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Parisa Imanirad, a scientist and cancer researcher from San Francisco, is married and has a wide circle of friends.
But once or twice a week, she likes to dine out alone.
Imanirad says dining alone gives her time to think or read, but she tries to avoid touching her phone to savor the silence.
She’s not the only one who sometimes wants to eat alone.
“I’m a very sociable person. I have so many friends. I like spending time with them, but I also like spending time alone, and sometimes even go to a nice restaurant and have a really nice meal. I mean, it’s very nice on its own.”
In the United States, solo dining reservations have increased 29 percent over the past two years, according to OpenTable, the restaurant reservation site, and they are up 18 percent this year in Germany and 14 percent for hundred in the United Kingdom.
In Japan, there’s even a special term for solo dining: “ohitorisama,” meaning “alone,” but with honorifics before and after it, to make diners feel less hesitant.
A recent survey found that 23% of Japanese eat out alone, up from 18% in 2018.
Debby Soo, CEO of OpenTable, believes remote working is one of the reasons for this increase, as diners seek respite from their home offices.
“Walk-in dining and solo dining are a perfect pair. So it’s a great way to access restaurants that are often very full or very popular. And when you’re alone, I think you can notice so much more about the ambiance, the service you receive regarding the food, you can order whatever you want, which is often not the case as a mother when dining with my family.
In other cases, solo diners simply want to treat themselves or discover a new restaurant.
The pandemic has also made social interactions during meals less important.
Smartphones help some diners feel connected to others, even when they’re alone.
Demographic trends also explain this increase.
In 2019, the Pew Research Center found that 38% of American adults aged 25 to 54 lived without a partner, up from 29% in 1990.
In Japan, single households now represent a third of the total; this figure is expected to reach 40% by 2040.
And the Australian Bureau of Statistics says 2.8 million households were people living alone in 2023.
Tim Stannard runs a restaurant and hospitality management consultancy in the UK.
“There was definitely a time when there was no solo dining. Over the years, I’ve seen it become more and more popular, somewhat as the stigma of dining alone has faded. But it’s definitely accelerated post-pandemic seeing a single person is sitting in the dining room, enjoying the experience, going out of their way to have the experience and they’re there simply for the food and the service. , and the vibe makes me really happy, so yeah, we could probably call the register a little more if another person was sitting there, but I’m honored to have single diners in the dining room.
Growing interest in solo travel, particularly among travelers aged 55 and older, is also leading to an increase in solo dining.
Restaurants aren’t always happy to be able to seat a single diner at a table that could accommodate more people.
A high-end London restaurant caused a stir last year when it started charging single customers the same price as two diners.
Others say it’s worth giving up a table to a single diner because they tend to be loyal, repeat customers.
