Why Do Some Restaurants Provide Wet Towels?
**Secret Revealed**
If you’ve ever flown first class or eaten at a fine restaurant, you’ve probably been handed a wet towel. The first time this happens, you’ll probably be confused and look to others for guidance.
Generally, the towel is used to clean your hands. This tradition comes from Japan, where “oshibori” (wet towels) are handed out before meals. In Japanese restaurants, they may be hot or cold, depending on the season. Some people may also use the towels to clean their face.
This tradition has been expanded outside of Japanese restaurants where the practice varies greatly. In Western restaurants, wet towels may be served before and/or after the meal — to clean your fingers and around your mouth. According to Etiquette Scholar, it is not polite to clean beyond these areas, such as your neck or behind your ears, in a restaurant.
Many airlines offer wet towels, particularly in first class. They are sometimes offered immediately after takeoff, which is standard in first class on British Airways, among others. These towels are usually hot, but may be cold if you’ve just boarded from a particularly hot environment or if the cabin air conditioning is out-of-order. At this time, they are useful to clean your hands before eating or to clean the travel sweat off your skin (forehead, back of your neck, etc.). On longer flights, wet towels may also be served after a meal or just prior to landing.
Wet towels are traditionally made from cotton and moistened with water. Lemon juice is sometimes added to the water for its fragrance and degreasing properties. In recent years, pre-moistened disposable towels have gained popularity and are often wrapped in a plastic package. These towels come unscented and in a variety of fragrances. They sometimes contain other cleaning solutions such as alcohol.
If you’re ever given a wet towel, you can tell everyone what it’s for and where this tradition came from.
Chad Upton is the editor-in-chief of Broken Secrets and an official Yahoo Answers contributor.
Sources: FlyerTalk.com , PlanetTokyo , Wikipedia, Airline Towels , Etiquette Scholar
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Interesting article. Thanks.
Dreamtime Barbie in Alabama gives away wet towelettes. I love the smell of those things, and they’re used to wipe the sauce off your face and fingers.
ROCK ON ALABAMA!
they are used to wipe the food off your fingers and hands.
I remember the first time I was given a wet towel… I was in a restaurant and it happened to be in a Japanese Restaurant. I was younger of course, so I didn’t understand why the wet cloth was offered after my meal… not only that but it was steamy! I questioned at first, but I knew I should be polite… so that’s when I began to wash my plate by hand with the damp steamy towel! Everyone who was watching and even the owner of the restaurant laughed… I was embarrassed, but at least I made another person’s day.
Now I know why people look at me crazy when I go on airplanes.
I clean the hell out myself with that towel.
I don’t see how a wet towel would confuse someone. It’s not that difficult of a concept to understand..
The article’s ending was a bit weak…sorry, sorry, that’s the AP English rearing it’s ugly head again.
Interesting article, though.
its not as exciting as I thought
I wish I was rich enough to need a wet towel…..
Lol, I’m Asian, and I guess I’ve always thought using wet towels was normal
Muy interesante. Graciosos los comentarios. Funny comments too
towel is never wet in restruants so you should have prevent such idea
Thanks for the article, I love when you get them on the plane haha
On Emirates you get them in economy too 
Lol @ Oscar. I CLEAN THE HELL OUTTA MYSELF. Well so do i… so thats what you do….. well… great
Hot towels on an airplane? I can’t even get a bag of peanuts anymore!
great!! I ve got a answer 2 such question which i ve never ever thought of.,..
Thank u very much
are you serious… “etiquette says that people should not clean behind their ears or their neck” so you need a book to tell you these things? those would have to be some pretty special circumstances for cleaning behind your ears or yes even your neck with a wet towel in a PLACE WHERE YOU EAT yes a restaurant… seriously you think that type of grooming is appropriate at a table? reminder.. these people are not your family except for maybe… maybe the people at your table…
and i’d be willing to bet even your family isn’t always looking forward to your awkward grooming at a dinner table
If you fly Qatar Airways, even in economy class right after take off they offer wet towels.
Also i had experienced this wet towels in some Chinese restaurants mostly.
They are not very popular in Germany though, but in other countries specially English speaking ones, you can find this traditions in most places.
I saw one guy wiping his arms and head with those wet towels
)))
oh! now i know why wet cloths are given thanks alot:) it was really helpful
Article is very interest and information all the people. Thank you
i use dry towel to dry my wet self.
While flying back from Germany, we were given hot, wet towels. Everyone made the strangest faces. No one knew what to do with them. It was so funny.
I like it when they give you a towel. I feel cleaner after touching the doors handles, or other objects before seating. I also use a disinfectant towel on airplanes to clean the tray, arm rests, and seat belts. I have not gotten sick after a flight, since I started doing the clean before touch routine.
The only time i get a wet towel is to hang it up to dry
I’d feel a lot more confident about using those warm wet towels if I were sure they were laundered between uses.
I really don’t like receiving wet towels, no matter where I am. I prefer to wash my hands.
it is for cleaning hands after eating, esp in chinese seafood & japanese restaurants. seafood esp crabs, lobsters etc.. require the use of hands, therefore are pretty messy after food.
Why would this be confusing?
These people never heard of “finger licking good”?
Person appearance has always been of great import when flying. Hot towels are a great aid in removing a stain of food, or beverage prior to landing. The need to feel “fresh” is magnified by the closed-in feeling a pressurized cabin promotes. And, the wet-towel impresses upon the passenger the “specialness” of air-travel. It is a successful, and useful sales gimmick.
not a fan of those wet towels but i understand why they have those!
most upscale resturants and asian ones will give you a wet towel to help clean your hands with..some even give you a dry towel with a small bowl for same reason..’specially if you are eating bbq food or seafood which gives you bowls of the butter to dip the seafood in..but you never use it to bathe in or like someone had said earlier to wash your whole face,ears,and neck with. just for the hands and wiping a little off your mouth with.
I tell you in America the word Etiquette came about after the Industrial revolution and it was when people even as the ”hoyploy”, did describe in newspapers of the time where was fine dining. No, the wealthy had no need for etiquette, did not go out to eat the wet hand towel is not obscure or by ethnicity obscured —your own parents did say wash your hands for dinner. And, if no towel is produced request it, and if they can not provide so elementary a thing you are to either go to the bathroom and wash your hands and leave,
The only wet towel I’ve ever gotten from a place besides my bathroom is the cheap ones from KFC. Boy, don’t I feel like a queen. *rolls eyes*
I also want to mention that I can never use the 2 inch square ones, I get too much sauce/grease on my hands.
I’m not Asian or Japanese (grew up in South Africa) but I’ve never thought of “wetwipes” as being unusual. The first time I was given one, I’m quite sure I wiped my hands with it intuitively.
They are quite standard in South African restaurants.
Yahoo is great! I always had a deep trust for this site.Keep up the great work you guys.
Lol, when I was 5 or so, they gave me a really hot one on a plane it was so hot I threw it in the stewards (or wat ever u call them) face lol
Whenever I fly to Brazil to visit my family (I fly coach, not first-class), the flight attendants always hand out hot, wet towelettes after takeoff, before meals to clean your hands before you eat and I’m pretty sure that they hand them out after the meal too. I’m pretty used to receiving them and I like having them because it just makes my hands feel cleaner
That’s always been a no-brainer to me. I can’t stand for my hands to be sticky from whatever I ate if I had to use hands. Sometimes I use utensils even on finger foods just so I don’t have to get my hands dirty.
Only “first” class cabins? I get them when I fly business… it is not really wet but moist would be a better term…
I bet the people who prepare those towels have turned it into an art form… They have to make sure each individual towel is not too wet that it drips, but still wet enough to clean. Such an interesting tradition.
To keep the sauce and stickiness off your hands and face.
Haha, yeah I love wet towels. They are awesome. Cool article, btw
i like its instructions.
It is quite a surprise for us Japanese to know what we have taken for granted is taken as something like novelty by foreigners.
It seems like our washlet toilets this wet towel is another piece of peculiar japanese items.
Whenever I fly to Brazil to visit my family (I fly coach, not first-class), the flight attendants always hand out hot, wet towelettes after takeoff, before meals to clean your hands before you eat and I’m pretty sure that they hand them out after the meal too. I’m pretty used to receiving them and I like having them because it just makes my hands feel cleaner: )
i always liked getting a wet towel on the plane, it would be nice if restaurant did the same
it is a sophisticated service became an etiquette on board and in some restaurants ..i think every one likes it and need it as well .tranformed to be positive wanted habit. we used to it now specially on board on any flight short or long. i love it my self.
I love when restaurants provide warm, wet towels. Some people don’t get into the habit of washing up before eating and this practice provides that with convenience.
Isn’t it pretty obvious?
“Hot towels on an airplane? I can’t even get a bag of peanuts anymore!
Comment posted on March 31st, 2011 at 8:57 am by Bill”
^^^^
thats only if you travell inside america even then they still do give you a can of soda /cofee and cracker.
atleast delta, american and southwest give you
international airlines are much better at servicing their guest who fly with them.
Well if you have some messy ribs do you wanna wipe the sauce off with a dry napkin?
I lol’d at the comments. At my first experience with wet towels, I instantly learned what it was for. It’s not a hard concept…
Yes but if you wash yourself before you eat, you are only spreading germs to everybody else in the restaurant.
Wet wipes are so common these days I never thought of them as being strange. Indian meals usually require you to eat without cutlery and washing hands after meals is quite routine. In fact Indian restaurants serve what is called the ‘finger-bowl’ which has lukewarm water and a slice of lemon. The lemon is rubbed over the fingers to degrease them and then the hands are dipped in the water to clean them off. The hands are then wiped clean with a dry cloth. Some restaurants these days substitute this whole ritual with a wet wipe, which, regretfully, does not produce results of the same quality.
Interesting question.
i loved the “wet-towel” article. now i’ll know what to do. Yamster i hope we are on the same flight when it is your turn to wash your tiny hands and tiny mouth. maybe you should run a “rude to stare article” sometime, because i will be staring at tiny Yamster with her wet towel cleaning her fingers. thanks y/a.
@ Roy Strang: It’s “hoi polloi”, by the way, and it’s Greek for the “common people”, not the upper crust as you and many others often misconstrue. Hot, wet towels are almost a necessity on long flights. When the airline doesn’t offer them, at least an individually-wrapped wet-nap from my purse will suffice.
i like wet towel , which helps to clean your hand afterwards
Wet wipes are so common these days never thought of them as strange. Indian meals are often required to eat without silverware and wash their hands after meals is very common. In fact, Indian restaurants serve what is called the “finger-bowl”, with warm water and a slice of lemon. Rub lemon on your fingers to remove the grease and then the hands are soaked in water for cleaning. The hands are then cleaned with a dry cloth. Some restaurants these days to replace this ritual with a wet cloth, which, unfortunately, does not produce the same quality results.
well du its because if they give a dry one u will have to wash it over and over againa and it will not wash your hand that much a wet one can take the oil or durt and it will take it off
Yeap, wet towels to clean a part of your neck can be fine when you have just boarded, who cares! But gosh, of course it’s a no-no on a restaurant. It doesn’t actually require any education but you can ask yourself why would a restaurant give you such a towel for your neck anyway? Something must be wrong.