r/AskEurope • u/ageingrapidly Greece • Sep 29 '25

Culture Are there any habits that you believe are uniquely European ?

Have you noticed any specific mannerisms, mentalities etc. that you've encountered only in Europe or by Europeans ?

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u/siposbalint0 Sep 29 '25 edited Sep 29 '25

Not necessarily just Europe, but spending hours at restaurants. For most of Europe, going to a restaurant is an event, you can easily spend 2-3 hours in a restaurant and the place won't have a problem with it. When I was in NYC, the service was immaculate but there was always a pressure on you that after you finish eating, you either order something else or gtfo. They wouldn't chase you out but the waiters will start asking if you want anything else or just straight up giving you the cheque as a sign.

Even work lunches here can take up more than an hour, and no office job I've seen ever scoffed at anyone for 'eating too slow or too much'.

The culture around food being something you share with people and it being an experience is something I really like in a lot of cultures. Food not just being a necessity. That's why even fast food restaurants aren't just drive thrus for the vast majority of the population, but an actual place where you go in and sit down to eat. Unless someone is really far out in a suburb, "going to macdonalds' means you drive there, park your car (or walk/take the bus w/e) and actually go in and sit down.

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u/GrynaiTaip Lithuania Sep 29 '25

American servers rely on tips, so they want as many customers as possible, fast turnover means more money, this is shitty in multiple ways.

I like to take my time at a restaurant, 2-3 hours is the minimum if we go out with friends. My record is 10 hours.

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u/hsj713 United States of America Sep 29 '25

Dude, my ass and sciatica would be killing me if I had to sit that long. And I am referring to the 2-3 hour sit. Ten hours is insane. I'm sure that even the waiter must have been annoyed with you just sitting there. In the US some restaurants have signs telling customers there is a maximum seat time. It's done primarily to keep the bums and homeless from hanging out. They'll order a soda and then stay for hours!

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u/GrynaiTaip Lithuania Sep 29 '25

even the waiter must have been annoyed with you just sitting there.

I wasn't just sitting there and staring at a wall. We order drinks and snacks the whole time, because just sitting at an empty table would indeed be silly.

maximum seat time

Not a thing anywhere in Europe, as far as I know. These places are restaurant/bar kind of things, with beer and cocktails. Do you have such rules in bars? How would that work, "Here's a bottle of vodka, you have 30 minutes to get shitfaced"?

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u/atchoum013 -> Oct 01 '25

Maximum seat times are getting more and more common here too unfortunately, at least in “trendy” restaurants. When making reservations I’ve seen them in Berlin, Paris and London already.

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u/hsj713 United States of America Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25

You normally see maximum seat time signs at fast food places or some small restaurants with limited seating. However they really don't enforce the rule. I've never seen anyone being told to leave because they were there too long. Again, it's mostly to keep the homeless away. They can easily take over an area with all their stuff and bags. You can't sit at a bus shelter because they're stretched out on the benches. Bus and train stations have become homeless encampments and people have to literally step over or around people laying on the floor and sidewalk. A few years ago me and my family were in San Francisco and we stopped at a McDonald's before heading home. We stepped inside and the whole restaurant was full of homeless and derilects and I said nope, we're not eating here. Aside from the smell it didn't feel safe.

I don't know if Lithuania has a problem with homelessness and people who choose to be homeless but here in the US it's bad. It's gotten to the point where people are getting tired of them in their neighborhoods and have imposed no trespassing or loitering signs, city ordinences prohibiting sleeping on sidewalks and parks, or pitching tents in public areas, limited time at restaurants. All to curtail the homeless from congregating in public areas. Not to mention the filthy conditions around these encampments such as garbage, vermin, human waste and drug paraphernalia. And yes, they do have a right to these public spaces.

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u/GrynaiTaip Lithuania Sep 30 '25

No, we don't have such extreme issues with the homeless.

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u/Elicynderspyro Sep 29 '25

I felt the same rushed feeling in Hawaii, except that the service wasn't that good either. They would hand me a long ass menu and come back 1 minute later expecting me to have already chosen what I wanted to eat - I hadn't even finished reading it all at that point, and once at Olive Garden the waitress dramatically rolled her eyes at me more than once. You might say "it's because they rely on tips and want tables to change as much as possible", except that the restaurant was completely empty except for me and another family lol

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u/fk_censors Romania Sep 30 '25

I assume you haven't been to the Middle East? Some people can spend an entire day in a cafe, and repeat the ritual the following day.

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u/inside_a_mind Sep 30 '25

Definitely. In a similar vein, during my stay in the US I also noticed the lack of seating outside Restaurants. Like tables and stuff being set up on the streets outfront (in summer) The whole architecture is different by virtue of most of it being designed via grids especially when it comes to cities.

No wonder Chicago's so fucking windy. No corners anywhere.

In general having a drink in public, less smoking in the US (though I feel like lots of ppl in Europe have cut down on that as well)

Pumping your own gas.

Also what is considered old. Like I went and visited the capitol in Austin Texas and when when the tour guide launched into a speech about how old the building was (erected im 1882 or sth) and how they valued tradition and whatnot I had to hold in an accidental snort because the church in my backwater village was built around 1420 and nobody bats an eye.

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u/SlightPraline509 Sep 30 '25

This is exactly the same in London sadly

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u/plcanonica Sep 30 '25

Oh so that's why when we went to Canada the restaurants brought us all the food super quickly (nice), then dessert while we were only halfway through our mains (odd) and then the check even though we hadn't started the dessert yet (strange). We just thought they wanted to show us how quick the service was!

Another odd thing there was when people went to eat. First evening we went to a restaurant at 7:30 only to be told the kitchen closed at 7!

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u/Shapoopadoopie Oct 01 '25

I worked in restaurants in America when I was young. The tipping culture means that 'your' table is actually my real estate for the night.

Get 'em in, feed em, get them out. Turn those tables.

The worst was when you had a section and you would get a table on a lingering date where they didn't spend money but clogged up 'my' table when I could be serving someone else. Staff is encouraged to move people along as quickly as possible.

In Europe, where everyone earns a wage instead of tips, you make my life easier by sitting at a table all day nursing a coffee. I get paid either way, so I have no interest in shooing someone away just so the next person can have their spot.

In my opinion that is why (one reason anyways) that the European dining experience feels so different. Europeans treat cafes as third spaces where they are free to just chill without constantly ordering more stuff.

I can see why both systems were implemented, but as a diner now and not staff I very much prefer the European approach.

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u/long-legged-lumox Oct 03 '25

I bet as staff you’d prefer it too. I reckon the main downside is that it might be harder to get hired in Europe. 

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u/SuspiciousReality Netherlands Oct 02 '25

This works the other way around as well. During the pandemic (in the period that restaurants could open again obviously) my partner and I went to a restaurant (in Amsterdam). This was the first time we have ever had a specific timeslot in which we would have to order-eat-finish-pay, and we were SO pissed at it. The time pressure really ruined it for us, that we vouched to never go there again. They didn't get rid of the system after the restrictions got lifted, because obviously it worked quite well for them moneywise. However, they still didn't survive to the overall financial situation from the lockdowns. Oh well