Dining out has become a luxury
Growing up in Hong Kong, eating out was just normal. Small home kitchens, long working hours, and a £6 sit-down meal meant eating out was never a luxury. You tried new things constantly, not because you were adventurous, but because you had the opportunity.
The UK has always been a different story. High labour costs, rents, VAT, and generally larger home kitchens have always made eating out a considered spend rather than a default. The cost-of-living crisis has squeezed disposable income further, with a recent stat showing that nearly 40% of consumers were eating out less than the year before.
But here's what surprised me: Hong Kong is catching up. On my most recent visit back, many of the mid-range neighbourhood restaurants I grew up with had disappeared, replaced by chains selling cheap "this-and-that" rice boxes. Yes this is what they are called. Think a canteen-style scoop of whatever protein is on rotation that day, served over white rice for under £4. Fast, filling, and completely forgettable. The city that taught me to eat adventurously is starting to look a lot more like a meal deal culture.
In both cities, the story is the same. When people do go out, it needs to count. It's no longer about filling your stomach. It needs to be an experience worth the spend. Dark kitchens and delivery apps are quietly replacing the old neighbourhood "belly filler" restaurants everywhere.
You do research and make your best bet
To make the experience worth it, customers like me do a lot of homework before picking a restaurant. Google Maps, The Fork, AI recommendations, influencers. The options are endless, and it is up to you to use all the data points to make the best bet. Occasionally, you do get disappointed by your choices.
Disappointment comes mainly from trust, where expectations from online reviews are rarely met. Reviews are manipulated, influencers are paid and sponsored results flood your research. There's a well-known Central London steakhouse that accumulated hundreds of five-star reviews from people gaming the system, redirecting tourists away from local gems and toward a chain. When the online data points can no longer be trusted, customers turn to the oldest signal there is: a recommendation from a personal connection.
Almost every memorable meal I've had in the past year, be it Japan, Korea, Italy or the UK, came from a friend. Not TripAdvisor, not a sponsored post, but a trusted friend.
Somehow my friends have similar tastes?
The places friends recommend tend to share the same qualities. You feel it the moment you walk in. The passionate staff or even the owner greets you, a menu that explains their philosophy, and good food that speaks for itself. It's not a robotic production, but a memorable personal experience that makes you want to show off to a friend.
Why are we trying to take away great experiences
On the opposite spectrum, mid-range and chain restaurants are trying to reduce costs and standardise experience by removing the human experience from the equation. There is a long-standing debate about whether companies should charge a service charge when you visit a restaurant and the entire experience is with a computer.
It is fine if you expect a humanless restaurant
My most recent visit to Sushiro, a famous Japanese sushi chain, shocked me because I have not interacted with a single human during my 60-minute visit. You request seats with a tablet, sit and wait for your turn, then when your number is called, you scan your QR code, and the screen shows your table number. You sit down and start ordering through a tablet. Once you are done, you go to a self-checkout counter and pay your bill. Zero interaction any human whatsoever.
Go humanless or double down in customer experience
I was completely satisfied with that experience, it was a cheap, high quality meal, I know what I was expecting and it was good value for money. What frustrates customers most, is when companies try to cut corners with automation and digitalisation at the expense of customer experience.
Restaurants are one of the last genuinely human experiences. In one of the latest job displacement reports, the food industry ranks among the least threatened by AI. In a world of automation, the ability to inject personality into a dining experience is a huge opportunity, and large restaurants aren't fully capturing it.
Use AI to strengthen the personal touch
Most restaurants are aiming their tech at the wrong person. Thin margins make automation attractive, so the iPad ends up in front of the customer and the human gets quietly removed from the bit people actually came for.
Flip it. Put the AI in your server's pocket, not on the table. Let it tell them you've been in before, what you ordered last time, and that you mentioned a shellfish allergy in passing six months ago. The customer still gets a warm greeting and a real conversation. The server just happens to know things a stranger couldn't. That's the kind of detail people tell their friends about.
The importance of personal touch
The restaurants that will win the next decade aren't the ones that design the best iPad interface. They're the ones that focus on what a machine can never replicate: genuine hospitality, personal touch, and an experience worth telling a friend about. How can restaurants best use technology to enhance the personal touch and customer experience? Instead of replacing staff, can it help aid staff and free up capacity so they can better serve customers?
Word of mouth hasn't gone anywhere. Restaurants just need to earn it again. It starts with knowing your customers, what they want and what matters most to them.