Revealed: How restaurants are charging hundreds of pounds per head for guests that cancel their bookings
- Many of the UK’s top restaurants charge over £100 without serving food
- READ MORE: Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge slams 27 ‘selfish’ diners
Some of the UK’s top restaurants are charging hundreds of pounds to guests that cancel their reservations.
This means some customers have been left with hefty bills despite not getting anything to eat.
The Ledbury in London, which has two Michelin stars, charges £195 for guests that cancel within 48 hours of their booking.
Meanwhile, Core by Clare Smyth, which has three Michelin stars, has a similar policy charging £150 per head for guests that cancel.
And it’s not just the country’s fanciest restaurants that are charging fees.
The highest fee is Ynyshir, (pronounced inish-eer), in Machynlleth, Wales. Voted the best restaurant in the UK, it charges customers £375 a head for dinner, with sales ‘final and non-refundable
The highest fee is Ynyshir, (pronounced inish-eer), in Machynlleth, Wales.
Voted the best restaurant in the UK, it charges customers £375 a head for dinner, with sales ‘final and non-refundable’.
Guests who can’t make the date can reschedule but need to give a minimum of two weeks notice.
Chefs have previously spoken of the difficulties with last minute cancellations and no shows, with many saying it can crumble the restaurant industry – which is already fragile post-Covid.
Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge previously berated customers who failed to show up at his London restaurant.
Core by Clare Smyth, which has three Michelin stars, has a similar policy charging £150 per head for guests that cancel
He wrote: ‘To the 27 people that booked @kerridgesbandg and then failed to turn up on a Saturday night…This industry, like many others is on the verge of collapse.
‘Your behaviour is disgraceful, shortsighted and down right unhelpful…all of you ‘no shows’ in all restaurants up and down the country and adding to the issues already being faced…YOU are putting peoples jobs more at risk…
‘We put staff levels to the number of covers booked and when you fail to turn up, it now costs us, which in turn will force very uncomfortable and hard decisions about staffing levels.
‘You are the worst kind of guest, and that is ‘selfish.’ I hope you have a good look at yourselves…’
James Snowdon, co-founder of the Palmerston in Edinburgh told the Observer that they once charged £10 per head but ‘no one blinked an eyelid’, so increased it to £20 each.
One customer told the paper they cancelled at a restaurant five hours in advanced after being delayed on her way there from the Cotswolds, only to be charged £125.
‘I did cancel on the same day, but I would never not turn up. I figured I would be giving them some time to fill the space,’ she said.
Other restaurants include Salt in Stratford-upon-Avon, who charge £55 for their tasting menu.
‘If someone cancels midweek within 48 hours, we struggle to resell the table,’ he says. ‘It is dead money. With that table being open, food has been ordered, prep has begun and staff have been scheduled. I’m very strict with it, and we have lost customers from it in the past,’ he said.
Other less exclusive restaurants also charge for no shows.
The Tamil Prince in Islington charges £35-a-head for late cancellation up to six-hours before booking.
The top 100 restaurants in the UK
1 Ynyshir
2 Moor Hall
3 Da Terra
4 The Ledbury
5 Bouchon Racine
6 Restaurant Pine
7 The Ritz
8 Core by Clare Smyth
9 Frog by Adam Handling
10 KOL
11 Kitchen Table
12 The Parkers Arms
13 Sabor
14 Alex Dilling at the Cafe Royal
15 The Sportsman
16 Claude Bosi at Bibendum
17 Solstice
18 A Wong
19 Brat
20 Kiln
21 Ikoyi
22 Alchemilla
23 House of Tides
24 Osip
25 Roots
26 Fallow
27 The Angel at Hetton
28 The Seahorse
29 BiBi
30 L’Enclume
31 The French House
32 Noble Rot Soho
33 Paul Ainsworth at No 6
34 Trinity
35 The Clove Club
36 The Glenturret Lalique Restaurant
37 The Fordwich Arms
38 Endo at the Rotunda
39 Benares
40 SOLA
41 The Palmerston
42 Chez Bruce
43 Maison Francois
44 The Black Swan at Oldstead
45 The Quality Chophouse
46 Dorian
47 Hide
48 Luca
49 Allegra
50 Humble Chicken
51 Higher Ground
52 The Man Behind the Curtain
53 Opheem
54 Brawn
55 Wilson’s
56 Launceston Place
57 Speedboat Bar
58 40 Maltby Street
59 Restaurant Gordon Ramsay
60 Forest Side
61 Cafe Cecilia
62 Angela’s
63 Hjem
64 HUMO
65 Restaurant Sat Bains
66 Smoking Goat
67 Apricity
68 Northcote
69 Manteca
70 Rochelle Canteen
71 Mana
72 Sessions Arts Club
73 Singburi
74 St John
75 Grace & Savour
76 The River Cafe
77 The Unruly Pig
78 Updown Farmhouse
79 Ox
80 Inver
81 Aizle
82 Raby Hunt
83 Quo Vadis
84 Carters of Moseley
85 Lisboeta
86 Lyle’s
87 Mangal 2
88 Restaurant 22
89 Etch
90 Straker’s
91 Upstairs by Tom Shepherd
92 Joro
93 The Kitchin
94 Frenchie
95 Dew Drop Inn
96 SY23
97 The Pem
98 The Tamil Prince
99 Café Deco
100 Manifest
Special awards
National Restaurant of the Year: Ynyshir
Best Restaurant in England: Moor Hall
Best Restaurant in Northern Ireland: Ox
Best Restaurant in Wales: Ynyshir
Best Restaurant in Scotland: The Glenturret Lalique Restaurant
Chef of the Year: Kenny Atkinson
Restaurateur of the Year: Samyukta Nair
Chef to Watch: April Lily Partridge
Opening of the Year: Bouchon Racine
One to Watch: The Midland Grand Dining Room
The Sustainability Award: Pensons
Gastropub of the Year: Parkers Arms
The Service Award: The Ledbury
Wine List of the Year: Maison Francois
Cocktail List of the Year: Roots
Innovator of the Year: Apricity
Lifetime Achievement Award: Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver
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