How to Set the Table

Here are some infallible rules to understand how to best prepare your restaurant table.

How to set the table

For a restaurant to be successful, several criteria must be met as best as possible. First of all, good food must be served, then there must be competent and well-trained dining room staff and last but not least the room must be set up in the best possible way. This factor is very important because, as with everything in life, the eye also wants its part.

For this reason, choosing the right furniture is almost essential. In this regard, after having chosen the right arrangement of tables and having identified the perfect style for your restaurant, it is very important to understand how to best prepare the table. Every single element that restaurateurs decide to place on each table must be studied in detail.

Table linen, plates, glasses and cutlery must be positioned correctly. In fact, there are some etiquette rules to follow. Depending on whether it is a classy restaurant or a simple trattoria, a more or less formal style will be used. In any case, however, it is necessary that each element is placed in the right place.

Every element in its place

There is a sort of scheme that allows restaurateurs to functionally position every single element on the table. Customization in this case is not allowed. Some rules must be respected.

The cutlery should be placed on the sides of the plate and generally the fork should be placed on the left since it is used with the left hand. The knife and spoon will be placed on the right for the same reason, while the cutlery for dessert will be placed at the top. As for the glasses, they are allocated the space at the top right of the plates.

These are the main rules that you must rely on to understand how to best prepare the table. Depending on the style of the restaurant, however, it is possible to add more or fewer elements.

For example, if the situation is formal, the bottles must be placed in a separate trolley. In a more rustic context, however, the latter can also be placed directly in the center of the table.

The table linen

Generally table linens reveal a lot about the style of a restaurant. This is one of the most important elements. Choosing a tablecloth that best conveys the style you want to provide to your restaurant is essential. For this reason, if it is a small rustic tavern you can opt for a classic checked tablecloth, perhaps coloured.

If the restaurant in question is a chic and classy bistro, it is necessary to choose an elegant tablecloth. The napkins must generally be combined with the tablecloth, but it all depends a lot on the design choices of the restaurateurs.

How to set the table: some style choices

We said that some elements must be placed in a very specific order. In this regard, however, it can also be stated that some choices depend exclusively on the style choices of the restaurateurs. Matching napkins to the tablecloth, or using different glasses or the same style, are choices that must be made exclusively by restaurateurs. For example, some restaurants look for a non-homogeneous furnishing style. In these cases it is possible to observe a mix of different elements that are arranged on the table regardless of the rules of etiquette we talked about before.

Again, to make the mise en plas more personal you can choose to add some table centerpieces or place a personalized and particular placeholder. In short, each restaurateur will be free to recreate the style he prefers, without ever forgetting to respect the main rules of how to prepare the perfect table.

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