Hands off my table for one, LIZ HOGGARD tells greedy restaurateurs
- As solos know, it’s bad enough paying twice as much for hotel rooms
- I’ve dined solo in many places, from Peckham to New York, Thailand to Moldova
- READ MORE: Restaurant sets minimum spend of £390 for solo diners
From greasy spoons to high-end joints, I’ve dined solo from Peckham to New York, and Thailand to Moldova.
It represents a punctuation mark in the day — a chance to make plans and look after yourself for an hour or so. It also makes the flat you return to at night feel less empty.
Thanks to a flourishing new spirit of female empowerment, solo diners are out and proud. The one-person economy is booming.
But last month it emerged that Alex Dilling at Hotel Cafe Royal, a double Michelin-starred Mayfair restaurant, charges single diners the minimum cost of a table for two for its tasting menu — currently £350. Couples, however, pay the same cost split between them.
The same applies to lunches at the 34-seat restaurant, which serves a ‘modern take on French gastronomic cuisine’, where a single diner pays £170, while pairs are charged £85 each.
From greasy spoons to high-end joints, I’ve dined solo from Peckham to New York, and Thailand to Moldova
‘I think all the Michelin restaurants in London are increasing their prices, if they are allowing any form of solo diners at all,’ a spokesman for Alex Dilling observed.
It’s a classic own goal. Single women are often high earners who can afford to treat themselves solo.
I went for a drink at a chic French restaurant in Mayfair recently and two of the dining tables were occupied by expensive-looking women — sitting alone.
But it seems the ‘single tax’ is back. As solos know, it’s bad enough paying twice as much for hotel rooms as those who are part of a couple (mad when we use fewer towels, less hot water etc).
And it’s almost impossible to book a single West End ticket because they worry you’ll spoil the run of seats.
The fear is it will trickle down to the High Street. How long before Cote requires a minimum spend for two people?
Will it be a return to the bad old days of ‘couples only’ signs in the window? I still blush at the memory.
Being a freelance writer, I have a lemonade not champagne lifestyle, booking the prix fixe and down-loading vouchers.
My new discovery is softlaunchlondon.com (40,000 subscribers) set up by 32-year-old Jimmy Richardson to give as many people as possible the chance to try out hot new restaurants.
Thanks to a flourishing new spirit of female empowerment, solo diners are out and proud. The one-person economy is booming (stock image)
Recently I ate solo at a casino restaurant (I don’t even gamble). But the joy of having a martini and a small plate of oysters (£10) at the six-seater Balcony Bar at Leicester Square’s Heliot Steak House then watching James Norton on-stage (single seat achieved after weeks spent online to secure it!) was a mature pleasure.
I understand why food prices have increased. And every time I see a chef complain on Twitter that 27 people didn’t turn up for dinner, I die of shame. They need our support.
But talk of banning solo diners seems particularly selfish when getting a restaurant table has become a gladiatorial sport.
You can’t get into a High-Street chain such as Franco Manca after 9.45pm, plus so many restaurants no longer offer lunch. When I come out of a film, there’s tumbleweed blowing down Soho.
Unless, of course, you have a private members’ club. ‘We pay the kitchen porter £28 an hour — that’s more than me,’ one harassed proprietor told me.
From the moment you book (having paid a deposit), you’re bombarded by text alerts checking that you’re still coming. But life is fallible — customers fall ill, miss trains. And if you need to cancel your table (within 48 hours of your booking), you may end up paying in full.
According to research, 90 of the top 100 UK restaurants charge for ‘no shows’ or late cancellation; some even require complete pre-payment. Ynyshir in Wales, voted the best restaurant in Britain in the National Restaurant Awards, asks diners to prepay by £375 per head for their 30-course tasting menu.
The chef-patron Gareth Ward advises diners to take out travel insurance.
It feels like money is being spent on the wrong luxuries. I’d prefer a quiet corner table rather than techno music.
Talk of banning solo diners seems particularly selfish when getting a restaurant table has become a gladiatorial sport (stock image)
Apparently at Ynyshir you get a DJ ‘curating’ music that cranks up as the night proceeds and atmospheric effects such as ‘birch smoke’.
A few years ago, restaurateurs seemed to be making the whole business easier for solo diners, with subtle changes in lighting, menu and seating, with designated ‘counter seats’ for solos. We were the new growth industry. Now we’re in the dustbin!
Funnily enough, a few years ago I did enjoy supper at Ynyshir (my 51st birthday if you’re asking). But we didn’t pay £375 a head. Not even half that. Gareth had just joined as head chef, but back then you had a choice of a lighter seven-course tasting menu.
The hotel’s owner, a brilliant woman called Joan Reen, made sure that solo diners were cherished as she moved around the dining room, dispensing gossip and life wisdom.
Later I sent a female friend, recently bereaved, to stay at Ynyshir. She returned restored.
Maybe there was a kinder (less macho?) ambience to dining back then? The fact that the chef experience is now more important than the customers is crazy.
So, I have a plea to our chefs, whom I admire as genuine artists. Let’s have less expensive theatrics so we can justify a meal alone, without a second mortgage.
I just want the chance to people watch and try a new dish. Not dry ice and a Croatian DJ.
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