Why are later dinner times becoming the norm?
Later dinner times are taking hold, with dinner moving to 7 or 8 PM, because at today's prices guests who pay for a full three-course dinner want a full evening out to go with it. Eating early therefore calls for a different offer, such as quick, casual concepts. Restaurants that want to adapt to dinner shifting later in the evening need to rethink their offer, pricing and online visibility for each time slot.
How can your restaurant cater to two dinner services?
According to Michiel Huysmans of Teds All Day Brunch, the evening is splitting into two markets. The early slot is about a short, affordable meal at burger joints or fast Italian concepts, leaving more budget for drinks. The late slot, from 8 PM onwards, is about a sit-down dinner where the price matches a whole evening, not an hour and a half. A useful framework is the time-slot check: which slot do you serve, what does the guest expect from that slot, and does your price match the time they spend at the table?
What is changing about early dining?
At current prices, a full 90-minute three-course dinner feels too expensive to guests. Early diners are more likely to choose a quick, fun meal and keep money aside for drinks.
Why are guests choosing more deliberately?
Everything is getting more expensive, but people also have more to spend. They keep spending money on hospitality, they just think harder about where that money goes.
What does this mean for your reviews?
A guest who pays for a whole evening judges that whole evening, not just the food. If you ask for reviews right after the visit and respond to every one, you'll see faster whether your offer works for each time slot.
Dinner really becomes a 7, 8 PM onwards thing.
Frequently asked questions
Which concepts suit the early dinner slot?
The early dinner slot suits concepts where food is a smaller part of the night out, such as burger joints and fast Italian formats. Guests still want to spend money on hospitality, but they keep the meal short and affordable. That leaves them more time and budget for drinks, which makes a quick, casual offer in the early slot appealing.
Why does a three-course dinner fit less well with a short evening?
With prices up, guests want the bill to match the experience. A three-course dinner feels fairly priced when it fills an entire evening, but too expensive for a meal of an hour and a half. That is why, according to restaurateur Michiel Huysmans, the classic sit-down dinner is moving to 7 or 8 PM and later.
Are guests spending less in restaurants because of higher prices?
Not necessarily. According to Michiel Huysmans, everything is getting more expensive, but people also have more to spend. The real change is in how deliberately guests choose. They weigh up more carefully where their money goes: a short meal with more drinks, or a full evening at the table. Restaurants that clearly commit to one of the two are better placed to respond.
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Video transcript
No, and so I do feel that it becomes, um, so shifts that I do foresee is, um, that dinner really becomes an, let's say, 7, 8 PM onwards thing. So early dinner, uh, really I think will require a different type of offering than basically real sit-down 3-course meal, because, um, if you want price-wise, you want to really I think have the idea that you then spend an entire evening and then, then the costs are, let's say, in line with the spend of an entire evening rather than just for 1. 5 hours, a quick meal.
So the, and there's a lot more, I think, offering in, let's say, um, not more functional but fun, let's say, stuff from burger places, what kind of fast Italian concepts and everything. So those will take a place, uh, for people who want to spend their money still in hospitality but want to do the limit, the, let's say, the, the food part to a, to, let's say, a smaller aspect, and then basically have more time or more money for drinks. So I think people are thinking more about the what, what, where they're going to spend it on because of the increase in, in price.
So, so everything is getting more expensive, but people are also having more money, so