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Q: Why do fuwuyuans only give out one menu at tables?
Never had that problem. Unless you are in a fairly fancy restaurant inside a private room. Then the tradition is to give one menu to the most senior person in the room who will normally decide what everyone is eating.
Personal funny menu story:
I was in China for only a couple of months when I took my wife and her mother to a western restaurant, aptly named "Western Restaurant". When we arrived the waitress handed a menu to my wife and her mother. Then she handed me another menu that was in English.
"Hot damn", I thought. I can actually order food like a grown-up for a change. So when the waitress came back she asked what I wanted and I pointed to the dish in the menu. She shook her head and said they didn't have it.
Undaunted, I pointed at another choice and received the same reply. This went on for several more dishes. Finally, out of frustration, I asked, "What in this menu do you have?"
The waitress replied (with an absolute straight face), "Nothing. That isn't our menu."
Stunned, I replied "If this isn't your menu, why did you give it to me?"
Without blinking she said, "Because it is in English."
She won. I was unable to think of anything else to say.
thedude:
LMAO....that's too funny. I usually go to restaurants with pictures in the menu....even with Chinese text, I can usually figure out what I want.
Ammia:
Haha, she gave you a toy to play with while the grown-ups ordered!
Xpat.John:
True, it was a toy for me to play with. The funniest part was how the waitress acted as how the whole situation was perfectly normal. She actually seemed surprised by my reaction.
Shining_brow:
It doesn't compete, but it's sort of similar... I went to 3 restaurants, asking "Ni you yingwen caidan ma?" (do you have an English menu?"). Then (after 3 no's), I went to another one, asked the same, they said 'you!' - way cool :) I went in, sat down, and was given a menu... in Chinese. I asked for the English bit, and was told "It's got pictures"... so I walked out. John - yours is much funnier!
HugAPanda:
lmfao.. at least she didn't give you crayons and an activity mat
tmestep8:
Haha, that's in the competition for best China story ever.
andrwhermison:
Interesting! Is it real? I don't know much about Chinese culture and tradition so I can't give a sensible answer of it but I'm very curious to know the fact. Hope your conversation will give me a clear concept of this restaurant rule. Thanks! http://www.cheapmyhosting.com/
My suggestion is that according to Chinese manners, it's the host who normally chooses the dishes for all the guests.
Therefore, only the host would need the menu, the guests won't.
thedude:
This I find is true....and when I take my friends out for dinner, they always say no at first when I hand them the menu after choosing a couple of dishes and say pick what you want....why?
Sangoku:
thedude, I presume you are referring to the situation when you invite Chinese friends, isn't it, as Western people won't act like that. Since you invite them, you're therefore the host. As a host, you must make your guests feel welcome and make sure there are enough dishes on the table that they feel satisfied. So, they will let you order all the dishes and won't interfere with your choices. Then, they will just look at the dishes you ordered, and between themselves speak what they think about your order : are you a cheap host, a good one, etc. Basically, when you invite Chinese people, you will always have among everything some dishes with fish, seafood (crab, etc) because they are the most expensive ones in a restaurant. Oh yes.....inviting a Chinese to eat is not enough, you have also to make sure that she/he gets expensive dishes on the table ;)
If it wasn't so ridiculously funny, it would border on offensive, wait now...... I'm not that soft to not see the humour here but the fact of the matter is, she thought it was .......what the hell was she thinking?
They will only give out one menu if there is only one person to give it to. If there are two or more people they usually give out only 2 menus. Some restaurants have separate drink menus so you might get lucky and get two different menus if it's just you by yourself or if there are 2 or more people with you, you could expect to get 4 menus which would be 2 drink menus and 2 regular menus.
