Francesca Rudkin: Are we boring diners?

It was my niece’s birthday this week. She is currently in Argentina as an AFS student. Her mum and brother are visiting and it’s been a fabulous reunion. There have been many comments via WhatsApp about Argentina’s inflation rate - in the year ending February 2024 it rose 276.2 percent - as well as acclimatising to the later hours when Argentinians eat dinner. It’s normal to see queues of people outside restaurants at 10.30 - 11.00pm.  

We’ve always known some Latin countries have a quite different approach to dinner time to us - but I hadn’t realised how much we’ve gone back in time with our preference for early eating until I read an article yesterday in The Guardian. I don’t know about the rest of the country - but apparently Aucklanders are a bunch of very early eaters. 

 According to international food magazine Chef’s Pencil, restaurants in Auckland take the earliest last orders in the world. It’s usual these days for a restaurant to be full at 5.30pm, and unusual to take a booking after 8.30pm.  

What has happened to us?  

I don’t go out much - basically can’t afford it - but once upon a time we wouldn’t dream of heading out to dinner before 7.30 or 8pm. This might have had something to do with getting kids ready for or in bed before the babysitter arrived. With the cost of babysitters nowadays, I’d be totally expecting them to cover this off.  

But over recent years, and definitely post-Covid, when making a booking I’ve noticed the switch from being able to book at 7.30 to selecting a table at either 6 or 8pm, with instructions you will need to vacate the earlier tables within two hours.  

I thought this was a trend started by restaurants trying to making the most of turning over their tables twice in a night - and I get it. With the hospo trade in dire straits, I’m right behind them doing all they can to stay alive. Turn-over those tables!  

But is it just about restaurants making the calls, or are they responding to our own cultural behaviour when it comes to eating out?  

Journalist Michelle Duff, who wrote the story for The Guardian, trawled Karangahape Road asking diners why people like to eat early, from say 5pm. The answers ranged from simply being hungry to having their evening to do other things, to getting home early, and giving the meal time to digest.  

What does this say about us? Are we boring?   

It does reflect something about the lives we’re leading. I think we want to head home as soon as we can so we can kick off our shoes and binge another Netflix series. I think it’s a reflection of how busy we are – why go home and struggle to find the energy to leave the house again when we can eat dinner on the way home.  

People are a bit more health conscious. Going out for dinner doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get on it and make a night of it. It means head out to enjoy a meal, maybe have a drink or two, or not at all, and get out of there – with plenty of time for your meal to digest and give you 16 hours of fasting before you eat again.  

Culturally we have always eaten early. If you headed out for dinner in the 1960s, you generally had to be seated between 6 and 7.30 pm - those were the rules of virtually every hotel in New Zealand.  Seems like nothing has changed!  

So, long gone is the idea of booking a table for 8 - 8.30pm and settling in for the evening … and while it sounds a little dull, maybe it’s a positive thing. In bed nice and early and in a better state, leaving plenty of tables available for Argentinian tourists! 

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