Correct way to order pub grub?
 

I have gone into a pub to get some lunch,but I always feel a bit 'at sea'. Is there an accepted method - sit and wait for service? Go to the bar and ask for service? Is there some tip-off to know which to do when? & At busy pubs in Dublin, is there a strategy to be followed if one wants to get a table & some lunch? I suppose get in early would be one ;-). Any advice will be appreciated, and acted upon in Sept.. I should mention that I'm female, and most often travel with other women (as my hubster is a bit of a stick in the mud about travel). Not sure this makes a big difference, but it may....

Different pubs vary slightly. But if you sit and wait at almost any of them, you'll die of thirst, and then die of starvation.

Go up to the bar and order briskly. If the pub has some damnfool quirkiness (like telling you you're order no 27, and giving you a wooden spoon marked 27), they'll explain. There's no logic to this: it's just the publican's way of showing his creativity. If he was in San Francisco, he'd do it in macrame, so think yourself lucky.

It varies from pub to pub. Here in Scotland it's quite usul to either order at the bar or at the table, be served and pay at the end.

In my observation, it's more usual in England to order and pay at the bar and fetch your own when it's ready.

just ask. No-one will mind

Yep . . . just ask. Unless it's a very smart gastropub, you'll usually order & pay at the bar then be given a giant wooden spoon/something else with a number on it, to display on your table.

Some of those gastropubs . . .

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/home_fea...gastropubs.asp

usually with table service & the nice people will even do drinks orders for you (so you don't have to stand in line at the bar yet again). Bill comes at the end.

BTW good luck finding a non-smoking nook in UK pubs . . . you've got it lucky in smokefree Dublin :)

Flanneruk-you always make me laugh! It's true though-you at least have to go over to the bar and say that you're over in the corner, and want to order food-they're not going to come over of their own accord. However, when I was at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese 2 weeks ago for lunch - (wasn't too atmospheric,really-'course this was the City lunch crowd -I was the only female in the joint) I think they actually did come over and wait on us, after my British colleague went up to the bar-yes, I'm sure they did-no wooden spoon-I wouldn't have liked that much!

Most Pubs will expect you to order at the bar . . and ex[ect you to pick it up . . If it is a Pub I do not know, I just ask the person behind the bar what to do . . very few will come to the table to take your order.

Rich

Thanks for your replies. Though not one of you gave me any sort of a definitive answer, I feel strangely comforted. Now I can blunder and dither and feel a certain rightness about it all. Kidding aside, I really do think I can approach the challenge with nore confidence, knowing that there really are no unwritten-but-commonly-accepted social mores to be violated. I will, as flannerUK has suggested, order briskly. Yes, yes...I see myself doing this! I believe it is called 'visualization', but I'm often wrong about this sort of thing. I don't necessarily see myself with a large, brightly colored and numbered spoon in hand, but thems the breaks. All this typing is making me thirsty, must go. But thanks again, and I owe you all a pint.

Okay, well, then, make mine a Bass or maybe a McEwan India Pale Ale.

"no definitive answer...."???? are you sure you are OLD ENOUGH to be IN a pub????

If traumas over how to order food is the only thing that goes wrong on your trip you should have a good time! ;-)

I have never been given a spoon etc after ordering......I think this is more a UK pub gimmick.

If its a carvery then line up with your tray as its cafetaria self serve style and you pay at the end. Otherwise I just ask at the bar if they serves foood or if people are eating and that is obivious I just ask for a menu and sit down. There is no right way and people are pretty relaxed.

It sounds to me like you'll be in Dublin, not the UK. Am I right? In which case I'd listen to SiobhanP, as she's a Dublin resident.

If in the UK, then what you do, quite simply, is order (and pay when you order too) at the bar, find a table (they may ask you where you're sitting) and nine times out of ten they'll bring the food to you. I can't remember when I last had to fetch the food myself.