Restaurants

Tom Aikens
Six or seven years ago, several haute cuisine restaurants in London started taking customers’ credit card details when booking tables, so that no-shows could still be charged for lost earnings. Although this protects the restaurateur’s interests and is understandable in very popular places, it also puts potential diners on the defensive. There was a well-publicised case a few years ago at one particular establishment, when a death in the family prevented a group of diners being able to make their booking. Despite calling to cancel, the restaurant went ahead and ‘fined’ the organiser £40 per head for loss of earnings. Soon after the publicity surrounding this unfortunate event, the procurement of credit card details fell out of favour with many restaurants – though not with Gordon Ramsay’s establishments, or at Tom Aikens. Feature continues

On several visits to Tom Aikens’ flagship venture, we haven’t just found the credit card business irritating, we’ve also found the general booking policy most discouraging. Customers are told the times they can dine at, with little room for negotiation; more than once we’ve had to eat very early just to get a table, then been unimpressed to find the restaurant virtually empty for the first hour. Once credit card details are taken, a £55 charge is made per person not turning up, unless a full 48 hours’ notice is given. A dress code is decreed – ‘smart’, meaning no trainers or sportswear, and a jacket is preferred – which, to add insult, then doesn’t appear to be observed by all diners. In its favour, Tom Aikens is one of the easiest haute cusine restaurants to get into: bookings are not needed for lunch, and you can make dinner reservations just days in advance. Our advice would be to go for lunch – or be very confident that your dinner date won’t cancel.

The Wolseley
The Wolseley is a hugely popular restaurant, but its popularity is ameliorated by its size. Open all day and with around 150 seats, it typically caters for around 1,100 people every day (said a spokesperson) – so each seat is likely to be occupied by seven or eight people during that time. It has five receptionists handling around 1,200 phone calls daily, but booking is not really a huge problem; tables for the same or next day are often available, as long as you don’t mind being a bit flexible about the timing. Better still, the Wolseley has an encouraging walk-in policy: it sets aside a remarkable one-third of all the dinner tables for people who have not reserved, so if you just show up you’re quite likely to be seated right away. Marvellous.

But in contrast to this, if you try phoning in advance to book, you may run into a far more regimented system. Ring for even the most modest slot (say, a Monday lunch) several weeks in advance and you’re likely to be told you can come at 12.15pm but need to leave by 1.45pm. Our advice? Save yourself the hassle and just show up at the door.