One can always discuss the food critic's view of the restaurant. Always a way to start a lively conversation.

Bonefish in Glen Burnie also has a communal table. Bonefish is a chain, so I am assuming they all have the communal tables at the bar area.

Ugh. Keep your communal tables. I'm just enough of a misanthrope (I know, my personal shortcoming, not anyone else's) that I prefer to have dinner with just my wife (and friends, on rare occasion) than with total strangers.

"I'll take that booth in the back, please!"

My mother worked at Karson's a million years ago and often talked about the "Community Table" they had there. Apparently it was very popular with businessmen back in the 60's and 70's.
Now that the communal table is back, let's hope for a revival of Karson's cheesecake!

The center of Red Star's first floor is filled with one long communal table.

Many Basque restaurants are 100% communal seating. As is Gritty's brew pub in Maine. I love the concept. I get tired of only having my wife to talk to during a meal and with my personality I don't have friends.

I learned my lesson at Christmas. I'm not touching this one with a 10 foot communal table.

It's a horrifying concept. It's only for the restaurant owner to pump out a few more dollars per square foot. Look at the photo above: Zero elbow room. Zero privacy. Zero atmosphere. And, when your unknown neighbor grabs her cell phone the whole evening goes up in smoke as she explains to her baby sitter why the child may be throwing up. It's happened to me at a very expensive restaurant in San Francisco.

I've also been to a restaurant's communal table where my partner and I ordered a couple of extraordinary bottles of wine for our special event. Our unknown neighbor started the conversation by asking if he and his wife could taste it. We asked the waiter for extra glasses and passed the unknowns a generous portion. When they asked for seconds, we asked the waiter to hand us the check... before we had so much as an appitizer.

I'm a social person. But, as an earlier poster wrote: Give Me the Booth in the Back. And, Please Give Me Some Elbow Room.

They have it at Iggie's too. And Red Robin in Columbia. No big deal or trendy, I think. Never bothered me since we were never bothered at all. I would have nicely but firmly turned down the couple who asked for your wine - to me sharing the table with strangers doesn't mean sharing everything else. I'm surprised that they're more common these days since Americans absolutely love their own space (this includes me, but when I travel, I go with the flow).

The new Juniors Wine Bar in Fed. Hill will have a communal table (but it hadn't yet arrived when I ate there a few weeks ago). With the tightness of the tables at Pazo, I often feel as if that might as well be a communal table. In fact, that can be more awkward. At least with a communal table you don't face the un-enviable decision about which side of your mid-section you have to brush against your neighbor's table to get out of the bench seating.

No elbow room, annoyingly loud cell phone talkers, people listening in on my personal conversations- no thank you. The few occassions that my wife and I have a free night to go out to a decent dinner, I don't want to spend it leaning in uncomfortably so the restaurant can pack in a few more customers. ugh.

We used to call then "counters." And the one at Woolworth's was the best place to have a quick, reasonably-priced lunch.