①Eating out is such a pleasure-the food, the wine, the joy of having it all brought to you by someone else-that it's a pity to ruin(毁掉) the experience by sharing it with other people.
②Well, I do like visiting restaurants with friends. But dining out alone has its own very special advantages. For a start you can give all your attention to the food. There's nothing worse than having to show your own opinion , and listen to everyone else's opinions, when all you really want is to enjoy the dinner.
③A second great thing about eating out alone is the chance to connect food with one of life's other true pleasures: reading. You have to plan this carefully: Indian or Chinese restaurants are the best-you need food you can eat with just one hand, leaving the other free to hold your reading material.
④But perhaps the biggest advantage of a table for one is the chance it gives to people-watching. Restaurants and the different reasons for visiting them-first date, business meeting, night out with friends-produce surprising and different human behavior. Will the man selling his business idea get any joy out of his possible investor(投资者)?Will the married couple think of anything to say to each other before their main courses arrive?
⑤This "human zoo" part of eating out alone is one of the reasons I hate to be famous:everyone would be watching you, so you wouldn't be able to watch them. The snooker player Steve Davis says this was one of the strangest results of becoming well-known: he got very worried about his eating in public, almost to the level of doubting whether he was "doing it right. "
⑥So next time you're considering your eating out choices, remember the advice of the businessman Nubar Gulbenkian: "The best number for a dinner party is two-myself and a super head waiter. "