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I think it is OK to be comfortable when you are on vacation. But comfortable means all your parts covered and shirts, shoes and pants. I got married when it was fairly warm out. I added to the invite to the rehearsal dinner "no shorts please" because the dinner was at a upscale italian restaurant.
A man without a shirt is not dressed. Was not a fry stand by the boards.
Not to mention sweating. Not good for people looking on.
What really bugs me is women in tiny little mini skirts with no undies on who cannot sit with their legs together. This is just a lack of common sense. Here we are eating a lovely meal and out of the corner of my eye is a dirty limerick waiting to happen. Often the person just has not a lick of sense to even worry about it. We started about 16 years ago asking the waitperson to send a napkin over to whomever it was. When they get it the waitperson points our way and I do a combination gesture and eyewink. It is some funny stuff.
People will be people. If it were my restaurant there would be acceptable rules of dress and those who did not have shirts on, shoes etc would be asked to go get changed and come back and see us then.

I can't stand seeing someone's ass crack in low riding jeans while I'm eating either, I had to stare at one while out for dinner one night... at least sit with your back to the wall so no one is subjected to it.

and yes I took a picture of it.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=6h0u3p&s=4

I asked our waiter if we had to pay extra for the "table with a view"

How funny--I was at Wegman's yesterday, and a woman went shopping in a bathing suit and a towel. I know it's not quite the same thing, and it was a one-piece, but it still struck me as odd, and I couldn't help think of the famous story by John Updike "A&P" about a group of young girls going grocery shopping in bikinis.

But it's hard for the staff, too, to put it delicately in a restaurant that the customer's attire isn't appropriate, unless it's a very high-end establishment that likes to cultivate a certain image and reputation that you should be grateful to dine there.

being barefoot in a restaurant is a health code violation, and the restaurant can and should refuse service at that point. i did this one when i was working as a server, only to have the guy start screaming at me about his "rights". he was promptly escorted out.

on the flip side of this, i'm annoyed by servers who refuse to put their hair up. that's a huge health code violation, yet whenever i go out to eat there is always at least one or two female servers with their hair down. i guess they feel they look better with their hair down and might generate more tips by flinging their hair around, but finding a long hair in my food is just plain gross.

This is just probably a quirk of mine, but if I don't "dress" for dinner when going to an upscale restaurant ($100-$200 a head), the food doesn't taste as good to me. Spending that kind of cash is not an everyday thing for me which I think warrants not wearing everyday clothes. Seeing other people dressed in a haphazard manner takes away from my enjoyment of the total dining experience. When I don't feel like dressing up, I go to a restaurant where I feel my attire is appropriate.

Alas, I totally agree that we live in an economic environment where most restaurants literally cannot afford to turn away guests. Guess I'd better grin and "bare" it :-P

If a restaurant has a dress code, then fine. However, I have been out on a number of occasions where everyone I was with was somewhat casually dressed (and somewhat dusty/dirty after climbing/hiking all day on some of those occasions) and it's really nice to be able to go into a nicer place on a whim and not be turned away because of what you are wearing. I agree with being dressed (I don't go out in a bathing suit, no matter how much I love to wear mine) and I try to put myself together based on where I plan to go, but being turned away is a gigantic pain in the ass and would be a shame for the wait staff considering how we tip!

My bf and I were almost turned away from a steakhouse in Omaha because their dress code "allowed shirts, but not shirts with logos," meaning my PBR-shirt-wearing bf was in violation. I offered the suggestion that if he zipped up his jacket he would no longer be in violation, and they let us in. The food was wonderful, but the whole thing made me laugh when the waiter complimented us on ordering our steaks rare and extra rare, lamenting that most people pay $35+ for a steak and want it well done! To think they almost didn't let us in ...

@Southern_bella - so THAT's how this type of photo gets to the web!! :D Serves her right for subjecting the diners behind her to view her Grand Chasm.

I once ate at a place where a (rather large) woman wearing a mini skirt didn't bother to hold down her skirt when she seated herself. The skirt remained on the chair back and we ate our meal in full view of her pink panties. You'd think she'd feel a draft...? No, I didn't photograph that but you've given me an idea for future offenders.

I'm suprised there are this many people who care about how other people in a restaurant are dressed. For the most part, unless someone is making a scene or doing something interesting (say, getting down on one knee and proposing) I'm pretty much concentrating on my dining companions and on the food at our table.

I'd rather have someone in a tee shirt and flip-flops at the next table, than to have them dropping the f-bomb in a loud voice every third word. I can choose to not look at the table, but if I can hear them swearing better than I can hear my dining companion, that's an invasion on my space.

As far as how people dress while on vacation, yes, some of them may simply be slobs, but I find that I have a lot less stress in my life if I don't concern myself with what other people do. Let 'em be slobs. If it doesn't directly affect me, and if I can't change it, why spend time thinking about it?

On the other hand, those fellow vacationers might be dressed that way at dinner because of situations beyond their control. Like, they're still waiting for that OTHER piece of luggage to arrive. I'd rather give them the benefit of the doubt, and if they're simply slobs, at least I don't have to go home with them.

There's a nice restaurant nearby, attached to a really old (historic, not decrepit) hotel, with white tablecloths and fancy waiters and all, and if you look at their website, the dress code says that all they require is that you be wearing some. If they're okay with tee shirts and jeans, I'm not going to fuss about it. I might dress up a bit myself to go there for a nice dinner, just for my own enjoyment, but I also like the fact that if I'm in that area doing other things and I want to stop in for lunch, I needn't stress about how I'm dressed.

In addition to restaurants: What really bugs me these days is what people will wear to wedding receptions. I am not talking about casual outdoor weddings but lovely celebrations with sit-down dinners which were not intended for shorts, cargo pants, sandals, tennis shoes, tank tops and bra straps. I do not think that it is that most people are simply so financially strapped that they can't afford decent clothes to wear to an event. I think that it is that they were not taught how to properly dress for special occasions or are just so lazy they don't give a damn.

And don't even get me started on women who wear white to a wedding when they are not the bride......

I guess it's a bit elitist, but I wouldn't go to Bouchon in board shorts and slippers, although they are the favorite style of friendly local Hawai'ian god. And add a "Wainae Class of 1988" wife-beater T-shirt, even though I didn't go there.

On the other hand, I wrestle with the idea of going to Bouchon in //Las Vegas// in the first place. Those two seem to match about as well as wearing board shorts in the Louvre.

Give me back my restarant smoking area and I'll take all your shoeless, shirtless, ass-crack-showing people in with me. However, I don't want your children in there - leave them at home while you're dining out so other diners don't have to listen to them.