Why service a meal in a restaurant need procedures?

Question

Why service a meal in a restaurant need procedures?

Answer 1

Some of the formalities or procedures used in fine dining are intended to make the customer's dining experience more pleasant, sometimes in subtle ways. An example:

A common rule is that you serve from the left, and remove plates from the right. An exception to this is that you would serve soup from the right. Why?

Most people are right-handed. If you try and bring a plate onto the table from the diner's right-hand side, you risk having to maneuver it around their moving hand. They may be using the hand to gesture or rest their head. Serving it to their left side eliminates the potential traffic jam.

Why is soup an exception? Carrying soup without slopping it around the bowl takes some coordination. Since most servers are right-handed, it makes sense that they would have the most control over the plate and bowl if they use their right hand to serve it. It's considered bad form in service if you  tilt or spill the soup on a customer.

There are many other examples of subtleties of service to enhance a diner's experience – the next time you're dining out in a nice place, pay extra attention to how you're being served. You might be surprised at the level of detail being observed that you weren't aware of!

Answer 2

Fine dining restaurants can serve 3, 4, 5, 6 or more courses at each table.  The most important thing is to antisipate your every need in the least invasive way. There's many protocal procedures that many people never notice, ( that is the general rule )Fresh silverware between all courses, refills, refreshed napkins & settings if you step away from the table,all the ladies served or cleared first,( unless instructed otherwise by the host or hostess ).  Once all the orders are taken ( food, wine, drinks ) there shouldn.t be any ?'s from the lead waiter or captain from there on except fresh ground pepper, fresh grated cheese, would you like another bottle of wine,may i get you another drink, excuse me or may I, other than that ( as a server ) speak when spoken to. There's many more procedures that you''ll never notice unless you want to ignore your guests ( so to speak ) to take notice. All of the restaurant staff should be on the same page ( so to speak ) & if so, no one will intrude on your dining experience. The most important thing is to serve excellent food & spirits with excellent service.