Diners name their top 10 restaurant faux pas

Diners have listed over-attentive waiters and double tipping as their two biggest gripes when eating out, claiming such behaviour can ruin a meal.​

Readers of the Good Food Guide named the two faux pas as more annoying than receiving small portions or being charged for tap water in a list of the top 10 cardinal sins restaurants commit that can make a meal disastrous.

Elizabeth Carter, editor of the Good Food Guide, said restaurants are making little mistakes that can often be rectified.

“Dining out is usually an enjoyable experience, but sometimes a visit to a restaurant is memorable for the wrong reason, like an annoying waiter or a problem with the bill. Restaurateurs looking to raise their game this year could do a lot worse than listen to their customers’ pet hates.”

One such annoyance is the inclusion of out-of-season ingredients on a menu, highlighting diners’ changing demand for local and seasonal food. Diners also list open salt and pepper bowls as a major gripe, emphasizing their awareness of health and safety issues.

Also considered as restaurant no-nos are menus written in undecipherable foreign languages, waiters’ over-zealous ambition to turn tables, and hidden charges for items such as bread and petit fours.