The Michelin-starred restaurant that charges its solo diners double
By Catherine Lough and Emily Gilbert
Couples often fret over whether or not to split the bill at restaurants, but solo diners at one Michelin-starred venue are faced with covering the full cost of a meal for two alone.
Alex Dilling, a two-Michelin-starred Mayfair restaurant on the first floor of the luxury Hotel Café Royal, which only opened in September 2022, charges single diners the minimum cost of a table for two for its tasting menu – currently £350 ($A668).
Alex Dilling restaurant in the Hotel Café Royal.
Couples, however, are asked to pay the same cost split between them.
This is also the case for lunches, where a single diner pays £170 ($325), while those dining as a pair are charged £85 ($A162) each.
The 34-seat restaurant owned by Alex Dilling and Victoria Sheppard, which serves a “modern take on French gastronomic cuisine”, is increasing the cost of the tasting menu for single diners to £390 ($745) from Aug 18.
The restaurant insisted that the minimum spend was not a “solo supplement”.
“Basically we only have eleven tables in the restaurant, which means that we do require a minimum spend for two people for solo diners,” a spokesman told The Telegraph.
“It’s going to be increased in mid-August, that’s because living is increasing in London, food prices included. I think all the Michelin restaurants in London are increasing the prices, if they are allowing any form of solo diners at all.”
As part of the seven-course tasting menu, diners can sample dishes such as aged Kaluga caviar, Limousin veal sweetbreads, blue lobster and Wagyu beef from Gunma prefecture. Other temptations include Bresse pigeon and pâté de campagne.
Desserts use flavours such as Gariguette strawberries or Tainori chocolate.
A dessert at the Alex Dilling restaurant in Hotel Café Royal.
Ms Sheppard told the Daily Mail: “We have a very high demand for solo dining and only 11 tables and a very maximum of 34 covers in our restaurant, to date we don’t turn our tables.
“We procure among the highest quality ingredients possibly available to provide the highest level of gastronomic experience.”
She added: “I can confirm our prices are increasing by 11 per cent for dinner tasting menus despite an increase in staff costs of 30 per cent and our average cost increase from our suppliers being 25 per cent.”
She also said that should solo diners not want to pay the minimum spend, Alex Dilling would try to accommodate them if availability allowed.
The facade of the luxury Hotel Café Royal in London.
Higher solo costs
Although higher costs for solo travellers are common in tourism, they are rare in the restaurant industry. However, high-end restaurants are increasingly cracking down on “no shows” and requiring diners to place deposits before they arrive, or charging diners hundreds of pounds if they cancel their reservations.
Analysis by The Observer recently found that restaurants such as The Ledbury in London, with two Michelin stars, charges £195 ($A372) to guests who cancel within 48 hours of their booking, while Core by Clare Smyth in Kensington, which has three Michelin stars, charges £150 ($A286) per head for diners who cancel.
The analysis found that 90 of the top 100 UK restaurants charge for “no shows” or late cancellation, and some restaurants even require complete pre-payment from diners. Ynyshir in Wales, voted the best restaurant in Britain in the National Restaurant Awards, asks diners to prepay by £375 ($A716) per head, with diners even advised to take out travel insurance in case they have to cancel at short notice.
Dates can be rescheduled with a minimum two weeks’ notice but all sales are “final and non-refundable”.
The Telegraph, London
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