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Seating - In Germany when you enter a restaurant you do not wait by the door to be seated. Rather, you find for yourself any free place you like and sit down. Also, restaurants are often quite small with only a few tables so it is not unusual for multiple parties to share a table. If you are a party of 4 seated at a table that could accommodate 6, don't be surprised if two perfect strangers come sit at the end of the table beside you.
Service - Don't go out to eat in a rush. Dining out in Germany is for those who have plenty of time to relax and chat. The service is typically quite slow compared to what you find in America. And, you rarely see your waiter or waitress. They will come by to ask for drinks, at which point you can order drinks or anything else you're ready to order. When they eventually come back with those drinks you'd best take that opportunity to order your main course otherwise you're likely not to have another chance for quite some time. Sometime later your food will arrive (this wait is actually equivalent to most American restaurants) and you will never see the waiter or waitress again after that, unless you vigilantly canvas the room or stake out the kitchen door and make whatever amount of raucous required to get their attention once you find them. Do not expect anyone to notice if your drinks are empty. If you want another, it's your responsibility to order it. One exception to that is in a bar, where there's about a 50/50 chance that someone will come back to see if you want to order more drinks, especially if people are only ordering drinks.
Food - Germans do have a word for Vegetarian, but somehow it seems to mean something quite different to them. Here you will find many dishes that are basically meat with a side of meat. If you find the rare restaurant the has a Vegetarian dish, be sure to ask a little about it. Vegetarian often means a fish dish, which you may or may not be okay with... or worse yet, it can sometimes mean a dish containing less meat than any of the others (for instance pasta with a meat sauce). As for the meat, about 80% of the time it is pork. If it doesn't state what kind of meat it is, then it's pork. Also, most meals are served with potatoes in one form or another. French fries, o'gratin, and whole skinless potatoes are the most common, though once in a great while you can find mashed. Anyhow, as long as you're okay with meat and potatoes, you should do well because the food is always well prepared and the vegetables, when you find them, are of amazing quality.
Paying - In Germany you must ask for your bill when you wish to leave. No one will bring it without you asking. It would be considered rude, as if trying to rush you. And, as stated above, you'll generally have to exert considerable effort to get the waiter or waitress in order to ask for your bill. Once the waiter/ess brings the bill, they will generally ask whether you wish to pay together or separately. If you say separate you tell them which items you had and they tell you your total. It is not uncommon for a large party to pay individually, and the staff patiently calculates each person's total. Tips are handled at this point. When the waiter/ess tells you your total, you hand money to them and state how much you are giving rather than leaving money behind on the table. For instance, the waiter might say 13.50 and you would hand them a twenty and say 15 and they'll give you back 5. You'll notice the tip amount is much lower than in the US, as is typical in all of Europe. Waiters and waitresses here are paid normal wages to begin with, rather than the meager base salary in the states where one is assumed to make a large portion of earnings from tips. Normally, people just round up or round up and add a euro. I still haven't acclimated to this yet and I still feel wrong leaving so small a tip. I always leave a minimum of two euro and more if the tab is high, but my German friends often eye me and sometimes even scold me for it. Oh well, I figure generosity can never hurt.
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