Multiple high-end London restaurants have adopted minimum spend requirements for reservations. How will this impact the dining experience?
Anyone who’s spent their youth living in a big city will have a similar story. You and your friends no doubt cobbled together your spare cash to buy the cheapest dish on the menu to share and soak up the buzz of uptown restaurant.
Say goodbye to that romanticised memory of dining in major cities. The latest trend to hit restaurants in some major cities is the minimum spend.
Concerned by rising costs, last-minute cancellations or no-show diners, restaurants are forcing customers to commit to spending a minimum amount of money per head when they attend.
Minimum spends hit the headlines when two Michelin star London restaurant Gymkhana announced that each guest would have to pay at least £100 (€121) on their dinners.
Gymkhana isn’t alone. Other restaurants across the UK capital are requiring diners to accept parting with a minimum amount of cash on entry. Fellow gourmet Indian restaurant Chutney Mary demands a £60 (€73) minimum spend, while Hutong in The Shard requires £80 (€97).
The most expensive minimum spend requirement we found in London was the Araki, a sushi restaurant in Mayfair, that charges at least £300 (€364) for the pleasure of eating there.
Pay to reserve
Alongside minimum spends, there has also been a rise in restaurants asking for deposits before bookings. It’s not uncommon in London and other major UK cities for a guest’s credit card to be charged around £20 (€24) per head to secure the reservation.
What’s the reasoning behind these measures? According to Gymkhana, it’s “in part due to the number of cancellations and no-shows we were seeing per service”. However, speaking to the Financial Times, the Indian restaurant explained that after they received their two Michelin stars, their site was inundated with “large volumes of bots and reservation resale websites”.
Minimum spends and reservation deposits are aimed at tackling a rising trend in the restaurant industry that has plagued live music for some time. New York restaurants have been plagued by bots that make huge swathes of reservations at trendy spots so that people can then bid on the reservation closer to the time.
It’s a system that means those with the cash to spare can find a booking at a great restaurant with a moment’s notice, but leads to restaurants having no-show reservations and less wealthy potential diners missing out.
No shows, no money
Outside of the bots world, restaurants are also tired of the trend where people book tons of potential reservations ahead of a dinner plan, only to visit just one of the reserved restaurants or none at all.
No-shows are increasingly troubling for restaurants who are facing huge hurdles to remain financially stable. Costs have risen from all corners: rent, energy and ingredients. As a result, high table turnover and increased individual diner spend has become more necessary than ever.
“There’s no desire to gouge the guests or the customer in any way,” Matt Tucker, CEO of Tock, a restaurant booking app, told the Financial Times. “This is just saying, ‘we are making a contract between the two of us that you’re going to show up and I’m going to provide you the best meal, the best service’.”
Minimum spends might be a reliable way for high-end restaurants with social media buzz in major cities to guarantee reliable income. But it shouldn’t be a widespread trend. Any restaurant that serves a local community, values repeat customers, or tries to create an inviting atmosphere is going to struggle with implementing a minimum spend.
While many diners will accept the economic motivation, nothing will cut through any pretense of a convivial charming local eatery than the threat of the card machine lingering over you.
Whether it’s the kind of place where you feel brought into someone’s home and catered for personally, or a fine dining experience that whisks you away into a world of luxury, the best restaurants allow you to simply enjoy the sumptuous food in front of your and forget that the industry is a goods and service for money exchange.
