Why Are Restaurants So Loud? 

Hearing specialists tell us that if you can’t hear someone an arm’s length away from you, then the environment you are in is too loud. When you go out to eat, do you have a difficult time hearing your companion across the table – or even next to you? If you couldn’t hear your friend asking you to pass the salt over the noise of the restaurant – read on! 

Contemporary Dining Trend

In the movie When Harry Met Sally, Carrie Fischer’s character Marie says, “Restaurants are to people in the 80s what theater was to people in the 60s.” Here in 2o17, restaurants are still getting a lot of hype for their innovative dishes, celebrity chefs (the new rock stars!), and the ambiance. In fact, it’s the ambiance that has restaurant critics talking. 

In August 2015, restaurant critic Richard Vines ponders, “Why it’s so difficult to turn down the volume at popular restaurants.” On the other side of the Atlantic, the Daily Mail in the UK asks, “Can’t hear a word your other half asks when you dine out?” The Daily Mail found one restaurant that reached 110 decibels, which is equivalent to the noise you would experience at a live rock concert.  What’s all the noise about? 

Interior Design

In the past, restaurants had linens, carpeted floors, and padded booths. This interior design helped muffle the sounds one would experience in a restaurant setting. These days, you’ll find trendy new restaurants in repurposed industrial spaces, from lofts to factories, with minimalist design aesthetics. Though this may look chic, the hard surfaces tend to contribute to louder sounds. 

Dirk Denison, an architect who has designed the interior of many high-end restaurants, tells The Wall Street Journal that restaurants these days resemble “a big square box – the worst-case scenario. Parallel walls cause noise to ping back and forth.” 

Open Kitchen

From Gordon Ramsay to Anthony Bourdain to Gabrielle Hamilton, chefs with celebrity status tend to bring people out to eat. Cooking is now an artful performance, and some diners like a front row seat. With open kitchen designs, restaurants tend to be louder, due to the clatter of pots and pans and the frenetic energy of kitchen staff preparing the meal.  

Music and Ambiance

Maybe Bon Appetit Magazine has it right: loud restaurants “are perceived as lively and vibrant. Very few people want to eat in a silent room.” From New York Magazine’s Grubstreet: “Most restaurant scholars will tell you that the Great Noise Boom began in the late nineties, when Mario Batali had the genius idea of taking the kind of music he and his kitchen-slave compatriots listened to while rolling their pastas and stirring their offal-rich ragus and blasting it over the heads of the startled patrons in the staid dining room at Babbo…Sound systems were cranked up and suddenly noise became the hallmark of a successful New York restaurant.” 

As a result, Richard Vines points to the Lombard Effect in restaurants: “Diners speak loudly in loud restaurants and then the people at neighboring tables turn up the volume of their own speech in order to be heard.”

Talk to the Manager

If you experience a hearing loss and have found it difficult in your favorite restaurants, mention it to the restaurant manager or hostess. There are additions to restaurants that could help quiet down the space. Richard Vines interviewed Jeremy Luscombe, an acoustic consultant with the company Resonics, who indicates that the best solution for loud restaurants would be to soften the sounds with acoustic panels on walls and ceilings. 

To make your case, you may want to use a sound meter to record the decibels during your dining experience. Let the restaurant manager know that sounds at 85 decibels or louder are incredibly harmful to everyone’s hearing! 

Hearing Loss & Speech Recognition 

Collectively, the trends in restaurant design, experience, and ambiance create a very loud environment. For people with hearing loss, restaurants can be unpleasant or prohibitive. 

If you believe you are experiencing a hearing loss, it is important to seek treatment for it. Difficulties with background noise and speech recognition are some of the early signs of hearing loss. The use of hearing aids significantly helps with hearing – even in the loudest environments. For more information and to schedule a hearing test, contact us today at Orange County Physicians’ Hearing Services. 

Orange County Physicians’ Hearing Services

Locations in Mission Viejo, Irvine, San Clemente, Laguna Beach and Laguna Hills Call us to schedule: 949- 364-4361