Ethnic restaurants, especially the ones with theme decor, are so much quieter.
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I’ve known too many Spaniards.
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I have, too. For me it’s the goddamn televisions everywhere, tuned to different but equally uninteresting sporting events. I gritted my teeth through a meal in a restaurant earlier this year where we counted 16 TVs in visual range of our table. Unfortunately, it was the only place open, and we really, really wanted beer.
The other thing that annoys me is adding glass-topped tables to already crappy acoustics. Dishes and cutlery constantly clattering, and an uptick in crap acoustics thanks to so many hard surfaces. Ick.
ETA this post replied to the wrong comment, don’t know why. Was meant to be a response to the person who said they’d walked out of restaurants for being too damn loud…
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Thank the lord for seamless. I’m trying to REDUCE the annoying stuff in my life.
Seriously. If anyone wants to completely capture my ‘searching for restaurants on the interewbs’ business, all they need to do is add a checkbox for ‘no TVs visible anywhere’…
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This. If I wanted to watch TV, I’d stay home or go to a sports bar, not a restaurant. Also, I’m terrible at making out what people are saying in a noisy room.
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Red Robin? Higher-end brand? By attrition maybe, but difficult to imagine on merit.
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Fun fact: a cheap-ass universal remote will do the same thing if you don’t program it… or so I’ve heard. 
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"Americans are loud."
WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?
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I’ve wondered for years, does anyone think to themselves… “I want to go out to a decent restaurant and watch whatever happens to be on the TV while I’m there.”?
If I wanted to watch TV, I would have ordered take-out.
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I just assumed it was because I was the only person there…
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And the audio at restaurants/bars always sucks. Every place has the same JBL speakers on the ceiling and all you hear is just a low thump-thump-thump
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As a former server, my opinion is that much of it comes down to design; sound suppression is often a consideration which gets intentionally overlooked - not just from a perspective of building costs. Many owners and managers seem to think a loud environment creates the impression of being perpetually busy.
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Why are restaurants, bars, and clubs so loud? I often return from a dinner party with a sore throat from having to shout all night
I think @frauenfelder is the reason restaurants are loud, what with all his shouting.
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I went to a friend’s birthday get-together at a wine bar. It had two tvs showing sports. At a wine bar. Wtf.
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I mean, it’s not like they’re doing hugely substantive things to change their focus, but since the last time I was there, they’ve made a number of superficial changes, like music volume, food presentation, etc. that certainly gave the impression of being a fancier place. The food itself hasn’t changed, though.
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My phone has an IR blaster so I can pull the same trick.
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I had to go look that up.Oh, my. How very exciting… 
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