What are the main rules of the restaurant etiquette?

Do you know when you put your tableware on the plate you give different signs to the waiter? Sometimes happened to you that you went away for a while in the restaurant. Then you returned to a table but you found out that the plate with an unfinished dish was taken away. You shouldn’t be indignant and make a claim to the waiter at once. It were your sighs that your lunch is finished and it is possible to carry away dirty ware.

How to give to the waiter a tableware sign

Now it is necessary to master a sign language used at restaurants. These signs can differ a little depending on the country of a residence.

I’m still eating

If during meal you wanted to take a rest, release a few hands, to talk to the neighbor, put a knife and a fork so that they handles leaned on a table, and opposite tips, having slightly developed them from themselves, on edge of a plate, a fork – at the left, a knife – on the right. If you don’t use a knife, the fork should be put in the same way on the right side. In this case, the waiter won’t ask you, whether you have  already finished a meal or not.

If you need to leave the hall for more long time, use other sign. Put a knife with a fork on a plate, having crossed them. At this edge of a knife looks to the left side, and fork teeth to the right. Such arrangement of the cutlery on a plate tells to the waiter that the food hasn’t finished yet and the ware shouldn’t be carried away.

You remember this sign especially when you visit European countries. There these rules are followed very strictly. Having put unintentionally cutlery in such a way, you can detain change of dishes on a table. But on the contrary you wait for it.

The meal is over

You can give a sign to the waiter that you stopped eating and your ware can be taken away. You shouldn’t put used napkins into plates and move them out of yourself. Simply put a fork with a knife in parallel to each other with handles to the right. The knife blade has to look at you and fork teeth to be up. It is worth to put a fork and a spoon after a dessert in the same way.

First meal is always served in soup plates put on small plates. If you are in Russian restaurant so it is possible to leave a spoon in a soup plate after finishing meal. But it also means you’re still eating. In Europe when the soup is already eaten,  the spoon should be taken out and put on the lower plate.

The same is when you eat salads and desserts. Until you stopped eating, put a knife and a fork with their tips on its edge. After finish you meal put cutlery parallel on the plate. If the ware allows it is possible to leave a spoon directly in a vase.

A little about East etiquette

How to tell to the waiter at the Chinese restaurant that it is time to change the dish? It is enough to put sticks across a plate sharp ends to the left. In Japanese restaurant it is impossible to act so. Sticks must be put on a special rectangular support with ends up both during the meal and after it.

Language of a fabric napkin

It is possible to give some signals by means of a fabric napkin too. If you decided to leave for some time so put it on a chair. When you are back so fold in double and place again on your  knees. If you leave a restaurant put a napkin to the left of a plate having curtailed it the used party inside. Thereby you report that you go home and it is possible to clear the table. Never put fabric napkins on dirty plates and don’t try to give them original forms.