To hate restaurants with tables this close together? (Pic included )

[ohchristmastrees]

Just the two of us and we will be stuck on one of these tables.
Does anyone else hate being this close to other people when you are eating ?

Just book a table for 3, then if they ask once seated say its just the 2 of you now.

Awful. Especially if you're seated next to a a larger person.

If we arrive and tables are as close as those in the pic, we ask to be seated elsewhere. If they can’t, we leave.

I’d absolutely hate it.
I have a phobia of eating in front of others so if I eat out, I have to facing away from people as much as possible and a good distance away.

I took my mum for lunch in Cambridge once and the tables were set out like that and we sat down and I started panicking, so we left 😂.

You could call the restaurant @ohchristmastrees and ask that they sit you on a booth table or table away from the squished in ones.

Well, quite.

This is horrible. For me, it’s nothing to do with the size of people and everything to do with awkwardness of conversation and buns in face and potential for drinks to fly etc.

Many of the chains - The Ivy, Cote, Brasserie Blanc etc have tables that close together IME. My sneaky way round it is to book a table for 3…

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie We saw a whole carafe of water splash over an adjacent table the last time we ate in a similar restaurant. It went all over the clothes of another diner. These restaurants are obviously not really about the food. They are mostly a quick pit stop. Anyone loud next to you snd it’s hopeless.

The two person seat spacing is exactly like this at Sketch, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, The Game Bird and Club Gascon.

Ugh no, I hate that too. And it especially annoys me when restaurants do this on Valentine's Day, such a blatant profit grab.

I would struggle to get my generous arse through one of those gaps.

I would assume that this is a cafe with tables that close. You are right, it is completely inappropriate for a restaurant.

Sadly I saw at Sketch that you got a two person table at the end of the banquette, with an extra chair shoved in at the side of the table. 😅

It looks like you’d have to turn sideways to squeeze through and brush your arse over the other table’s food! 🙈😆. I mean you might as well just share a table like at Wagas…..you’re sat as close to the other table as if you were with them.

Must be hard to have a conversation without hearing the other table’s conversation.

And Mother's Day/Father's Day!

Always best to avoid these dates to eat out imo.

I once found myself seated between two tables of vapers who were generous of arse! 🙈

It drove me mad how many times they got up to go outside for a vape between courses.

I went to a restaurant that had gone viral on social media and it was set up like this. High turnover rules.

Nightmare fuel.

Only place I know near me with tables set up like this is our local Morrisons.

I just don’t book places like that. My husband also hates the acoustics in some places. It’s easy to look online now for places that don’t suit us.

Agree. There are a lot of top end restaurants that are all about the food rather than the luxury of the experience and which give you the bare minimum of space.

Some excellent neighbourhood restaurants take the same approach in order to be able to provide great food at an affordable price. Some people, including the OP and loads of people on this thread hate being cramped and would rather pay more or sacrifice quality of food for space: you pays your money and you takes your choice.

Not everyone would see it as a 'better experience'. I don't like tables being close together but, as other people have said, so called better restaurants do that as well.

And surely 'better food' is subjective? You may think it's better but someone else might think it's crap. Where we go on holiday there's a very expensive oyster restaurant, I wouldn't eat there if they paid me whereas a cheaper local restaurant does what I think is amazing food.

But as I and others have said, there are also some very high end, foodie places that do this. It’s because they want to cram in as many as possible for each service. I understand why they do it, but I don’t like it.

Such a lazy assumption.

Hospitality is facing soaring costs, with more to come, struggling for staff because there isn't an endless supply of serfs people who want to be treated like shit and paid a pittance for the privilege, so in order to get and keep staff they have to pay them more too.

Supplier costs have massively increased, energy costs have massively increased, with no cap for businesses, and customers well they want low prices, big portions, flawless service, fantastic atmosphere and individual service and expectations are just increasing. It's not possible to deliver and stay afloat in the current climate without increasing income, either by higher prices, more covers, reduced quantity or quantity, less staff or a combination of all of them.

Honestly for an industry that people use for their leisure time, people seem to revel in despising it.

dislike This too. Especially when we go out with the kids and we are back to back with folk. When it’s a bigger restaurant and there are free tables with more room I just usually ask to move.
I get it’s probably easier for staff to wait to small areas but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to prefer some breathing space