Studies on noise in restaurants have shown a multitude of potential negative effects, for example related to mood, overall satisfaction, intended revisit, the ability to communicate and the actual behavior in the room. In this paper, we investigated the complex interplay between room acoustics, soundscape evaluation, non-acoustical aspects of a restaurant visit and overall restaurant quality. Based on acoustical measurements and reports from 142 persons visiting 12 restaurants in Berlin, we propose a structural equation model including both acoustical and non-acoustical factors and yielding a good overall fit. The model, for instance, suggests that the A-weighted sound level has a negative impact on the assessment of overall restaurant quality, while the effect of soundscape pleasantness on overall restaurant quality is mediated by the restaurant’s perceived atmosphere. Moreover, the reverberation time was found to be effective predominantly through its effect on sound strength, which leads patrons to increasingly raise their speech level to ensure intelligibility, resulting in a feedback loop due to the Lombard effect. These results thus emphasize the need to design actively the restaurant’s acoustical atmosphere beyond pure loudness reduction which involves a specific trade-off between comfort and liveliness, depending on the desired character of the place.