a fairly decent selection here. Pub-style food is of course, ubiquitous, and that’s ridiculously salty and monotonous, but if you look hard, there’s usually hidden treasures, like Le Petit Dakar (Senegalese cuisine) and the Spice Jammer (South African Indian cuisine). I wish we had some Ethiopian and Portuguese food though, and a decent Japanese place that didn’t charge a fortune.
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That was a really great part of your blog. I love reading about restaurants.
I know that Victoria must have really good restaurants. My analyst (who is in Victoria) once started giving me a passionate account of Victoria’s restaurant scene in the midst of a session. 🙂 🙂 Of course, he then comped me the time spent doing that but it was fun. 🙂
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Good food is always a topic of great discussion!
Which reminds me, I actually had a really terrific meal recently at Sizzling Tandoor Restaurant, I’ll write about that… Rose lassi is the perfect topic for beginning summer blogging. 🙂
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Why have I never tried rose lassi? Life is passing me by. . . 🙂
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“In an effort to be cutting back on waste, should customers be charged for bread?”
They should charge for high quality bread.
“Is the number of people taking pictures of their food in restaurants these days turning into a problem?”
I recall your answer.
“Is it bad manners to request a doggy bag?”
No, but gargantuous portions are not for high profile restaurants.
“Is there a dress code in upscale restaurants these days?”
I don’t know such non-dress code upscale restaurants in Québec (and if there’s one of them, this is not an upscale restaurant, this is only a FAMILY JOINT!), and that’s one of the reasons why I never go there.
“Should the tip be included in the bill?”
No, because this is unjust against good waiters and because this is a way to exploit more and to tax more those working poors. I almost always give great tips, except when the waiter does a very bad job. Taxing tips is a bad way to tax.
“Can customers ask that the music be turned down?”
I don’t know such high volume music upscale restaurants in Québec, and if there’s one of them, this is not an upscale restaurant, those are bourgeois’ DISCO-SALOONS!
“Should there be calorie counts on menus?”
I’m not interested by that but I’m not against more informations. No big issue here.
“Do kids belong in high-end restaurants?”
YES! Why they ask this question? Misogynistic drug-drunked out assholes men don’t belong there.
“Does a good restaurant always have a sommelier in the house?”
YES. An upscale restaurant MUST have a sommelier.
“This wasn’t asked so I will ask the question myself: What is your greatest restaurant-related dream?”
I agree with your less salt thing. Leave costumers decide how much salt they want and fire all men restaurants’ workers! 😉
Okay, call me a misogynist! 😉
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Other than your dislike of male waiters (???) and the tip question, I think we agree on everything.
And I won’t call you anything because I can see through your epatage. (I’m not spelling it right, I know).
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For other readers, I was not serious concerning the firing of men waiters. 😉
Where you disagree about tips?
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Bread is terrible & overly salted for the same reason yogurt in Indian restaurants here is offputtingly sour — they are considered “freebies” so they’re not going to put much effort into making either. Most bread is bought commercially and not made on premises so it’s made to last. Real bread of any kind takes effort and time and the commercial stuff can’t hold a candle to it. However most people are removed from the knowledge of what that takes, (I make my own yogurt, and I know how to make flatbreads) so I’m sure that’s why most don’t bother.
As for over-salting everything: salt is the lazy chef’s way to add flavor, and hide the terrible quality of many ingredients. Good spices are expensive.
Many places don’t even make desserts on the premises either.
I tip well, but I’m not a bonanza for the restaurant because I don’t drink much, I’m increasingly picky about desserts and I don’t usually order appetizers because I find I can fill up on them and I came to eat a meal, not have difficulty moving after I eat.
“Is there a dress code in upscale restaurants these days?
Sadly, almost never. People in North America are mostly unaware of the art of living and hate their bodies. This is why the food is unhealthy and the way most people dress is an exercise in self-hatred.”
-I laughed and laughed on reading this. I live in a tourist area and people dress like schlumps. Some people will have conspicuous manicures and pedicures but look terrible otherwise. I can predict the menu and what will be good within five minutes for most places. I am very bored with food in restaurants in general.
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I am very bored with food in restaurants in general.
Dunno. My favorite food is anything I didn’t have to cook myself.
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.js
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