Half empty restaurants turning customers away...

[dameofdilemma]

Just wondered what the business model is for restaurants - do they need to fill a certain percentage of their tables to make a profit? Or are the costs of labour and food now so high that they're actively looking to stay only half full?

Context is we were in a touristy UK city (not London) on a weekday for lunch and so many restaurants were only half full (at best) and were turning customers away.

Couldn't see the point of all that space and all those empty tables - maybe they'll all be looking for smaller premises to rent?

Lots of lots of staff wanted signs so am guessing that's underpinning it but can restaurants continue to operate like that?

Were the tables reserved? Maybe staff shortages? I think some restaurants give serving staff an area of tables each so if staff are absent their areas will be empty

I would assume they have reservations or a party coming later or that they are short staffed or will need to shut early or they are low on stock.

We just had this happen to us in York - found it weird as we were two people wanting a quick lunch and were turned away from a place less than a quarter full.

If the kitchen is short staffed, then even if they let you sit down, you might have a long wait for any food. Some places might prefer to restrict numbers to ensure a good service rather than risk a customer having a crappy wait due to a lack of chefs.

That’s happened to me when they are short staffed and don’t want long waits (and bad reviews) for their customers.

Loads of hospitality venues are short staffed, so I would assume they can't cope with more customers. One of my favourite restaurants in Cheltenham (The Daffodil if anyone knows it) has recently closed down due to rising costs and staff shortages.

It can also be a food delivery service thing, they’re busy with online orders!

I'd rather have good, quick service than sit for an hour waiting.

No matter how many empty tables, the kitchen can only provide food at a rate based on staff numbers. Good establishments know how many tables/customers they can serve and limit walk ups accordingly.

Not enough staff to man a full busy restaurant or tables are booked. Probably more the former.

I just saw this on holiday too(U.K.) We arrived and ordered food fine, but everyone after us was turned away or told they could come in for drinks only because the kitchen was too busy.
So many people were arguing about it - asking how long until they would be taking orders again.
a few went and then came back so I assumed other places were saying the same.

There were plenty of seats and servers but the kitchen had a back log of orders.

We waited a while for our food but it was ok.

Several reasons I think
tables reserved for later (unlikely to be all of them:
short of staff - both front of house and in the kitchen (most likely)
problems with availability and deliveries of ingredients
online orders meaning that the kitchen does have capacity for dine ins (most frustrating for people wanting to dine in I think)

it’s very frustrating all round, I don’t always know the exact time that I’m going to want to eat lunch or dinner when I’m not at home.

There was a thread on here the other day about why do people accept your business when they are short of staff, give crap service, then blame being short-staffed.

This is the other side of it. I have noticed it too where we are on holiday. No room at the Inn, but when passing later on our way back from the place that did take us, saw the first place with loads of spaces. I guessed that they just didn't have the staff to run at full capacity.

It’s the lack of staff. Huge, huge recruitment crisis across the hospitality sector (and loads of other industries- my son’s nursery have been trying to recruit an NVQ level 3 for almost a year)

We had this at pizza express, they said they were full and only accepting bookings. We went outside, booked in the website, went back in and they seated us. It was a bit of a farce really.

That all makes sense - I can see why a restaurant won't want to risk poor reviews by making customers wait a long time for their food.

I do wonder how they can continue though - they must have significant fixed costs of large premises (which they presumably rented thinking they would need the tables). But maybe they're making enough from Deliveroo to get by.

This happened to us in Belfast and we were told that they just didn't have enough staff in the kitchen or serving to allow them to operate at full capacity.

Chef's also need prep time. And time to get in all of the deliveries and unpack them. So the day after they have been off is often the busiest because everything has to be prepped from scratch. His place closes on a Sunday so the whole kitchen is cleared and scrubbed down Saturday night (usually finishing close to midnight because cleaning is non-negotiable) then Tuesday, everything is prepped fresh.

This means his business doesn't offer Tuesday lunch because he is short staffed and there just isn't the time to actually get everything ready. They would love to offer lunch but the food just isn't ready yet. They also sell a lot of Afternoon Teas and while they are easy to serve, they take ages to prepare.

Was in Windsor this week, same situation. Turned away at off peak time from half full places, many were not even open, many had "staff wanted" signs and some that always used to be busy eg Bills, closed down. It will get worse too in the coming months.