One's company, two's a crowd: why solo dining is on the up

People eating alone might once have been met with curious, pitiful looks from staff and fellow diners.

- Mabel Banfield-Nwachi

But that stigma has started to shift, according to new figures.

Travel writer, Alice Bradley would often find herself alone at meal times and used to order room service or hide away in a corner of a restaurant.

But after the Covid pandemic, she had "a perspective shift": she committed to doing more things by herself, starting with dining.

Every couple of months, she gets dressed up and goes out for dinner. She is among a growing number of people opting to dine alone.

Solo dining has increased by 14% year on year in the UK, according to OpenTable, the online reservation service company, and experts say gen Z and millennials are driving the trend.

In Manchester, bookings for tables for one have jumped by 23% compared with last year, and they rose 10% in London.

"The pandemic was kind of like a wake-up call that I just needed to go out and enjoy the freedoms and the pleasure of the little things," says Bradley, who describes dining alone as a "self-care date night".

"Life is too short to not go on nice dinners, even if no one can go with you."