You have many options when you choose to dine in a restaurant, ranging from the simplistic such as a cafe for lunch to fine dining restaurants where you can expect to find the best service and food. We will focus on the latter and look at what you should expect fine dining restaurants to offer diners, especially when deciding which one you should choose before booking a table there.

But first, before we go any further, we highly recommend that you start your search for a fine dining restaurant by looking for reviews of them online. The proof of how good a fine dining restaurant is will be in the way it is described in reviews and testimonials by people who have dined there previously. As such, do this at the outset to eliminate those options whose reviews suggest they might not be as fine a restaurant as they claim to be.

An Optimal Location

Whilst you can find fine dining restaurants in all kinds of locations, our advice is to veer towards those which are in locations that seem most conducive to an evening out in a restaurant and possibly also have decent transport links should you not wish to drive there.

They do not necessarily have to be situated on the grandest street in town, but by the same token, you do not want them in the middle of an industrial estate or in an area of town where even the locals dare not go out after dark.

A Special Ambience

This might be difficult to judge until you have actually eaten in the restaurant, but some ways make it possible to gauge the ambience you can expect in a fine dining restaurant. First, the aforementioned reviews may highlight how past diners enjoyed their evening by mentioning the atmosphere and surroundings.

You can also look at any photographs of the restaurant on its website, social media pages, or on restaurant review websites. Finally, you could walk into the restaurant when passing on the pretext of making an enquiry. This can help you understand the restaurant’s ambience during that visit. You could even ask if you could look around and also peruse the menu in advance of making a booking with them.

An Excellent Choice Of Fine Cuisines

This is often what differentiates fine dining restaurants from ordinary restaurants. The range of foods on offer does not have to be an endless list to qualify; however, it must have quality dishes that should satisfy most palettes.

A caveat here is with speciality restaurants such as seafood restaurants where you should not expect them to have an extensive range of meat dishes, but they should certainly have plenty of high-quality seafood dishes on offer. Having one or more signature dishes created by its chef is also a good indicator of a fine dining restaurant.

Extensive Wine And Drinks Lists

As well as having an extensive choice of cuisine, a fine dining restaurant should also be able to offer its customers an impressive choice of both wines and other drinks should individual guests not be wine drinkers. Their wine list should include white, sparkling, red, and rosés. Having at least a couple of choices of champagne is also highly desirable.

In addition to wines, a comprehensive range of spirits, ports, and beers also ticks the box. Finally, and in light of their increasing popularity, a fine dining restaurant should be able to offer guests a decent choice of non-alcoholic drinks that extend beyond just cola or lemonade.

Service Staff Of The Highest Quality

Even if a restaurant can offer everything we have described so far, it still does not get to call itself a fine dining restaurant unless it can provide service of the highest order, and that is where the restaurant’s staff come to the fore and more importantly how well the restaurant has trained them.

Whether it is taking bookings over the phone, greeting guests and leading them to their table, handing over the menus and taking orders for food and drinks, or delivering that food and those drinks to the table, every element of the service provided has to be at a 5-star level as a minimum.