Eating at restaurants in the United States: diners, fast food and the customs to know

You can eat anything at any hour in the United States, from a burger at the counter of a Route 66 diner to fine dining in New York. Yet the habits differ from ours: you’re shown to your table, your glass is refilled without asking, the bill arrives before dessert.

Here’s the instruction manual.

The types of restaurant

Type	How it works	Budget per person
Fast food	Order at the counter, at a kiosk or at the drive-through	$10 to $16
Fast casual (Chipotle, Panera, Shake Shack)	Order at the counter, dishes prepared in front of you	$14 to $20
Diner	Table service, simple food at any hour, bottomless coffee	$15 to $25
Standard restaurant	Table service, tip expected	$30 to $50, tax and tip included
Steakhouse, well-known restaurant	Booking advised	$70 and up
Food truck, food hall	Order at the window	$10 to $18

How a meal unfolds

Arriving. Wait at the entrance: a “Please wait to be seated” sign means you’ll be shown to a table. “Seat yourself” means you choose your own. If there’s a wait, your name is taken and you’re called, sometimes by text message.

The server introduces themselves by first name, and straight away brings iced water, free of charge. You can stick to that without seeming stingy.

Drinks. Soft drinks, iced tea and filter coffee come with free refills in most restaurants. The server tops you up without being asked.

Ordering. Expect a string of questions: how you want it cooked, the side dish, the salad dressing, the type of bread. An entrée, on an American menu, is the main course. Starters are called appetizers or starters.

During the meal, the server comes back to ask whether everything is all right. It isn’t to hurry you: it’s their job, and their tip depends on it.

The bill (the check) often arrives without your asking, sometimes before you’ve finished your main course. It isn’t rude: you can stay. You pay at the table, and add the tip.

The bill: what you really pay

A dish listed at 20 dollars costs about 26 dollars once tax (0 to 10% depending on the place) and the tip (18 to 20%) are added.

The tip isn’t a bonus: it makes up most of the server’s income. We explain the amounts, the slip to fill in and the traps of the payment terminals in our guide to tipping.

Portions and the doggy bag

Portions are big, sometimes enormous. A few habits to adopt:

• Sharing a dish is common. Some restaurants charge a few dollars for the extra plate.
• Taking leftovers away is perfectly normal. Ask for “a box, please” or “a to-go box”: nobody says doggy bag any more. With the motel’s fridge and microwave, that’s the next day’s meal.
• Side dishes (sides) are sometimes enough to make a meal.

Breakfast, an institution

It’s the meal not to miss in a diner. You’ll find eggs with bacon or sausages, grated potatoes (hash browns), pancakes, waffles, French toast.

For the eggs, you’ll be asked how you want them:

• Sunny side up: fried, with a runny yolk.
• Over easy / over medium / over hard: flipped, with the yolk more or less cooked.
• Scrambled.
• Poached.

Coffee is served as soon as you sit down, and the cup never stays empty.

Useful vocabulary

On the menu	Meaning
Entrée	Main course
Appetizer	Starter
Side	Side dish
Rare / medium rare / medium / well done	From barely cooked to cooked through
Dressing	Salad sauce (ranch, blue cheese, vinaigrette…)
On the side	Served separately
Combo or meal	Set meal with fries and a drink
For here or to go?	Eat in or take away?
Sparkling water	Fizzy water, charged for
Tap water	Water from the tap
Biscuit	A soft bread roll, not a biscuit
Chips	Crisps, not chips (fries)

Vegetarians, gluten-free diners, people with allergies: restaurants are used to it and readily adapt. Tell the server clearly.

The regional chains to try

The big global brands are everywhere, but some chains exist in only one region, and Americans are very attached to them.

• In-N-Out Burger (California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas…): a tiny menu, fresh burgers and a “secret menu” that everyone knows.
• Whataburger (Texas and the South).
• Culver’s (Midwest): butter burgers and frozen custard.
• Shake Shack (born in New York).
• Chick-fil-A: chicken sandwiches, closed on Sundays.
• Waffle House (the South): open 24 hours a day, waffles and eggs at any hour.
• Five Guys, Chipotle, Panera Bread: everywhere.
• Cracker Barrel: Southern cooking along the motorways, with a gift shop at the entrance.

In New York, we had our slice of pizza at Joe’s Pizza, a city institution.

Saving money

• At lunchtime, the same restaurants offer lunch menus that are cheaper than in the evening.
• Happy hour, between about 3 and 6pm, means half-price drinks and small plates.
• Children’s menus are very cheap, often up to the age of 10 or 12.
• Food trucks and food halls let you eat well without a 20% tip.
• Grocery shopping remains the best way to bring the bill down (see grocery shopping).

Booking

In big cities and tourist spots, book for the evening, especially at weekends. The OpenTable and Resy apps let you do so without phoning. Americans eat dinner early: between 6 and 7pm the restaurants are full, and many kitchens close at around 9pm outside the big cities.

For our part, we’ve eaten a lot of burgers, discovered a good many iconic fast-food chains, and tried Gordon Ramsay’s lobster fish and chips in Las Vegas.