Most people have a seating preference at a restaurant: booth or table. Which is yours?
Booths feel cozy and more private, but tables are easier to rearrange and may be more supportive for those with back or mobility problems.
If you had a choice, booth or table, which would you pick?
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…but when dining alone, sitting at the counter seems more respectful of other diners.
I prefer a table. My reason:
I’m short and too many booth seats drop down significantly when you sit on them.
Add the narrow distance between your body and booth table.
This is a very uncomfortable position for me.
I wonder what the answer would have been pre-covid, if there would be any change?
A bad back demands a good straight back chair to be comfortable. If all you have is booths, I will dine elsewhere.
We go to restaurants for the food, not the furniture.
While booths tend to be lower and not as easy to reach the table, they also are usually out of the flow of traffic and easier to hold a conversation.
If the booth just isn’t comfortable we will opt for a table but when a booth is available, that’s our first choice.
Location is most important. Not near entrance/exit. Not near kitchen aisle. Not near restrooms. Prefer near well lit window. If it’s too cold, we leave. Full of noisy crowd, we leave. We rarely eat out but when we do it’s important to enjoy our surroundings while dining – in a booth or at a table.
If no table is available we kindly say no thanks and leave. Our money so our choice matters.
It seems to me that sitting in a booth has gotten more difficult as I have aged. Either I’ve gotten fatter or they are putting the seat closer to the table! LOL The cushions are usually really well compressed and I end up sitting with the table way too high to be comfortable. Feels like how it must be like for a youth sitting without a booster seat.
All depends on who I am with, wife not preference, with group of motorcycle guys: Table
My preference for a table has more to do with short legs than seating location. Most booths just aren’t kind to very short legs.
I never thought of it that way, but now that you mention it my 30” inseam is more comfortable at a table. Booths always seem to be to close to the table or to far away or to low. Sometimes I feel like all I have to do is lean forward and just scrape my food from the plate into my mouth. Lol
Table, specifically a high top if available. Or we often sit at the bar.
I prefer a table, DW prefers a booth, so guess where we sit, booth.
If just the 2 of us a booth, if 4 then a table is considered.
I like to sit watching the door or entrance into the restaurant. Never sit my back to a door. So saying that either is good with me , it’s all about the location.
Booths just seem more personal and private for us.
I chose table for several reasons. 1. I am a big man and booths are not designed for me. 2. I have knee issues and booths put strain on them. 3. In the event of an emergency, booths take longer to get out of. 4. Part of my situational awareness training has me always wanting to face the door.
Table. I’m barely 5′ and in a booth my chin is practically resting on the booth table top:)
Prefer comfort. Often booths, my actual preference, don’t fit the body type, so we generally say “table please.”
For me it depends on the restaurant and the number in the party. One place we go to has the booths so low that we always get a table. With both my husband and myself being over 6 feet some booths just don’t work for us.
A table if I’m at a buffet and my party is more than 3. I don’t like being in the center of a restaurant for all to see, so a booth for the other times.
I prefer a booth in the winter when I have a coat. I can stuff the coat next to me in the seat. If at a table, the coat ends up on the floor because other customers are rude and have to push thru next to the table.
Since I have a hearing problem I prefer to sit with my back to a wall in an effort to diminish the sound coming from behind me. It doesn’t matter to me whether it is a table or booth just looking for the best hearing location in the rooms.
Booth. More comfortable to sit in 90% of the time. A stool is great facing towards the door. Like the old bar set up like in a diner.
The older we get the easier a chair is to get into and out.
Booth or table, as long as we sit side by side. Been married 53 years and VERY RARELY sit across from each other.
Yes! Always! We have only 45 years together.
Booth. Because I like a window seat.