05-08-2025
The rise of early dinners is the death of civilisation
In case more evidence was needed of the death of civilisation, a boom in 'early dining' is reported.
OpenTable, an online platform that handles reservations for customers too scaredycat to pick up the phone and call up for a table, and restaurants too scaredycat to have a number, reports that 6pm bookings are up 11 per cent year on year in London and six per cent across the country as a whole.
Worse still, 5pm bookings in the capital are up 10 per cent year on year, presumably for diners eating with their nursery-aged children or friends who have recently flown in from Seoul or Canberra.
As usual, we are catching up with a trend several years after America. American cities, particularly in the east, are meant to be vast shrines to convenience where you can get whatever you want whenever you like.
In American Psycho, a peerless satire of consumerist longing, the most sought-after table was at 8.30pm on a Friday night. They too have succumbed to a Californian, early to bed, early to rise ethos that has emerged from San Francisco, a city which never comes to life. Today, Patrick Bateman would be bitterly envious of the 5.30pm on a Tuesday, which would leave him in good shape to do some murdering by about 8pm and be tucked up by 10pm.
It all makes perfect sense. On both sides of the Atlantic, the move towards early meals is the natural consequence of other prevailing phenomena.
It first reared its head in the aftermath of the pandemic, as a more flexible approach to eating out, but it seems to have staying power.
Shockingly, being locked down reacquainted commuters with the pleasure of 'being at home with their families'; a 5.30pm meal lets them scurry back to Surrey by 7.30pm sharp. Diners are drinking less, so are not as likely to want a quick half round the corner, or a cocktail at the bar, before they eat.
Every new piece of data from Silicon Valley seems to run counter to the traditional pleasures of the table. A late dinner, particularly with booze involved, is anathema to those who fret over their digestive health, the quality of their sleep, early-morning exercise regimens or any of the other metrics hawked on podcasts and in LinkedIn posts.
For these perfectly optimised specimens, a rogue glass of wine or potato consumed after 10pm could be enough to throw them off-kilter for weeks. Better only to eat in sunlight hours. Bryan Johnson, the 'longevity pioneer' determined to live forever, provided he doesn't die of boredom, advocates not eating for three hours before bed.
Much is being lost.
Early dinners might be perfect for booze-dodging Americans who need to get back into their hyperbaric chambers for eight clear hours before work starts at 4am. But late dining is for unemployed, wine-loving southern Europeans. A quick bite before a play or film is a hurried, functional thing; a meal afterwards is a chance to argue or agree.
There is a kind of magic, too, in making friends at a party and scurrying off to find somewhere to eat. We have the word supper for a reason. Nobody has ever fallen in love over a salad at 5.30pm.
A fightback is afoot. Other restaurateurs are following the example set by Chinatown or the Middle Eastern spots on the Edgware Road, which have always understood the conviviality and convenience of a later meal. Rita's, Gabe Pryce and Missy Flynn's brilliant little Soho bistro, is trying to woo a later crowd by offering £10 martinis for diners after 10pm.
Tomos Parry's Michelin-starred Mountain, in Soho, pushed back its last reservations to 10.30pm. In April, the veteran restaurateur Jeremy King announced a 25 per cent 'night owl' discount for diners booking after 9.15pm at The Park and 9.45pm at Arlington.
'Londoners are eating earlier and earlier and becoming strangers to the joy and fun of late night dining,' he wrote. 'I am determined to capture back the night.'
I wish him good luck. He will need it.
This week's restaurant highlights
Wildflowers, Belgravia, London
I missed Wildflowers, in Belgravia, the first time I walked past it; it is set back from the street. Having eaten the wonderful Mediterranean-ish dishes – anchovy toasts were a treat – and basked in the service, I will be back.
Black Swan, Oldstead, North Yorkshire
Another front-footed development from Tommy Banks, who is taking scallops and turbot off the menu at the Black Swan at Oldstead to prioritise livestock from the family farm. Other restaurants will be paying attention.
The Dorchester, London
Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester is welcoming Mark Birchall of Moor Hall – like Ducasse's, a three-Michelin-starred establishment – for a one-off dinner on September 9. Undoubtedly the ritziest meal that week. Tickets are from £485
