As a restaurant professional I would like to offer up a few points that will simultaneously make your experience, your neighbors experience, and the restaurants staff experience ten-fold more pleasurable.

First:
A good restaurant is a busy restaurant, and a busy restaurant has a lot of people to take care of. Keep this in mind when it takes a little while to get a seat, or the food takes some time to get from the kitchen. Remember that there is a big difference between bad service, and a busy restaurant. Also, in many restaurants, servers have many tables to wait on, and may not always have the time to chat. Please do not mistake this for being rude...they're just busy!

Second:
The single most courteous way to get the attention of a server or bartender is nothing more than simple eye-contact. Once you've made eye-contact you may clinch the attention by use of a smile and a nod of the head and in some cases the *slight* raise of a finger or hand to a level no higher than your shoulders. Raising glasses into the air, waving aggressively, or yelling 'hey' across the restaurant is considered rude and will not garauntee immediate or good service and will certainly assure an unfriendly attitude from the person serving you. Under no circumstances should you ever whistle at, snap your fingers at, or approach your server while he or she is at another table. Though the consequences may be minimal, it is simply not nice and never called for, and if you're afraid of your food being contaminated, you'd do well to abide by these rules! Though I must say in my professional career, were I ever to observe someone messing with food or drink in any way, shape, or form, other than appropriate, they would be dismissed on the spot. But, of course, I cannot govern the actions of the entire industry.

Third:
Please put the cellphones on silent, or better yet, turn them off. Focus on the person your there with or strike up a conversation with the bartender if your alone (that's what he or she's there for!).

Fourth:
Listen to what the server has to say. Many times, they are required to sell a certain number of a dish, or wine thats on special, and many times that dish or wine is probably the best thing being served. On a featured food, it's generally a specially prepared item made in limited numbers. Servers love to sell them because if they sell enough they may win a contest amongst other servers, simply get the recognition from their superiors, or because

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