The gaps between courses in a restaurant are not accidental. They are managed against two competing pressures, and the resulting pace shapes the meal more than most diners notice.
The kitchen and the room want different things
A kitchen works most efficiently when orders arrive spread evenly, since a cluster overwhelms a station while a gap wastes capacity.
The front of house wants tables to progress at a pace that fills the room without leaving anyone waiting long enough to become irritated.
Service timing is the negotiation between these, managed by whoever controls when orders are fired to the kitchen.
Firing is staged rather than immediate
Taking an order and sending it to the kitchen are separate acts, and the interval between them is where pace is controlled.
A main course with a long cooking time is fired early, while a fast one is held until the starters are nearly cleared.
Which is why courses arrive together despite requiring very different amounts of time, and why an unusually quick main sometimes signals a mistimed fire.
Turnover economics set the target length
A restaurant's viability depends partly on how many times each table is used in an evening, and the target sitting length follows from that.
Venues with high rent and modest prices need faster turnover, and their service will feel brisker regardless of the staff's intentions.
Venues charging more per cover can afford longer sittings, which is a large part of what distinguishes the experience rather than the food alone.
Diners read pace as attentiveness
A long gap is interpreted as neglect even when the kitchen is working steadily, and a short one as being rushed even when nothing was hurried.
Staff manage that perception with contact rather than speed, since a table that has been spoken to tolerates a wait considerably better.
Which is why the visible aspects of service concentrate on acknowledgement, and why a silent gap feels longer than a marked one of the same length.
Diners have more influence than they use
Pace can generally be adjusted on request, since the mechanism is simply when orders are fired rather than a fixed schedule.
Asking for a gap before the main course, or for courses to arrive as they are ready, is straightforward for a kitchen to accommodate if it is told early.
Requesting it after a meal has started is harder, because dishes already fired cannot be held without deteriorating.