Why Must we Dine in Discomfort?

Why is it so popular at the moment to make eating out such a non-occasion? When did eating out forget all ceremony? It is now seemingly desirable to get your own food, drink out of tumblers and sitting so close to your neighbour that in some countries you should marry? There is no denying that it is all well-made and delicious, but did I really just go to a restaurant and eat corned beef and pay thirty quid for the pleasure? Here are some foods that are undoubtedly better when professional chefs make them, and there is no doubting their skill, but still, in the back of your head, you can hear your mum squawking ‘I could make that at home for a pound!’

Don’t get me wrong, I do like it, they’re doing it very well (not to mention London's massive obsession with burgers), but as time goes on, I sometimes yearn for something a little more… refined.

All of the hip restaurants do not serve food that is so simple that we could do it ourselves – there is of course, a lot of skill in what they do and the devising of delicious menus, but for once I’d like to go to a restaurant that’s not ‘nostalgic’ or being cool purely because of the fact that they serve once very unfashionable and cheap cuts of meat with large markups.

The casual attitude to food, presentation and everything else is very cool at the moment, but why? So they put their menu on tracing paper and put their wine in chipped builders mugs, fair enough, but the hipsters come in their drones and enthuse about how it’s so cool and ‘making a statement’ and then about this corned beef hash that was 'AMAZING' (your mum used to make you eat it and you HATED IT and you probably wouldn’t eat it again if you hadn’t read about it in that blog).

I suppose I’m just yearning for something that’s a bit more… effort. I want it to be cool to dress up for dinner again, and to be able to read a menu that is beautifully typeset on embossed 400gm paper (not scrawled on a bit of scrap paper every day), and proper wine glasses and beautiful white crockery. The no-bookings policy is what’s made everything so casual. Show up at any time, be seated at any time - it seems to be in favour of the restaurant rather than the customer. Small plates for sharing that arrive as and when as opposed to set courses. There’s no ceremony. It's almost like people are beginning to prize being made to feel uncomfortable when dining.

It feels like there is far too much of this 'quick fix, flavour hit' culture (strong, spicy or barbeque flavours). People take pride in having some 'filthy' ribs or pulled pork. It's almost been reduced to recreate a dirty kebab experience, on a sofa in a dingy bedsit. It's like they're trying to recreate the pot noodle ad by HHCL (ad agency) which famously got banned because they touted it as 'the slag of all snacks', with the no-bookings, communal dining and even sometimes feeling like you are in a school canteen. 

Perhaps that’s why Dabbous is so popular now: The formality of booking (there’s a 3-month waiting list currently) which is something of a rarity in new restaurants opening in Central London currently, coupled with the fact that the food is beautifully presented with more than a nod to fine dining. And it’s so cheap (which is another thing about gourmet comfort food these days. It’s expensive). So restaurateurs thinking of starting up a business, the market is already saturated with comfort food. Try something a bit different, with formality and food delicately presented on a plate. I’m not talking haute cuisine, I just wish that going out to dinner affordably could be more comfortable, and that it could feel like more of an occasion. Without 4-month-long queues.