Solo dining has become one of the restaurant world’s biggest success stories …
Social media encourages us to “date ourselves”, and eating alone is often presented as a badge of confidence, and sometimes it is.
My own relationship with solo dining began in 2011 when I booked a table for one at Yotam Ottolenghi’s newly opened Nopi in London. I ordered a glass of wine, opened a notebook and tried my best to look like I belonged. My hands were shaking.
Today, solo dining is simply part of my job. The nerves have largely disappeared, but what I’ve learned is that eating alone isn’t really about confidence. It’s about hospitality. Some restaurants make solo diners feel completely at ease. Others, often unintentionally, remind you that you’re the exception.
Sometimes it’s not being able to book a table for one online, or being automatically being directed to the counter, when all you really wanted was a table with a view of the room. I’ve also found myself squeezed beside couples at tables designed for intimacy, where everyone suddenly becomes self-conscious.
Over time, though, something shifts. Once you stop worrying about yourself, you begin to notice everyone else, and dining alone becomes a front row seat to the rhythm of a restaurant.
The best restaurants understand this instinctively. They don’t make a table for one feel unusual, they simply make it feel normal. Perhaps that’s why I no longer think of solo dining as brave. Some people love it. Others never will. Both are perfectly valid.
Thoughtful hospitality where solo diners never feel like an afterthought.
An excellent place to settle in with a glass of wine and a few snacks.
Counter or table, it’s one of Dublin’s easiest places to dine alone.
Relaxed, welcoming and ideal whether you’re meeting friends or flying solo.
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