In most countries we have visited, we are offered one menu per person at restaurants. Each person then picks what he or she wants to eat. Dishes are typically not meant for sharing.

In China, most restaurants, especially if they serve Chinese cuisine, will offer you only one menu per table (If you have ten people dining, they may give you two menus). Chinese restaurants expect that one person will do all the food ordering for everyone at the same table. (Drink orders are taken individually to suit each customer's needs.) All dishes are meant to be shared among many people. In fact, we often find it very difficult to order at a Chinese restaurant in China when there are only the two of us. The portions are usually too large if you want to order a variety of dishes. You would need at least four people to strike a balance between the size and the variety of the dishes.

We had a couple of friends visiting China from New York City. They went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant by themselves. After sitting down, they asked their waiter for an additional menu so that they would each have one to browse. For them, it was perfectly normal to see the menus individually and decide what to order. But to the Chinese waiters, their asking for an additional menu meant something was wrong with the service. They are simply not used to guests asking for more than one menu when there are only two people eating!

(selected from 101 Stories for Foreigners to Understand Chinese People by Yi S. Ellis and Bryan D. Ellis, published by China Intercontinental Press in 2012)