Negotiating the restaurant dress code

The attire worn at Sydney's fine dining restaurants has come under the microscope after the aforementioned items made an appearance at two of the city's top eateries.

A group of blokes raised the ire of radio announcer John Laws this week when they turned up in shorts for a meal at three-hat Guillaume at Bennelong, Good Living columnist Scott Bolles reported.

"Into one of the classiest restaurants probably in the world, with one of the best views in the world, and these clowns come in wearing shorts, at night-time, into a restaurant," Laws told his 2SM listeners. "Now, to me that's, that's just extraordinary and why they let them in I wouldn't know."

It was the second such incident to be picked up by Bolles in recent weeks - Four in Hand chef Colin Fassnidge recently sent a group of diners packing for turning up at his two hat pub restaurant in Paddington in swimmers and thongs.

John Fink, owner of Quay and Otto Ristorante, agrees that wearing swimmers is a fast track to getting booted out of a restaurant, but finds that on the whole, dress codes in Sydney are quite relaxed.

He's never asked anyone to leave either of his restaurants because of their appearance - but has refused service one or twice for drunkenness.

"If someone walked into one of my restaurants wearing speedos I'd kick them out, you might as well be wearing underpants," he says.

"At Otto we've had a lot of people just walk in off the boat [in shorts], they don't look scruffy and they've just come in for a plate of fish."

Ita Buttrose, author of A Guide To Australian Etiquette, says there is a lot of confusion about dress codes which leaves them open to a wide interpretation.

But dressing well is part of the fine dining experience, she says.

"With fine dining I think it is up to the restaurant to maintain the standards," she says.

"If you go to one that is fine dining rather than BYO or brasserie there is a dress code, it's a bit like a club, you know they expect the guys to wear a jacket and tie and they don't expect the women to dress up in shorts.

"Once upon a time a woman couldn't wear pants to a club, you had to wear a frock or a skirt."

Swimmers, thongs and shorts are definitely on her hit list when it comes to formal dining (keep them for the beachside cafe or casual outdoorsy restaurant). As are sneakers and scruffy jeans (no holes in the knees or frayed cuffs, please).

There's good news for the fellas though - it's OK to ditch the tie and wear a shirt open-collared.

"It's about respect for yourself," she says.

"It's respect for the person you're going out with and respect for your fellow diners and for the restaurant you've chosen. You don't have to dress expensively, you just have to dress neatly and appropriately."

For Fink, this definition is broad. While he rarely gets people turning up to three-hat Quay in jeans, it's not uncommon for a tourist to turn up dressed more casually.

"What is poorly dressed?" he says. "If they have a pair of shoes, jeans and a T-shirt and the clothes are clean, what's offensive in that?"

However if you want a table with a view of Sydney Harbour, best to dress up.

"We wouldn't sit them next to someone who is going to blow a couple of grand on their wedding proposal," Fink says.

What do you think is an acceptable standard of dress when eating out? Are shorts, swimmers and thongs going too far? What about jeans and a T-shirt? Use the comment function and tell us what you think.

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