The most common complaint I hear from my patients is their difficulty hearing in noisy restaurants. "How can I enjoy friends/family if I can’t hear them in all the noise?"
There’s really two issues: the annoyance factor of high noise levels and the barrier to social communication. Noise is the second most common complaint of diners (second only to poor service). For the hard-of-hearing, noise overpowers and adds distortion to conversation. Hearing-impaired diners are looking for a quieter option when dining out, so that they may enjoy the social aspect of eating out. I am compiling a list of favorable restaurants for the hard-of-hearing. Let me know what local restaurants you hear better in – and post comments about a positive restaurant hearing experience. (Let the food critics rate the food – we will rate the noisy intrusion!) Spread the word and tell your friends so that we can develop a source of restaurants for (relatively) quiet dining when we want to eat out for pleasure – or to celebrate an occasion with friends and family!
