I work in Ireland and almost all restaurants, bars and pubs stop serving food between 21:00 and 22:00.
This always catches out Americans who casually walk in at, lets say 22:30 and asking if we serve food.
I even had it 23:40 last week when I was clearing the bar.
I politely mention the two places in town that serve until 22:00 and instead of going whilst they’re still open they sit at the bar drinking cocktails and then wait until the very last minute and sometimes the time all together.
I feel that my advise is falling on deaf ears especially when I advice that they need to be quick to get to the restaurant so they can get a table and a food order before the kitchen closes
Because I see this I’m under the impression that Americans go out very late for dinner?
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Generally between 6-8pm, but have you ever been hungry late at night? Maybe you worked late, had a full day of tourism, had a late lunch or just wanted something to go with the beers?
Typically between 5pm for the elderly or those with small children and 10pm with most doing so around 7-8. At least in my experience. However, if a restaurant is still open at 11pm it is assumed they will serve food at 11pm.
Most of the bars in my neighborhood serve food until midnight or later and, in my experience, that’s fairly common in most American cities of any size.
These folks likely aren’t going out for *dinner* – maybe a snack or a light meal after being out drinking. In the US, it’s generally expected that if a restaurant is still open, it’ll be serving food.
Dinner 6-8 but a lot of people will also eat while out drinking.
Around here most bar-like places close their kitchens around midnight, some have a reduced menu after a certain hour like 10 and like one I can think of keeps the full menu til closing at 2.
There are 24 hour places to eat, they just don’t generally serve alcohol as well.
As far as staying and drinking anyway, the food is a side quest at that point.
Lol usually around 5. I wake at 5 a.m. for work and don’t eat much food before dinner. I’m starving by then. My schedule is not the norm, though. Most people probably eat around 7.
I rarely go out to dinner, but the place near me I am most likely to be out late at serves food until 23:00.
Most people are eating dinner much earlier than that, but some people still want to go out for an appetizer and a drink after a movie or a play or whatever.
In cities its not uncommon for places to stay open late and a lot of diners are 24hrs.
Even a chain like Applebee’s usually serves food until 23:00 or even midnight or so. Depending on the location.
Ironically, usually Americans are asked why we eat so early….
I’d say the most common times are between 6-8PM. I know some people that do dinner as early as 4pm and some that do it as late as 10pm.
No, we don’t! On the contrary, Southern Europeans often accuse us of eating out obscenely early. See, you’re dealing with people on an overseas vacation, possibly a once-in-a-lifetime overseas vacation. That’s atypical in more ways than one.
7-ish is par for the course for me. Now Italians, *they* like to eat out rather later than that. My wife complains, says it ain’t natural, but she doesn’t realize that’s why the restaurant is half empty when we get there, and doesn’t get slammed until we’ve already got our food.
Edit: if it’s a bar that has food as opposed to what we’d call a ‘family restaurant’ (which may have no booze, or only a limited amount), usually the kitchen closes before the bar (that is, the boozer section) does. Years ago when I worked at a bar, they’d sling booze until about 1 a.m., but the kitchen would close for good at 10 p.m. In fact, if you didn’t get your order in by about 9:40, you might be out of luck. Nothing to do but keep drinking, or stagger down the road to a Denny’s.
You also need to remember the body-clock time of your visitors can play a factor in this too. A tourist from continental US could be from between 5 and 8 hours behind, especially if they just arrived. That’s how I stayed out clubbing until after sunrise once without realizing it.
I mean, do you go in vacation to somewhere far away and not go out late at night? Typically I am trying to see as much has I can, this may be the only time I am there, in a short amount of time, so people are probably up later/spending more energy than they do in their daily life. I don’t think this is when people normally eat dinner, they are probably going out. Also in the US most bars don’t serve much dinner-food so I am wondering if they are asking you if your establishment has foods or just drinks
These people are travelling, I’d wager they are still not adjusted to the time zone and wouldn’t eat at that time normally. Either that or they visited Spain first.
I’d say 18:30 to 19:00 is the modal time for my restaurant dining.
I would probably go for dinner between 5 pm and 8 PM.
It is common for restaurants in my area to close about 9-10 pm. If it is a bar that serves food it might be open until 1:30 AM.
Sometimes people go to a restaurant or bar to eat later if they have gone to a show.
It’s very common for US restaurants to stop taking food orders by 9 or 10 pm.
You notice the one American that does this but don’t notice the dozens of other Americans who dine with you who dine without anything notable happening.
That said depending on where someone is from, a bar not serving some type of food may be unusual. Indiana requires bars to serve some type of food. It doesn’t have to be freshly prepared. It can just be Folgers coffee and Campbell’s soup. Many bars that have a full kitchen switch to a “bar” menu of foods that are pre-made or easier to prepare.
> I work in Ireland and almost all restaurants, bars and pubs stop serving food between 21:00 and 22:00.
I finally understand why Boston has so few late night dining options.
Anecdotal but my wife and I visited this past April and ran into similar scenarios multiple times
To be fair we were just enjoying the pubs so much and lost track of time. Ended up having to settle for Supermac’s twice lol
My mother is an immigrant, I’ve spent a lot of time in Galway, my cousins come visit frequently. Irish and Americans tend to take meals at pretty much the same times.
We have the exact same experience with you lot, it’s a tourist thing, not an American thing.
Other Europeans often berate us for eating dinner too early.
Around 6:00 for me, but I’m in my 50s. One thing to consider: we’re 5-8 hours behind you. If I flew to Ireland my 6:00 dinner would be your 23:00. If my Californian brother did, his 6:00 would be your 02:00.
Yeah, I would echo what most others are saying. They aren’t going out for dinner that late. They are probably looking for something to eat while drinking. It’s common for bars to serve some kind of food either until they close or until like an hour before they close if they serve food at all. In my experience going out for dinner can maybe be as late as 8PM depending on the circumstances. I don’t know anyone who goes out for a full meal at like 10pm. I would honestly hate to eat a full meal that late unless I just got done day drinking or something.
This is really going to depend on a lot of factors. Do they have kids? Is there something else planned? Also where do they live? If they live in a bigger city, a lot of restaurants stay open later especially if it’s the weekend. Typically most people probably eat between 6 and 8.
But I don’t know why you think this an American thing, have you never been to other countries in Europe? Because I remember lots of people eating later in Spain when I was there.
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>Because I see this I’m under the impression that Americans go out very late for dinner?
This is something that *really* depends upon geography, social status, and family status.
It’s not uncommon for people single people living major cities, or people who live on the coasts, to go to work relatively late (9 a.m. or later) , stay working relatively late (7 p.m. or later) and eat late. In many American cities, lots of restaurants stay open quite late, and there’s a lot of 24-hour (or close to it) food. Those folks may be expecting more late night options.
In more suburban or rural communities, and in many communities in the Midwest, people often work earlier, get off work earlier (4 or 5 p.m.) and eat earlier — 5 or 6 p.m. Families often eat earlier too, because most families get their kids to bed relatively early so the adults can have a little alone time, and because many American schools start very early in the morning (7-8 a.m.) and kids have to wake up early. Senior citizens also eat dinner very early.
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>I politely mention the two places in town that serve until 22:00 and instead of going whilst they’re still open they sit at the bar drinking cocktails and then wait until the very last minute and sometimes the time all together.
In the U.S., it’s generally considered rude to go to a restaurant and ask to be served within 15 minutes of closing time.I think you just got (a) a rude party, (b) people who hadn’t acclimated to the time change, or (c) people who were out partying and were expecting more late-night food.
Wtf are those times in normal people time, thanks.
Aside from all the other explanations – these people may be jet-lagged. At 2330 in Dublin, it’s 1830 in New York.
11 am.
Could it be jet lag? Time in Ireland 5 hours later than in New York, so if these are tourists who haven’t yet acclimated to the Irish time zone, they might just be hungry at weird times. If it’s someone from the West coast, it’s a full 8 hours.