My wife and I are starting to just not go to many Chinese restaurants because they have TV's inside of them.  At Garden Cafe in Rowland Heights, the TV is in the wall and at face level for each of the booths on West Wall (with the exception of 1).  My opinion is if I am going out, its to enjoy the company of the person I am with, not to watch a TV.  And they have a little sign, asking you not to turn off the TV and a plastic cover making it harder to turn off.

I was surprised when the local Marie Calendars even has a TV inside of it.  I can understand Sport's Bar's, but a sit down restaurant?  Many of the Chinese foot massage places also have TV's in them.  One reason to choose a non Chinese massage place is to get away from the TV's.

The smartest TV usage I have seen was a place that played video's of a Taiwanese game show, so you had the feeling you were in Taiwan. It actually added to the atmosphere of the Taiwanese restaurant (since gone, Yummy Bowl, replaced by class 302). The other one was in a Vietnamese restaurant that played a soccer game in Spanish and even had a Hispanic waiter, with the result there was a lot of Hispanic customers.

Labels: Chinese Culture, Chinese Food, Chinese Restaurants