London restaurants hit customers with £100 ‘minimum spend' charge

Telegraph

21-02-2025

Diners are being hit with minimum spend requirements at top London restaurants after Labour's non-dom raid triggered an exodus of ultra-wealthy families.
Charges of as much as £100 per reservation are on the rise in the city's fine dining scene.
Britain's non-dom crackdown and internet bots were blamed for the measures that are intended to deter 'reservation squatting,' as first reported by the Financial Times.
Gymkhana, a two-Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in Mayfair, currently requires customers to pay a £100 minimum spend upfront when making a reservation.
Hutong, another high-end eatery in London's Shard skyscraper, charges £80 upfront per adult reservation on Fridays and Saturdays, while Chutney Mary in St James's says its dinner minimum spend is £60 per person.
Gymkhana told the Financial Times it had introduced the policy in November 2024 'in part due to the number of cancellations and no-shows we were seeing per service'.
It also said the booking requirements were necessary because of 'the large volumes of bots and reservation resale websites' directed at the restaurant after it won its second Michelin star.
MW Eat, the company that owns Chutney Mary, an Indian restaurant, claimed to have introduced the measures to combat 'curry-house hangover experiences', where large groups order few main dishes but many cheaper sides.
Rachel Reeves last month announced plans to water down her tax raid on ultra-wealthy non-doms after the number of millionaires leaving the UK doubled last year to hit 10,800.
The Chancellor has prepared an amendment to the Finance Bill that will make it easier for non-doms to bring money instantly to the UK following growing fears that the super-rich will quit the UK en masse.
Chris D'Sylva, owner of one-Michelin-starred, Dorian, in Notting Hill, said he had imposed 'a slightly punitive deposit' of £25 per head because too many people make multiple bookings at restaurants in London using online platforms before only turning up to one.
He said this practice was 'reservation-squatting' because 'there's no penalty associated with making a reservation'.
Mr D'Sylva said minimum spends for small parties were 'a very dangerous idea' because they sent a negative message, but he understood the reasons for restaurant bosses wanting the measures.
'It's something to drive away influencers that come and all they want to do is say that they were there and get the benefit of the social currency and post on their Instagram to the detriment of the business,' he said.
Mr D'Sylva added that high-grade food ingredients from Japan now needed to be flown around Russia, which increased costs, and that some of his customers had left Britain because of non-dom tax changes.
Victims of their own success
Martyn James, a consumer expert, said the recent exodus of wealthy non-doms from Britain could be partly to blame for restaurants imposing 'stringent' measures on clientele.
'I suspect quite a lot of the wealthier set may have moved on or may just not be engaging in displays of conspicuous wealth anymore, and it may factor in that some of them have left, but when you create a destination venue you effectively become a victim of success.'
He said that some high-end restaurants now attract more tourists than locals, who can be less reliable than locals.
'What they have done is created tourist destinations to go on holiday. By making them tourist destinations that aren't restaurants they are experiences.
'They are a victim of their own success by creating demand for their seats and [people] will use bots to get their reservations but they might not end up going because they have booked through a third party.
'Ultimately, the service industry and the leisure industry have been hurt by people not turning up for bookings. Lots of restaurants have said since the pandemic lots of people won't turn up. We have seen more stringent policies but this is a big chunk of money and it's presumptuous that people will want to spend £100.'
Wealthy non-doms living in the capital have fled the UK in record numbers in the year Labour came to power, after the previous Conservative government removed tax benefits enjoyed by foreigners that were kept by Ms Reeves.
The number of high net-worth individuals – with liquid assets of more than $1m (£821,153) – leaving the country rose by 157pc in 2024, according to figures compiled by analytics firm, New World Wealth, for advisors Henley & Partners.
They showed more than 10,000 millionaires left last year, a significant rise on the previous year's figures of just 4,300. No other country except for China saw greater capital flight than the UK between January 2024 and December of 2024, according to the figures.
The restaurant industry has faced significant inflation in costs in recent years including for staff, rent and food prices. The rise in employers' National Insurance contributions has also alarmed restaurateurs amid a fall in the hospitality workforce.
The number of people employed in accommodation and food services – broadly, the hospitality trade – fell by 58,000 between January 2024 and January 2025, according to the latest payroll data.
The same pressures are hammering shops. Employment in retail, wholesale and car garages dropped by just over 36,000 over the same period, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.