Over here, it's quite normal to start a meal at a restaurant with a complimentary selection of spreads and salads (salads as in coleslaw or matbucha or that sort of thing, not the leafy variety) as well as hot bread and some oil with balsamic vinegar or grated tomatoes for dipping. Heck, some places will also offer brined olives and a dish of garlic confit.
And like I said, these come complimentary. They're for whetting your appetite while you're waiting for the starters. You could waive them and you wouldn't be paying any less for the meal, or you could eat them and you wouldn't be paying a dime more than you would otherwise have paid if you didn't eat them.
So imagine our shock when we got the bill at a restaurant in Rome and found that we were being charged for the bread and cheeses that showed up on our table while we were waiting for the starters to arrive.
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Hey, I can top that for culture shock.
Over here, it's quite normal to start a meal at a restaurant with a complimentary selection of spreads and salads (salads as in coleslaw or matbucha or that sort of thing, not the leafy variety) as well as hot bread and some oil with balsamic vinegar or grated tomatoes for dipping. Heck, some places will also offer brined olives and a dish of garlic confit.
And like I said, these come complimentary. They're for whetting your appetite while you're waiting for the starters. You could waive them and you wouldn't be paying any less for the meal, or you could eat them and you wouldn't be paying a dime more than you would otherwise have paid if you didn't eat them.
So imagine our shock when we got the bill at a restaurant in Rome and found that we were being charged for the bread and cheeses that showed up on our table while we were waiting for the starters to arrive.