this is a very highly requested video so let's talk about the things elegant women never do
at restaurants dining out is truly an all-encompassing experience a place where you get
to curb your hunger whilst being served in often glamorous elegant settings the place where you can
celebrate anniversaries even get proposed to or indulge in the perfect date night with your better
half or with your friends and a place where you can improve your palettes however with all things
there is a protocol that should be followed in the form of etiquette if you get it wrong you can risk
embarrassing yourself and looking amateur and this is not what we want is it in today's video
we're going to explore 10 things elegant women never do at restaurants and i mean never whether
you're indulging in a gastronomic experience or having your weekly tree tattoo your local pizaria
avoid doing these things at all costs my lovely elegant ladies welcome back to another video my
name is vivienne i am the founder of woman of elegance which is a platform that i have created
to help women globally become the most elegant sophisticated and classy women that they can be
like i said this video comes highly requested so without further ado let's get straight into it
point number one elegant women never complain about the price if i'm to be honest if it's one
thing i absolutely detest in my whole social existence is when guests complain about the
price of food at a restaurant even before the age of the internet it would have been appropriate
to call a restaurant and ask about the average price of food per person now in the information
age you have no reason to complain about the food at a restaurant and this is because
most dining institutions have a menu online that you can download to give you exact prices
this will enable you to see whether it fits into your budget or not
if it doesn't fit into your budget it is absolutely okay to decline an invitation
because it will be incredibly awkward to turn up to a restaurant not having enough money
check that an unexpected direct debit hasn't inadvertently cleared your account
ensure that you're comfortable paying for the bill and this includes service charge please do not
attend a classy fine dining establishment not expecting to pay a pretty penny point number two
elegant women never refuse to tip now let's talk briefly about tipping because this is a practice
that is common in many parts of the world in the uk tipping is not a prerequisite however it is
recommended in the united states and in many other parts of the world tipping is the norm
as a classy woman who is intentional in all that she does it is essential you observe and respect
the customs of the country you are in so this means that it is bad manners not to pay the
service charge just because you don't want to include the price of the service charge when
ascertaining the cost of your portion of the bill to give you an idea of how much you'll be expected
to pay at the end however if you genuinely felt that the service or the food was subpar
please relay this information to the manager and they will most likely adjust the bill accordingly
we'll go into this in a lot more depth later point number three
elegant women never bring outside food and wine in short this just shows that you lack refinement and
your uncouth it is insulting to the chefs and it really is a nuisance there is only one exception
to this rule if the restaurant stipulates that you can bring your own bottle and they usually will
charge you a corkage fee for this this usually is an option when a restaurant does not have a
license to sell alcohol however if the restaurant serves alcohol never do this if you bring your own
food even if it's just a small snack you can risk embarrassing yourself and this really absorbs you
of any class management may even ask you to leave as well elegant women simply would not subject
themselves to such embarrassments point number four elegant women never treat waiters and other
staff like subordinates i have consistently spoken about elegance really being reflected
in the way that you behave towards others and how you communicate with people no matter how
well presented you are aesthetically this will be negated if you treat others with a lack of
respect if you talk to wait staff and others such as cleaners or those working in the cloakroom with
a lack of respect but speak to the somalia for example with high regard then this just shows
that you're prejudiced every single employee is there to ensure you have an enjoyable experience
working in a restaurant is by no means easy so please do not be arrogant towards the staff
elegant ladies treats everyone with respect and dignity irrespective of their position point
number five elegant women never interrogate the waiting staff now picture this scenario a customer
asked the waiter a question about a particular item on the menu and the waiter goes on to
explain about it in some detail the customer now starts to ask about the origin of the ingredient
whether it contains gluten what the approximate calorie count is whether the item is organic how
much sugar it contains whether it contains alcohol what time the food was prepared whether the salmon
was caught in the norwegian fields blah blah blah the list goes on ladies give us a break
of course some of the questions are absolutely relevant if you're intolerant to gluten or if
you abstain from alcohol then these are things that you must know however if you ask excessive
and irrelevant questions then you will just start being a pest and nobody wants to deal with that
well with that being said this brings me nicely onto the next point points number six
elegant women do not fail to communicate dietary restrictions carefully and early
how would an elegant lady deal with such a situation let's say you have some intolerances
or you're allergic to certain foods how would you deal with that situation well most fine
dining establishments ask you to state if you have any dietary requirements or intolerances
beforehand this is your opportunity to explain what they are so that the chefs can accommodate
these requests if you do this on the day you risk being served ice cubes and nothing else if this
is a casual establishment then you need to be discerning and look at the menu beforehand and
even call to ask and make sure restaurants run on a precise schedule and you risk disrupting
this and drawing unwanted attention to yourself if you start to interrogate the waiting staff about
your intolerances and what the food consists of and it just becomes annoying points number
seven elegant women do not do the servers jobs for them now i don't mean cleaning up for them
or taking the plates into the kitchen for them i mean things like helping the waiter place the
napkin on your lap or taking the plate out of his hands prematurely or even pulling out the chair
for yourself when he's trying to do this you may think you're being kind and caring by doing this
but this actually causes some embarrassment to the staff you may say to yourself oh this is a
little bit pedantic isn't it the thing is you have to understand is that the waiters are there to do
this job and they've been trained to do so and if you start doing it for them it makes them
look incompetent so kudos to you for being kind but avoid doing this they are there to serve you
and make the experience as seamless and elegant as possible point number eight elegant women do not
display bill antics so you've finished your meal and you've engaged in some fulfilling conversation
and the evening is drawing to a close the bill arrives and it's placed in the hands of your host
assuming this is a group dinner and not a two-party date what happens now i am going
to make it absolutely clear about the things you should never do when it comes to paying the bill
the first point i mentioned the importance of knowing the approximate total spend of the
restaurant before going however there are certain things you should refrain from doing when it comes
to paying your bill the first point is that don't insist on paying the exact share when splitting
your bill if you're with a group of friends the most seamless and fuss-free solution to adopt is
to split the bill evenly between you i know it's tempting to pick out the things that you purchased
and pay for those but this is not elegant it's disorderly it's fussy and it takes too much time
can you imagine sitting at the table with your calculators out and trying to add up
the cost of the sea bass and the pea soup and the profiteroles it's just a little bit sloppy however
there is one exception to this if the member of the party purchased 100 grams of beluga caviar or
a whole lobster for example or some item that substantially varies in price to the other
items on the menu then this is only right that the person pays for this however if you've all
agreed to partake in indulging in the caviar and this can be a tacit understanding you may not have
agreed to share it but if you've equally enjoyed the cavea for example then you must contribute
towards the bill you can't have some of the caveat and not pay for it because you didn't order
it that's not how it works secondly let's talk briefly about who should pay for a meal on a date
i am all for chivalry so i do think that the gentleman should pick up the bill on the date
but this is definitely a point of contention for example in scandinavian countries women and men
tend to go 50-50 they are very big on equality there however in some asian and african cultures
the men tend to pay i am generalizing here but there is a pattern and there
is a general consensus that this is the case in most countries on the other hand
the exception to the rule here is if it's a business lunch or dinner you should always
pick up the bill when you're taking a client to a restaurant or any entertainment establishment
always point number nine elegant women are never impolite when they are airing their dislikes
for most of us there have been times when we've eaten at a restaurant and the food was subpar or a
dish that you had was quite disgusting if you were genuinely unhappy with the service or the food
then please discreetly tell the waiter who is likely to inform the manager
and offer some kind of compensation for falling shorts ladies never demand a discount or threaten
to leave a bad review because this is in bad taste in the uk as i've reiterated previously
service charge is in fact optional it is good practice to pay this however if the
food or the service was diabolical then you can choose not to pay it but please explain
why you don't want to pay usually if you've complained about something then management will
ordinarily remove this from the bill whatever you choose to do always exercise discretion tact and
class never ever be rude or make a huge fuss point number 10 elegant women never ask for a toothpick
and remove food from their teeth at the table this is an absolute no no no don't ever do this
if at the end of a meal you find some annoying bits of food in between your teeth then go to
the restroom and remove it make sure you bring some dental floss with you or an incidental brush
but not a toothpick toothpicks are quite unrefined and they're not really effective in actual fact
don't ever ask for a toothpick especially at a fine dining establishment so next time you
go to a restaurant please remember these tips and put them into practice dining etiquette is
such an easy way to show how elegant you are but it's also a sure fire way to highlight
a lack of refinement ladies thank you so much for watching my video and until next time bye for now