formal or functional

We don't eat at a table at home as the room with the table in also contains lots of other stuff, making the table inaccessible for seating. It's also a fairly ill-lit room, as is my parents' dining-room, though meals have generally been conducted in there ever since my sister demanded we eat in there every time she returned during uni holidays after leaving home. Despite the greater formality of the room and table-setting Edgar tends not to lick his plates clean at home, if that's what he was doing rather than hiding behind the plate, something less easily achieved with the transparent bowls he tends to eat from at home.