American Restaurants

Going to an American restaurant for the first time was so different for me. Before going to Italy, I hadn't thought anything at all about chain restaurants, and how almost all of the restaurants around me are chain restaurants. Coming back and realizing that was really a shock to my system. In Italy, there were really no chain restaurants at all, except for McDonald's, but I never went in there at all. I loved how all of the restaurants were different; no two were the same. You could order the same meal in two different restaurants and they would come out and be completely different. If you go into two different Applebee's and order the same thing, they'll pretty much taste the same. There really isn't that much diversity with the food here. Chains take over most of the restaurants, and most of the smaller, family-owned restaurants are almost obsolete because they can't keep up with the prices and the competition of the chain restaurants.

The experience within the restaurant was even different. The waitress came up to us right away and asked us quickly what we wanted to eat. She seemed reluctant to offer us more time to decide what to eat. She was very intent on us ordering quickly. After we ordered and got our food, she asked us if we wanted dessert, and when we said no, she brought us our check. We hadn't even finished our meals yet! There wasn't really anyone in the restaurant, but it still felt like they were rushing us out. We paid the bill but then we just sat around and talked, but when the waitress walked passed us, I could tell that she was irritated that we were still there. I did not feel badly, however, because there was no rush for us to leave. The place was pretty empty, and we didn't have anything to do. Why should we leave? For the first time in a long time I felt like I was being rushed out of a place. It was so different from the atmosphere in Italy. You didn't always necessarily feel like people were bending over backwards for you, but I always felt welcomed and that the restaurants had a generally friendly atmosphere. I feel like for all of the talk that the United States has about being so service-friendly that it's more superficial and fake and more lip-service rather than genuine.

So on the whole, I prefer the dining experience in Italy more than the U.S., and that's one of the things about Italy I really miss.