John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints

Cultural and Practical Differences Between the UK and the USA/Canada - Restaurants

Fast Food

Outside the big cities, in the USA and Canada almost all fast food restaurants are separate buildings, each with their own large open air car park, located on main roads on the outskirts of town, or clustered around an Interstate exit. Almost all locations have drive-throughs and most offer breakfasts.

In the USA and Canada, it is almost always easy to find space in a car park and a free table at which to sit. However, the speed of service can sometimes be dreadfully slow.

Many of the fast food chains in the USA and Canada offer endless free refills of soft drinks which you serve yourself. Almost all offer free refills of coffee, often on a serve yourself basis.

In Britain some people have a snobbish prejudice against fast food restaurants, based almost entirely on total ignorance and reinforced by vested interests in the media. This attitude is very largely absent in the USA and Canada, where people of all types and all ages regularly use fast food restaurants. Detractors of fast food restaurants should perhaps consider their consistently extremely high standards of hygiene and food preparation and the fact that they do not sell two of the most harmful substances known to man, namely alcohol and nicotine. However, with the universal widespread availability of food in the USA and Canada there is a great need to exert self-control so as to avoid overeating, and a definite need to maintain a healthy, varied diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables.

Some of the fast food chains which operate in the USA and Canada but not in Britain include:

Arby's (this chain's main products are roast beef sandwiches)
Carl's Jr
Dairy Queen (the usual range of hot meals, plus a wide selection of ice cream desserts)
Hardee's
In-N-Out (mainly restricted to southern California but extremely highly recommended)
Sonic (a drive-in chain)
Subway (this chain offers submarine sandwiches) (Subway do have a small number of locations in Britain)
Taco Bell (Mexican food)
Wendy's (some years ago Wendy's had a very small number of locations in Britain but to the best of my knowledge these have now all closed)

As well as all the menu items which are regularly available in fast food restaurants in Britain, some of the chains in the USA and Canada offer additional choices, including:

Biscuits - scones cut in half, sold with a choice of fillings such as bacon, ham or sausage as breakfast lines, or supplied without fillings as an accompaniment to fried chicken.
Roast Beef Sandwiches - hamburger buns filled with many layers of very thinly cut roast beef.
Mexican food, including tacos, burritos and nachos. The Mexican fast food restaurant chains offer extremely good value for money and are well worth trying.
Submarine Sandwiches - long rolls with a choice of meat and salad fillings. A healthier alternative to most other fast food.

Family Steakhouses

There are a number of family steakhouse chains which operate throughout the USA and to a lesser extent in Canada. Beside steaks, these usually also offer chicken and perhaps seafood, plus a huge serve-yourself salad bar.

On entry, customers line up at a counter to order, then find a table and wait for a waitress to serve the main meal.

The word "family" in the name usually implies that alcohol is not served, smoking is not permitted, and prices are somewhat lower.

Ethnic Restaurants

As mentioned above, there are a number of fast food chains offering Mexican food.

There are a large number of independently owned Italian restaurants and in some areas also Vietnamese restaurants.

There are no Chinese or Indian takeaways in the USA and Canada as are widespread in Britain but there are many independently owned Chinese restaurants.

Cultural and Practical Differences

Restaurants

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As with all the other pages on this personal web site, all the information on this page is solely the opinion of the author, who has no connection whatsoever with any of the companies and organisations mentioned other than as an actual or potential customer.

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Most recently modified 23-Oct-02