7 Ways British and American Restaurants Are Very Different

and i'm sure to some degree there'll be places in britain that sell chicago-style pizza even though it's nothing like it or even in my birthplace of cleethorpes chicago-style burgers whatever that is [Music] hello i'm laurence and i'm on a quest to uncover all of the memos that britain and america lost in the pond and one of those memos pertains to restaurants and because food is involved restaurants happen to be a kind of central hub for where british and american differences play out more broadly because we see differences in not just the food but the terminology that's used and some of the customs that are practiced and the practices that are customed and of course the mere concept of a restaurant i don't know i'm doing that the mere concept of a restaurant is universal but the way that they are presented to and used by brits and americans is subtly and sometimes not so subtly different and so here are seven ways in which british and american restaurants are very different for brits moving to or even visiting the united states of america one of the biggest culture shocks at least for me was the kind of round-the-clock attention that servers pay to their customers what's that your glass of water is empty we can't be having that american servers come right on over minus the whistling sound usually and in between that and the bite of your broccoli american weight staff will be over just to simply ask how's that food tasting can i get you anything else golly gee that's a nice accent which part of australia are you from those kind of questions whereas british wade staff are staff that you know wait wait to come over until you're all done and part of this is tied to the notion of tips and tipping in britain contrary to popular belief servers do make a bulk of their income from tips but unlike in america tipping is voluntary and not at all expected a lot of brits who come to the united states myself included don't know this at first in my case i even asked the waiter how much i should tip so i gave her the 75 percent she recommended and moved on of course with time i came to learn that the expected amount here in the united states of america is 15 to 20 percent of your bill and or check will come onto terminology later it's often been noted especially within the fast food industry that portion sizes in the united states of america are much larger than the european counterparts but often depending on where you go this can also be true of sit-down restaurants one of the first major american sit-down chain restaurants that i visited was a little place called apple biz and at the likes of apple biz but also the olive garden or tgi friday or any number of other chains your appetizer almost feels like a main course entree again terminologies later and by the time that the actual main course arrives you eat it merely out of politeness while pretending that this is all fine and then this is the really funny bit they ask you if you want to see the dessert menu and of course you can't say no because you're addicted to cheesecake and that's always humongous and rich as opposed to humongous and poor which is what you are when you leave the restaurant except that cheap joke doesn't quite work because american food on the whole is actually cheaper compared to the food served in britain which is partially how you account for the portion size difference now after a while i noticed that there were americans all around me that instead of plowing through this mountain of calories in one sitting answered yes to what was then an unfamiliar question to me that's right it's completely normal in the united states of america to have your food boxed at the end of the meal with the intention of you taking it home and refrigerating it or just eat it later that night if you're feeling lucky and of course now that makes sense right i mean you've paid your money for that food you want to get your money's worth but on top of that it cuts down on waste but at first just because of what i was used to back home it seemed weird to be taking leftovers home from a restaurant in britain as evidenced by this bbc article from a few years back we've historically felt embarrassed even to ask for a box or a doggy bag because we i i don't know i haven't a clue why actually either way i think leftovers are great to the extent that i have indian food for breakfast don't judge me buffets aside from the fact that america seems to be just a tad more into them than britain there's an aspect of the buffet going experience that differs greatly between the two countries where i was from depending on the buffet in question i almost got the impression that it was rude to the kitchen staff to ask for a new plate when you're going up for seconds in other words whenever i went for say a chinese buffet i would go up get my plate scoop on all the food go back to my table realize that i am unrelentingly gluttonous and then go back up for seconds using the same plate it made me feel good that while devouring lots of solids i done a solid to the kitchen staff that could be taken so many ways whereas once i moved to the united states i realized that this was considered either weird or unhygienic at american buffets customers are expected to get a new cleaner plate when they go up for seconds because this is a measure seen at preventing cross-contamination but i have to say after practicing both methods neither has caused me any personal problems but while we're on the subject of chinese food that brings us on to this i think it's fair to say that in both britain and america ethnic food or food that is usually associated with a country that is not this one is extremely popular and to varying degrees no matter if you're talking about the united states or britain the same countries are often represented at the dinner table off the top of my head the big one is chinese food except you guessed it british chinese food and american chinese food is vastly different in britain chinese food is often spicy sometimes curry based in the u.s on the other hand chinese food tends to be centered around standalone fried meats usually of the chicken variety now these are not entirely absent from britain but one way that america differentiates itself is that its chinese food tends to be a lot sweeter than in britain but whichever way you slice it i planned that both british and american chinese cuisine is a modified version of what actual chinese people eat in china and this seems to be a common theme that actually unites britain and america take for example indian food while it should be pointed out that indian food is more widely eaten in britain than in the united states and that in my experience certain indian curries tend to be spicier than their american counterparts neither is anywhere near as spicy as authentic indian on the other hand in terms of everything i just said there almost the exact opposite is true of mexican food america by virtue of its neighborly status with mexico eats way more mexican food than britain does even if by all accounts tacos and the like have started to make waves in britain but even america's version of mexican food is often a departure from what's eaten south of the border with authentic mexican food often less spicy than americans are used to and it was in the restaurants of america that i got a first-hand feel for how america likes to modify the national dishes of other countries to create what amounts to their own version because they even do this with english cuisine and that brings us on to this if you were to ask me to name three dishes from both countries off the top of me head i would say this for britain fish and chips sunday roast and a full english breakfast for america hamburgers hot dogs and pizza and yes i realize that all of those have disputed or undisputed origins in germany and italy but over time they have become synonymous with the united states but to a lesser degree and because of american influence hamburgers hot dogs and pizza can all be found in restaurants in the uk and i'm sure to some degree there'll be places in britain that sell chicago-style pizza even though it's nothing like it or even in my birthplace of cleethorpes chicago-style burgers whatever that is but in reverse whenever america tries to replicate popular british dishes it's sort of like being in an alternate universe it's great but it's different very rarely do you get fish and chips where the chips slash fries are thick cut and greasy and the fish is singular and large instead you usually get 3 or four smaller pieces of fish that are usually a tad saltier than what you'd expect back home oh and did i mention there's no mushy peas honestly it's like being in the south of england and in terms of the other two the sunday roast and the full english breakfast well i found those a lot harder to come by in the us than fish and chips even at those pubs that you know every state has that purport to be authentically british and lastly we can't talk about british versus american restaurant differences without talking about the terminology you see it's one thing to get your food boxed at the end of a sit-down meal but many of us might like to take it home without sitting down in the restaurant in the first place in britain i always knew this as getting takeaway which is why i was profoundly confused when i worked in an american office environment and they talked about the key takeaways from the meeting i thought i was getting cory and chips in america this is referred to as take out or sometimes carry out and regardless of portion size we can't even agree on what to call each meal in the u.s for the most part the meal immediately preceding the main meal is usually known as an appetizer in britain i always refer to this as a starter but some as the french do might call it an entree this is where things get confusing because americans and canadians alike use the word entree to mean the main meal for us the main meal is usually known as the main course if it's a sunday roast that main course will include a yorkshire pudding and this is where things get doubly confusing because we in britain also use the word pudding as a catch-all term for dessert in fairness we do also interchangeably use the word dessert in america the word pudding is more specific and the catch-all term has been deserted in favor of dessert and the implements with which we eat this food i.e the knife fork and spoon is known collectively in the united states as silverware whereas this word when used in britain would pertain more to ornate metal plates or perhaps metallic jogs or sports trophies a lot of time instead we'll collectively refer to knives forks and spoons as cutlery and as we all know it's very rude to leave a restaurant without paying and this is why we ask for the bill or at least we do in britain because most of the time here in the us americans will ask for the check and that's it for this episode let me know in the comments below if you've been to restaurants in both countries and what some of your observations were i'm lawrence brown you can follow me on twitter at lost in the pond us and don't forget to subscribe to my channel so that my videos don't get lost in the pond and a big apple biz portion size shout out to my patrons who make these videos possible if you would like to support lost in the pond you can do so today at patreon.com lost in the pond until the next video goodbye [Music] you

Channel: Lost in the Pond

Views: 368,346

Keywords: Finding America, Laurence Brown, America, restaurants, Britain, How are British and American restaurants different

Id: W6xO5Z745QE

Length: 10min 54sec (654 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 10 2022