European* idea of good service: take my order, serve me good food, accept my payment, otherwise leave me alone to talk with my friends. (*: can vary highly from

European* idea of good service: take my order, serve me good food, accept my payment, otherwise leave me alone to talk with my friends. (*: can vary highly from one country to another.) American idea of good service: promptly bring me water, promptly ask what I'd like to drink, serve drink quickly, promptly take my order, promptly serve my food, continuously check in to see if everything is ok, expect a tip. Cultures are just a natural insult to each other. There is no real way to say, please check in on me more often to a European (their pay doesn't depend on it, they might humor you, but probably not). There is really no way to say, please leave me alone, without being insulting or not taken seriously. Any idea of good service is heavily biased by norms of what service means in the first place. Some people will grow up with one sense of norm and immediately take to the other when experiencing it. Generally though, people growing up with one set of norms finds the other set obnoxious.