Londoners dine out nearly four times a week, says study

 
P26 The Criterion restaurant Pic:Alex Lentati
Alex Lentati

Londoners are eating out more than ever before - and at lower prices - fuelling an explosion in the number of restaurant openings, a new survey reveal today.

The capital’s typical restaurant goer enjoyed a record 3.7 meals out a week this year, a dramatic rise from 2.2 in 2012, it shows.

If takeaways and home deliveries are included, only half the 14 lunches and dinners eaten a week are now prepared in kitchens at home, according to the 2014 Zagat London Restaurant Survey.

That puts the capital eating habits on a par with the other great gastronomic centres of the world such as New York, Tokyo and Paris, cities that it has historically lagged behind.

The average meal out in London cost £37.35 a head this year, a 14 per cent fall on the £43.40 paid two years ago. That makes London still a more expensive place to eat out than New York, where the average bill is $48.56 (£31) but the gap is closing.

Tim Zagat, co-founder of the Zagat restaurant guides, said London was going through an eating out revolution over recent years with far more informal cheaper options appealing to younger diners springing up in areas such as Soho, Shoreditch, Brixton and Bethnal Green.

He said: “There are more younger people looking for good food but not in in places with fancy decor and linen tablecloths. Eating out has become almost like eating in another room in a house, people are looking for a good meal but not looking to dress up.”

The arrival of the new wave of burger bars such as Honest Burgers in Brixton, Soho and Camden and meat shacks such as Pitt Cue in Soho, many of which started as “street food” vans has brought down the cost of high quality eating out.

The results suggest young Londoners increasingly enjoy a New York style “Woody Allen culture” where most meals are eaten in cafes, restaurants, bars and diners.

Developers of some new London apartment blocks aimed at young professionals say they will only bother to install tiny “galley” style kitchens because so few meals are prepared at home.

Mr Zagat said: ”In terms of diversity and depth of restaurants London passed Paris eight to ten years ago. I still think New York is ahead. I used to say New York was way ahead but I think London could pass New York soon, it is coming on strong.”

The rise of eating out has encouraged ever more restaurateurs to open new sites. There are an estimated 30 major launches in the capital this September, more than in Manhattan,

Another strong trend this year has been the rise of Japanese cooking, which in now Londoners’ second favourite after Italian, pushing French into third place.

A Japanese restaurant, Yashin Sushi in Kensington was rated second in London for the quality of its cooking, an achievement that Mr Zagat said would have been “inconceivable” a decade ago.

The biggest gripes among restaurant goers were revealed as slow service, inattentive staff and rude staff. The survey also revealed that more than half of all bookings are made on line for the first time.

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