Top 3 differences between restaurants in China and the USA
There are huge differences between restaurants in China and those in the USA.
- Menu
In the USA, menus are small, one or two slices of paper, there are little entries on it. Usually, there are no pictures on it. As a foreigner, I always have trouble understanding the menu. I recite SAT words and TOEFL words, but food words are not there. Every time I make an order, it is like just randomly chooses from the menu.
The menus in China restaurants are like thick books. Usually, they have covers. Almost every entry have a picture with it. Thus on one page, there are only two to four entries. This kind of menu is clear, but hard to quickly go through.
2. Service
There are no tips in China. In most restaurants, customers don’t need to pay the service fees, excepts few advanced restaurants. If customers need help, they need to raise their hands or shout out to get waiters’ attention. If no one notices the customer, he needs to stand up to get the waiters or finish his needs by himself. Waiters in China almost never go to customers’ tables by themselves to ask if they need help.
In the USA, the service is totally different. Waiters will come to the customer roughly every 15 minutes. If customers need the service, it is rude to raise their hands up or shout out to get the waiters. Customers can talk about the entries with the waiters. Waiters totally understand what is on the menu. Usually, the service in the USA is more detailed. Last time, I accidentally overturned the sauce dish. The waiters immediately come up and help wipe the dropped sauce.
3. Payment
In China, payment is fast. When a customer asks the check, waiters will give him the check and a QR-code. The customers just need to scan the QR-code to pay the money. Sometimes, customers can make the payment on the online platform and type the amount of the bill.
In the USA, it is more complicated. Customers need to wait for the waiters first. Then waiters will help customers to get their checks. Then customers put their cards or cash into the check wait for the waiters taking the check. Then waiters will use the cards to finish the payment and take them back to customers. Finally, customers sign and pay for tips. Now, they are free to leave. It is way more complicated than that in China. Sometimes, there are restaurants don’t receive cards.
