Whatever happened to the walk-in?

Sometimes it feels like it’s easier to get tickets to see Oasis than it is a table at any restaurant on your wishlist. You either have to reserve weeks in advance, which is fine for special occasions but hardly conducive to being spontaneous, or resign yourself to eating at 5.30pm or after 9.30pm – and even those slots are increasingly hard to come by. Forget about turning up without a booking. You’ve got more chance of winning the lottery than landing a table anywhere decent as a walk-in.

If that’s the perception, it’s not entirely wrong. Securing a reservation at any new or popular restaurant is tough. In New York it’s been made worse over recent years by scalps such as #FreeRezy that snap up reservation slots and trade them for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The practice was outlawed in December by the Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act, the first of its kind in the US. 

But here’s the good news: most reservation systems don’t tell the whole story. “Restaurants almost always have availability,” says London-based publicist Gemma Bell. “If I look online and there aren’t tables for the whole night or the slot I want, I phone and discuss it. The restaurant will have cancellations they’re hoping to fill. They also hold back tables. If you’re happy to take a slot that isn’t your preferred time, even better.”  

Walk-ins make the place far less formal and more fun

Plenty of restaurants do operate a policy of walk-ins only. These tend to be in high-footfall areas where the aim is to turn around tables in 45 minutes to an hour. Having reservations can slow business and limit the number of covers. Dishoom is famous for taking walk-ins, though you can actually book for daytime slots and groups of six or more. Padella in Borough Market doesn’t take reservations. Nor do Canteen in Notting Hill, Kiln in Soho and the popular steakhouse Le Relais de Venise, while Agora in Borough Market only takes limited bookings. The queues at these places can be off-putting but tend to move fast. Michelin-starred restaurants like Oma, Sabor and Brat keep counter or bar space aside for walk-ins; as do New York hotspots like The Corner Store, Bridges, Le Veau d’Or and Coqodaq. 

But what about restaurants without designated walk-in tables? According to Bell, many restaurateurs have got more nervous and less adept at facilitating drop-ins since the pandemic and it’s that, rather than more people dining out, that’s causing the problem: “Restaurateurs want to know how many covers are on the book each night so they can prepare; and often the people manning the reservation systems aren’t enabled or trained to be flexible.”  

The value of walk-ins is undeniable. They plug gaps and cover no-shows. They’re also a way to squeeze in extra covers and turn visitors into regulars. “People are so grateful when you can squeeze in that extra table. It’s the most hospitable part of hospitality,” says James Gummer of Public House Group, which includes The Pelican, The Hero and, soon, The Fat Badger in west London. “When a host goes the extra mile it directly contributes to the number of covers you can do and revenue you can take.” 

For these reasons the best operators fit you in. Consider The Devonshire in Soho, arguably the hottest table in town. Reservations go on sale three weeks in advance and each week 3,000 bookable covers are snapped up within 10 minutes. Tables for Thursday, Friday and Saturday are gone within three minutes. According to landlord and co-owner Oisín Rogers, however, the pub makes room for at least 700 walk-ins a week. That’s from customers finishing early and the team turning tables and moving things around. (And that doesn’t include the roughly 50 walk-in covers on the terrace and in the Green Room.) “If someone is getting up from a table, we have somebody else ready to sit down,” says Rogers. “In the morning I’ll have 400-470 [reserved] covers lined up. By the end of the day, we’ve done 500, 600, even 700 covers.”

Walk-ins add diversity and dynamism to a room. “They make the place far less formal and more fun,” says Rogers. “I understand people want their confirmed reservation and don’t want to take a punt. But other than at the busiest times for Sunday lunch, Friday and Saturday night, there’s a strong chance if you walk in and ask for a table for two, we’d get you in.” It’s true at all the best restaurants, he insists: “Because it’s really not in our nature to say no.” 

@ajesh34