What are the pros/cons of serving the salad dish before/after the main dish?
For a fairly typical thread on this, see:  http://www.thekitchn.com/cultural-differences-salad-bef-65008

The so-called reasons I see listed here are consistent with what I found in several different internet discussions of the issue, none of which are scientificially or academically credible:


Restaurants serve salad first because it is easiest to get out on the table
At home, eat the entrees first while they are hot
Eat salad last so that the roughage helps digestion
Eat salad last so that the stomach acids are not diluted for the entree


Note that the last two are kind of non-sensical.  They sound great as folk science, but in the course of a single meal, it will all end up together in the stomach, as the digestive process is not so fast that the courses end up moving through the system in sequence like cars in a railroad train in sequence over the track.

Then again, some like to serve it with the main part of the meal.

I am sure this is just a matter of cultural expectation.