6 Things Californians Do in Restaurants That the Rest of the Country Finds Rude

Los Angeles diners order vegetarian and vegan dishes 187% more often than the U.S. average, according to a 2025 WalletHub ranking built on Grubhub’s ordering data.

That’s just one way a California order sounds different from a table anywhere else in the country.

These are the things Californians do at a restaurant table that read as rude everywhere else in the country.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Restaurant rules, fees and local ordinances are subject to change.

1. Ordering off the Secret Menu

Californians walk up to an In-N-Out counter and order in a language the printed menu never explains.

The habit traces back to 1961, when In-N-Out says it created the first Animal Style burger in response to customer requests.

In-N-Out president Lynsi Snyder fills in more of the story in her 2023 book on the company.

A store manager used to build a mustard-fried, extra-spread burger for himself. A regular customer noticed and asked for the same thing, then kept ordering it by name until the staff didn’t need to ask.

In-N-Out eventually posted the tradition on its own secret menu page.

None of that helps a first-time visitor standing at the counter.

The person ahead of them rattles off an order stacked with Double Double, Animal Style and extra spread, without a second of hesitation or a glance back to see if anyone else needs the code explained.

The regulars started it.

Fans of the chain admit the habit creates friction of its own.

Customers have complained that cracking the code shouldn’t take repeat visits, and that the whole system leaves out-of-towners guessing on the one trip they get.

The cashier already knows what it means. The visitor rarely does, and nobody in line slows down to explain it.

2. Taking the Patio Table First

Californians ask for the patio table before the host finishes the greeting.

OpenTable’s research found Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco among just eight U.S. cities nationwide with the highest share of outdoor dining last summer.

A companion survey of 2,000 U.S. adults found that 55% of Americans prefer sitting outside when the weather cooperates, and a third would rather brave bad weather than give up an open-air table.

California’s mild, year-round weather turns that preference into a running expectation, not a lucky break a few weekends a year.

The weather rarely argues.

Dining etiquette guides single out demanding one table over another as a habit that puts hosts and other diners on the spot, and they advise asking for a patio seat while making clear any table works.

A host in a colder state doesn’t always have a patio to offer, and a Californian who asks for one anyway, and lets the disappointment show, reads less like a preference and more like a demand.

3. Asking to Veganize the Menu

Californians ask a kitchen to veganize a dish more than diners almost anywhere else in the country.

Los Angeles residents order vegetarian and vegan dishes 187% more often than the U.S. average, according to WalletHub’s 2025 ranking of the best cities for vegans and vegetarians, built from Grubhub’s delivery and pickup data.

That ranking put Los Angeles second among the 100 largest U.S. cities, behind only Portland, Oregon.

The requests run past a simple substitution.

A Los Angeles chef with more than a decade in professional kitchens says she’s seen shorter, chef-driven menus around the city add a flat line at the bottom: Substitutions or modifications “politely declined.”

The number keeps rising.

Elsewhere, a menu is the whole conversation. In California, it’s just where the ordering starts.

4. Showing up in Workout Clothes

Californians dress for a restaurant the same way they’d dress for a hike, and many upscale kitchens have had to say something about it.

Athleisure brands like Alo Yoga, Vuori and Fabletics all started in California, and Californians have kept wearing their clothes to dinner.

A 2017 magazine feature on San Francisco’s fine-dining scene found some of the city’s priciest tasting menus explicitly warning guests off flip-flops, shorts and athletic wear, including at Gary Danko and Michael Mina.

One Financial District restaurant owner has said the wrong outfit does more than stand out.

Staff sometimes end up seating an underdressed guest away from a couple celebrating a bigger occasion nearby.

Comfort wins every time.

5. Dogs Getting a Patio Seat

Californians have been able to bring a leashed dog onto a restaurant patio since 2015, under a state law that leaves the final call to each restaurant.

The law comes with conditions: A separate outdoor entrance that bypasses the interior, and a rule that keeps kitchen staff from touching the dog.

A dog can’t climb onto the chairs or benches, but it can settle in a few feet from someone else’s dinner.

Not every restaurant opts in, and not every diner realizes that.

The dog just waits.

Diners from states where health codes still keep pets away from food find the whole scene a little much.

6. Eating Dinner Before Sundown

Californians start clearing out of restaurants right around the time diners in many other cities are just sitting down.

San Francisco’s average last dinner seating lands around 9 p.m., earlier than any other major U.S. city, according to a study that tracked reservation data at thousands of restaurants in cities around the world.

Toast, the restaurant payment platform, studied its own Q3 2023 transaction data and found the same pattern: San Francisco’s full-service restaurants logged just 5% of dinner transactions after 10 p.m. and only 2% after 11 p.m., well behind the other major metro areas it tracked.

A Californian used to that rhythm can show up at a restaurant in another state at 8:30 p.m. expecting a normal dinner crowd and instead find a kitchen already closing.

The kitchen closes early.

Across many other states, a 9 p.m. kitchen closure still counts as early. In California, it’s just dinner.

County Opt-Outs on Patio Dogs

California’s patio-dog law also lets any city or county ban the practice outright.

A patio full of leashed dogs in one California town can turn into a patio with a strict no-pets sign one county over.

The state law hands the final call to local government, not to Sacramento.

Ask before bringing a dog.

Vegan Swaps Beyond Los Angeles

Californians who ask for vegan and vegetarian swaps aren't only doing it in Los Angeles.

San Francisco ranked first in the country on WalletHub's 2025 measure of vegan and vegetarian dining diversity, accessibility and quality, and Oakland placed fifth overall on the same list.

San Diego landed 11th, giving California four cities in the top dozen.

The trend follows the coast.

Sacramento came in at 29th, proof the habit thins out the farther inland you go.