Lighting in restaurants

[Brad Ballinger]

I don't know if this is a recent problem (now that I'm in my 40s and the eyes are starting to go), but it seems many of the restaurants I've been to lately have abysmally poor lighting.

I understand creating ambience or whatever, but when I can't read the menu or wine list, then it becomes an issue. Taking the candle from the table and holding it up to the menu is getting tiresome. On one recent occasion, I took the menu into the rest room so I could have enough light to read it. At another place I walked into the kitchen with just to make a point.

If the lighting is going to be dim, at least use a paper and ink color combination that will fare well in that light.

Okay, it's a Monday and I'm cranky.

[Pickles]

On one recent occasion, I took the menu into the rest room so I could have enough light to read it.

Killed two birds with one stone, did you?

[Cusina]

I know! It isn't just you. I agree lighting is important for ambience, but it can definitely go too far.

Some places provide a flashlight if you ask for it.

[birder53]

My aging eyes are unhappy with menus that require me to find my reading glasses Hopefully the restaurant industry will wake up and cater to the large number of baby boomers dining out who do not want reading the menu to be an issue. Larger type and better color combinations of type and background would be a big help. I guess the menus would become so large that they would be too hard to hold up after awhile. Getting old sucks!

[Sandra Levine]

I carry my own tiny flashlight for the purpose of reading menus and make a point of taking it ostentatiously out of my bag when I need it. I'm afraid that my show only telegraphs to the staff that I'm not in the demographic the restaurant is seeking to attract. Come ot think it, is there any correlation between the dimness of the lighting and the loudness of the music?

[JAZ]

I carry a flashlight too and have gotten it out a number of times in restaurants, although that's not the main reason I carry it. The only time I can remember the staff remarking on it was when I was at dinner with about 8 people and we had to pass it around to order.

[helenjp]

I remember my parents making this comment too...especially as they were all set to enjoy their unencumbered post-parenting freedom with more dining out!

Of course, I don't have this problem...nope, it was pure chance that, seated in a booth tucked under the staircase, we burned our hands on the invisible hot rock in the middle of our plates that the yakiniku was served on...

I'd rather like a pink-shaded bedside lamp with a pull-cord that I could turn on to read the menu, and turn off to disguise red-faced inebriation!

[Liz Johnson]

Dark can be bad, yes. But has anyone had the experience of too-bright lighting? One restaurant I like quite a bit caters to young families earlier in the evening and by the we go at 830 or so, the lights are still so bright!

[Schneier]

I agree; it's very annoying when it's too dark to read the menu. It happens to me rarely enough that I am still at the "use the table candle" stage, and not at the "walk into the kitchen with the menu and stand there" stage.

Bruce

[mongo_jones]

there are chinese restaurants in india that are literally pitch black. well, almost. strangely this principle only seems to apply to chinese restaurants (and not all of them).

[Bux]

Don't get me started again about restaurants that are too dark. I've even had a running feud with my favorite restaurant in NYC and it's not that dark. I did have to write off a decent enough local place. I was about to write it off when I discovered that three tables by the kitchen got enough light to read a menu by. We began reserving one of those tables making it clear that our reservation was predicated on being seated at one of them. The last time there, we were seated elsewhere, which gives double meaning to "last time."

Atmosphere? I'm paying to see my food and I'm only interested in eating where the chef isn't ashamed to let me see what he's done on my plate. I don't think I've ever been in a good restaurant in France that wasn't brightly lit. The chefs are very proud of their food, the diners generally dress well and deserve to be seen, the staff is presentable and graceful and the entire dining room is the stage for a magnificent production.

I'm quite convinced that dark dining rooms are not atmospheric, but the product of a culture than hasn't gotten over it's puritanical embarrassment of enjoying a meal in public. As for "romantic," give the French credit again for understanding the difference between a dining room and a bedroom and a restaurant and a hotel room. People should be embarrassed to eat in a dimly lit room as it they're doing something disgraceful. Dining out should be a bright and joyful occasion.

From my perspective 40's just a kid, can't you tell.

[mongo_jones]

I carry a flashlight too and have gotten it out a number of times in restaurants, although that's not the main reason I carry it. The only time I can remember the staff remarking on it was when I was at dinner with about 8 people and we had to pass it around to order.

miner's helmets anyone? could be the next big food-accessory.

[Bux]

there are chinese restaurants in india that are literally pitch black. well, almost. strangely this principle only seems to apply to chinese restaurants (and not all of them).

Off hand, I can't think of a Chinese restaurant in NY that isn't very bright.

[mongo_jones]

there are chinese restaurants in india that are literally pitch black. well, almost. strangely this principle only seems to apply to chinese restaurants (and not all of them).

Off hand, I can't think of a Chinese restaurant in NY that isn't very bright.

it is certainly not a phenomenon i've noted anywhere outside india--and as i think about it might even be dying out as an aesthetic in india. it wouldn't surprise me if in india it arose because originally dining out was not something you did with your family--the restaurant as destination idea didn't really explode in india till the 90s (we didn't have much of a consumer culture before then). since chinese restaurants were probably the first popular eat-out destinations (and the first "foreign" food sources in india) they might have been where businessmen went to do shady things.

(though it wasn't just businessmen who patronized chinese restaurants: when i was growing up going to eat at a restaurant meant going to eat chinese 8 times out of 10 --and usually at a restaurant named either golden dragon or kowloon; for many indians it still does.)

the aesthetic may have just lingered even as customer profiles changed.

[Brad Ballinger]

Atmosphere? I'm paying to see my food and I'm only interested in eating where the chef isn't ashamed to let me see what he's done on my plate. I don't think I've ever been in a good restaurant in France that wasn't brightly lit. The chefs are very proud of their food, the diners generally dress well and deserve to be seen, the staff is presentable and graceful and the entire dining room is the stage for a magnificent production.

I'm quite convinced that dark dining rooms are not atmospheric, but the product of a culture than hasn't gotten over it's puritanical embarrassment of enjoying a meal in public. As for "romantic," give the French credit again for understanding the difference between a dining room and a bedroom and a restaurant and a hotel room. People should be embarrassed to eat in a dimly lit room as it they're doing something disgraceful. Dining out should be a bright and joyful occasion.

From my perspective 40's just a kid, can't you tell.

You make a good point about France that I would extend to damn near every European restaurant I've been to. And even many of the higher end ones in the U.S. have enough lighting.

But for a large number of places -- You're a RESTAURANT, not a BAR!

[phaelon56]

The heck with reading the menu.... I'm luckier tham most folks my age as I can easily read the print and even in low light but it's disturbing when I have difficulty seeing and appreciating the colors and contrats of the food presentation.

[elion_84]

Talking about restaurant lighting - my wife and I noticed that many places seem to dim the lights after you're seated. Do they do it on purpose or is it an illusion? Can they really control it per table?

[Bux]

Talking about restaurant lighting - my wife and I noticed that many places seem to dim the lights after you're seated. Do they do it on purpose or is it an illusion? Can they really control it per table?

You must make it a habit to sit at 8:00, 8:30, 9:00 or whatever is the local witching hour where you live and eat. I've seen this many times. There is a point in the evening when the lights are dimmed a notch. I suppose some people always eat before this happens and others arrive after it's happened, but some of us always think there's an approaching blackout.

[Katherine]

Consider complaining.

Some restaurants can turn up lighting individually at tables. Restaurants that don't have this capability ought to be able to come up with some other accommodation when you complain that you are unable to read the menu and thus won't be able to order food. If not, they don't care about your business.

If enough people complained, they'd do something about this.

[Pan]

Consider complaining.

I complain when they turn the lights down enough to annoy me, and they sometimes turn them back up somewhat after that. But later, someone else usually turns them down again.

[sashimi]

So, which restaurants would get your vote for "worst lighting"?