Noise in restaurants: Is there a way to make it a little quieter?

Sometime in the evening, the moment arrives: your head starts pounding. In this corner restaurant in the Westend district, that's already the case by 7 p.m.; Munich residents eat early. All the tables are occupied, most with two guests, plus three tables with six, seven, eight people, all eager to talk. The noise level has swelled to over 90 decibels, according to the measurement app on my phone—about the volume of a hairdryer. By now, you've moved to within 30 centimeters of the person opposite you to avoid lip-reading, your fork dangerously close to their face. After two hours, you call it a night; the hoped-for relaxing evening never materialized. The bill, please!