Food near Agriculture University and Ordering Etiquette

[dajaphonics]

I am currently living right next to the Agricultural University which is just east of the Forestry University and further east of Qinghua University. I have been looking for good food in the area. Not anythinig special, just like good noodle bowls, standard street fare, the things that you'd recommend trying.

I also have a question on etiquette when ordering. Everytime we sit down, the server doesn't wait for us to glance over the menu, making it seem like we need to rush to order. After requesting "qing, deng yi xia" at one restaurant and the server leaving and coming back, it's not how all servers react to the menu. Is there a polite way of asking for a little time to peruse the menu? Thanks.

[abcdefg]

Not sure what city you are in, but I've observed the same thing throughout China. It's a cultural difference. The waitress is supposed to "hover." Try something like "I can see you're busy now. Please give me a minute or two and then come back."

[imron]

Try: 给我们几分钟，行吗？

[abcdefg]

I Googled Qinghua and it seems you are in Beijing. I'm a slow menu reader too. Try something along the lines of "我觉得你现在很忙。请给我五分钟." There may be better ways to convey the message that you need some time. Perhaps some of the more advanced Chinese speakers on the forum can recommend other ways to put it.

[abcdefg]

Right on, Imron. That's what I was looking for. Thanks.

[imron]

The other thing to keep in mind when trying to be polite is that Chinese is generally far more concise than English. Preceding sentences with things like "I can see that you're busy now.." or similar as well as adding copious 请s and 谢谢s to be more polite often makes the sentence and phrasing seem unnatural and/or over the top.

Imagine in English someone saying "I can see that you are awfully busy at the moment, but we would be ever so grateful if you could you possibly find the kindness in your heart to allow us a few more minutes to peruse the menu", instead of something simple like "Could we please have a few minutes". The former is what many Chinese learners end up sounding like when they try to translate words/sentences indicating politeness from English into Chinese.

[abcdefg]

Good point. I'll try it your way next time.

[XiaoBin]

Sometimes I use:

simple 你可以一会儿回来吗？

or

我还没决定，可以一会儿回来吗？

rarely use minutes to indicate when i want them to come back.

[ShawnLin]

I current living in DongWangZhuang 东王庄 in the opposite of forestry university, very near agruculture university,

I think you could go to Wudaokou, there are many restaurants to choose.In the 5th and 6th floor of U-center( HuaLian 华联), in the road of WangZhuang 王庄路，and around Line13 subway station of Wudaokou, there are many restaurants to choose.

to the question of ordering, I often tell the waiter to go to serve other customers first, or go for some drink(most restaurent in Beijing provide free drink, like water or tea), and tell her/him I would call her/him when I have decided. by the way, I am a Chinese.

you can say: 您先忙您的，我先看菜单，一会我叫你

or 麻烦你给我们来些茶水，我先看看菜单

if you still not OK when the waiter is come back to your table, you could tell the waiter to commend some dishes. 你能帮我推荐几道菜吗？