Black Dining Tables

What are the uses of many spoons and forks on the dining tables in hotels?

I feel that spoons, forks and knives are too much in dining tables in hotels. Ok, one can be for salad, one for the main course and one for desserts. But still the number seems to be more than we need. And also, Is there a special spoon for soups?

Public Comments

1. Special ones for all the courses and over seas they even have a small butter knife on each plate for the bread and You should work your way towards the inside,,,
2. There should be a 'special' spoon for soups - a soupspsoon has a round bowl, unlike a dessert or serving spoon.
3. yeah there is a special spoon for soup i dont see the point of it but all the fancy places use them
4. main coarse fork, salad fork, butter knife, dessert fork and spoon, coffee spoon, knife for steak, soup spoon, veggie spoon
5. I hear your grievance! if I had to set the hotel table I would just use 2 spoons, 1 fork and 1 knife. Maybe hotels purposely do that to drive folks crazy.
6. It is in order to distinguish who are of the proper class and who are not. Those who seem at ease, always using the right utensil, are okay. Those who are nervous, or who make a mistake, then you give them less service. If you want to know if a person is a proper friend for you, take them to that kind of restaurant and see how they handle it. Again, if they make a mistake, using the 14th fork from the left instead of the 15th, then you know they are not the right kind of perosn to hang around with.
7. I hate the soup spoons,with all those holes in them, the soup is usually cold way before I can finish.
8. Restaurants and hotels usually provide silverware so we don't have to eat steak or omelettes with our fingers we use to pick our noses and scratch our butts with. The shorter forks are for salad and/or dessert and the larger spoons, also called table spoons, are the spoons one would use to eat soup with. Usually one finds a teaspoon in a restaurant or hotel table setting because teaspoons are what one would use to stir sugar into a cup of coffee or tea and lots of people still drink a cup of coffee before a meal or afterward with dessert. All that crap does have a tendency to get in the way when you are just having an appetizer and a couple of drinks. If I find myself in that situation I usually scoop it up and hand it to my server when he or she comes to take my drink order. Problem solved!
9. Yes, there is a special spoon for soups.It has a rounder bowl than the teaspoon or tablespoon. As far as the plethora of silverware in hotels -- a good server will remove the pieces you don't need, so all you have to do is work from the outside of the lineup, in to the center, which should take you to desert and coffee.
10. To eat, To flick things, to hang on your nose, to catapult unwanted items into a cup/tracshcan/ or last but not least, to keep your food from geting contaminated by the taste of another dish. Broadening your palette and tastebuds one taste at a time. Use the soup first..it will get the attetnion of the Chef.....Just make sure the dumpling doesn't have any sharp edges.
11. They are there just to make your dining life difficult......I am kidding you, that is not true, they are there for you to take home as souvenirs (you can also take the ashtray if one is placed on the table).
12. General rules of etiquette state that it is improper to have more than 3 pieces of silverware on either side of the plate. Anything else you need should be brought with the course you are served. Yes, there is a soup spoon and it will generally be bigger than the regular spoon at your place. Most times, a soup spoon will be brought to you with your soup.
13. Oh my god, you people have my sides hurting with laughter (LOL!) You do know this person was asking a serious question on here don't you? Dear, the forks and spoons you see on a table in hotels are for the way tables are set when they are set in a fancy manner. One for your appetizer, your bread, your salad, your rmain course, your tea, and of course your dessert. Yes there is a specific spoon used for soups. It called a soup spoon and it's usually two or three times larger than a teaspoon but otherwise looks just like a teaspoon.
14. http://www.didyouknow.cd/info/tablesettings.htm This page has a diagram labeling what goes where and the uses of each utensil.