Should cell phones be banned in restaurants?

The most posh fine restaurant will not even think of banning cell phone for fear of driving away their customers to other restaurants that allow cell phone or offending their regular customers but they will probably politely inform diners to switch to vibrate mode or silent mode during dining.The restaurant can also place a discrete small signboard or card to remind gently their diners to switch their phone to silent or vibrate mode. If it happens that someone call during you're dining , you may chose to answer the phone quietly and cut the conversation shorts or not to answer at all but at least you know who is calling you from the missed call just in-case is an important or emergency call.It all boils down to how you handle those incoming calls or text messages discretely. Also i am sure that you will not want to talk on your cell phone or keep message someone while having your dinner and you do not want to appear rude to the person who dine with you and make them feel left out so the key here is using your own discretion and is not necessary for restaurants to teach their diners how to be discrete by banning the use of cell phone.

I believe restaurants with a high standard , the diners would be much more considerate and have the etiquette not to disturb other's diners and spoil the ambience's or romantic feeling around. Also it will embarrass them if they speak too loudly when the surrounding atmosphere is extremely quiet and silent.Instinctively you would not want to spoil the whole ambience's of a fine dining atmosphere therefore most diners would restraint the usage of their cell phone.

All depending on what kind of restaurants you are dining , currently i have not come across any fine dining , posh restaurants that stop their diners from using cell phone or bringing in their cellphone. Long time ago before cell phone became so common and popular , i did encounter one such french restaurant but it has since closed down. At this time of high technology age , people need to be contacted for personal or business.To stop them or ban them from using their cell phone when they are going to be stuck in a restaurant for perhaps a hour or more is going to make them feel very uncomfortable and uneasy especially if they have the young children at home and need to be contacted just in-case of emergency so by banning them from bringing in their cell phone during dining would be a big turn off.In reality cell phone has become an indispensable technology in today modern world.So banning it in restaurants is an exaggeration.

Unless is in hospital ICU we are talking about or Embassy with high security in mind then is understandable to ban cell phone.