British food has undergone a revolution.
Immigration, the increase in the range and affordability of imported food and the efforts of celebrity chefs have made us more educated and more demanding of the food we eat. From Thai to North African, there are no longer any boundaries to our culinary frontiers.
The range of cuisines is particularly staggering in London, which accounted for five of the six UK restaurants in the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2008. Only France and the US had more entries than the UK.
Boom years
A lot of people have the romantic idea of running a restaurant. They expect a nice lifestyle change but in reality it's a lot of hard work
Robin Couling, pub-restaurant owner
Even in still predominantly Anglo-Saxon towns – whether market towns like Ludlow and Faversham or post-industrial towns like Doncaster and Scunthorpe – eating out options are increasingly diverse.
The range of restaurants for sale for sale is huge, but so too is the volume.
Rising disposable income made eating out a regular occurrence rather than a treat during the boom years.
The growth of the market was nothing short of staggering: between 1992 and 2004, UK spending on food and drink consumed outside the home soared by 102%, reaching £87.5bn.
However, that trend is now in reverse during what is an increasingly severe recession.
People are rediscovering their kitchens as preparing food at home is considerably more cost-effective.
The restaurant trade always bears the brunt of recessions, but so entrenched did the habit of eating out become during the boom years that although people are willing to be more selective about when and where they eat out, they’re loath to forgo the luxury altogether.
Fine dining in particular is struggling, although those top-end restaurants which can truly justify their prices can cope.
Often, the Saturday night meal is sacrosanct, but people will cut back during the week.
It’s up to restaurateurs to persuade people that visiting their eatery between Monday and Thursday isn’t recklessly indulgent.
You can do this by offering two-for-one and other deals; this may well be essential to avoid an empty restaurant during the week in the current climate.
