I hate the trend of minimalist/industrial interior design in restaurants for this reason. There was a new restaurant I went to recently. We got there at 4 in th

I hate the trend of minimalist/industrial interior design in restaurants for this reason. There was a new restaurant I went to recently. We got there at 4 in the afternoon, and there were only 3 parties there other than us (out of >20 tables) conversing with reasonable inside voices. The music was calm and played at low background level. Yet my wife and I couldn't hear each other across the table. The floor was polished concrete, the walls tile, the (10') ceiling metal, the tables glass topped, the chairs unpadded. There wasn't a single sound-absorbing material in the entire room. It turned what should have been a quiet murmur into intolerable din.