Q. The other night I took my parents to an upmarket eatery to celebrate my birthday. The food, wine and service were exceptional, but the music was so loud that one had to shout to be heard. My father suffers from slight deafness and had great difficulty hearing the conversation. Two polite requests to turn the volume down were met with straight refusals, which ruined the evening for my father and left us all feeling a bit flat. Given the trend of increasingly loud music in restaurants, is there any advice you can give those of us who prefer to talk to, rather than shout at, those we’re eating with?
N.P., Perth, Western Australia
A. Some diners prefer background music to become foreground since mental vacuity can thereby be masked. If a restaurant refuses to turn it down, pleasantly ask them kindly to suspend the preparation of your dishes while you quietly use GPS on your mobile to identify a nearby restaurant without music. If you can find one, you will decamp to this with your party. This will give them time to reconsider the refusal. Although it is unfashionable to eat in a hotel restaurant, it is usually possible a) to get a table, b) to find staff who understand the pecking order i.e. the customer is at the top of it, not the posing employees, and c) to find an atmosphere which is more hushed than noisy. These days deafness is not confined to the elderly since many of the young have own-goaled it by listening to overloud music through headphones.
Q. A friend of my boyfriend has invited us to stay. Access to where he lives is by private jet only and he will send his own to collect us from the international airport.
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