What's interesting is that every time the topic comes up, you get Europeans who complain about the service in the US and Americans who complain about the servic

What's interesting is that every time the topic comes up, you get Europeans who complain about the service in the US and Americans who complain about the service in Europe. I'm on the European side of things so I do not want to be approached while eating. I want to flag the waiter whenever I want something and I absolutely hate fake small talk in order to drive the tip up. It feels so artificial and not genuine (and happened often enough in the US). I do like small talks with waiters that are genuine but having the possibility of a tip kind of destroys that. To be fair though, waiters in touristy places everywhere suck. So that might also be the issue if you went to a tourist hole instead of a restaurant for locals.