Reservations over table bookings

A walk-in system improves efficiency for restaurants but long queues heighten diners' expectations

- Cherie Lok

Dining out is a fairly straightforward process in Singapore, swathed, for the most part, in the certainty of a guaranteed seat.

You pick a place, punch in your details and rock up at the pre-arranged hour. Recognition glints in the host's eyes as your name surfaces in the system. The food arrives after a while. You pay, you leave. In some cases, a special reservation link is sent to your e-mail, and the cycle begins anew.

But what happens when a restaurant eschews convention for the unpredictability of a walk-in system? Suddenly, it is anyone's game. The question becomes not just what to order, but also what time to show? How long to wait? When to throw in the towel and leave?

Restaurants that do not take reservations argue that there is a method to the madness. At Scarpetta, a viral pasta bar in Amoy Street, queues start an hour before doors open. Once, the line stretched 10 units down to the food centre at the mouth of the street.

The situation is a lot neater now that the restaurant has introduced a new system. The first 28 guests are seated when doors open and everyone else is given a time to return, their names scribbled down on a tiny blackboard.

"It's much better than what we had before, with just a straight queue. Some people would wait 2 1/2 hours in the hot and humid weather, so they would be really grumpy and hangry (hungry and angry) by the time they got in," says owner Aaron Yeunh, 32.

Service moves fast. Each seating lasts about an hour, and Scarpetta can accommodate three or four rounds of guests every night. This, Mr Yeunh says, is the only way he can sell handmade pasta in the middle of town for $17 to $26.

"The only way to charge these prices is with high volume. And if I need volume, I can't take reservations because that would limit my dinner seatings to two a night."