With these tips, eating out
in a restaurant can be fun on your own
Whether you’re travelling or just don’t have any of your friends to keep you company. With these tips, eating out alone can be fun.
CHOOSING A RESTAURANT
A restaurant with three Michelin stars, whose guests consist of couples in love and business people, and which offers a long menu, dimmed lighting and a wine list that weighs a kilo, is not necessarily the best choice for a meal alone, because several hours at the table alone can become very long.
However, the choice of restaurant should be as individual as you are. You may want to deliberately immerse yourself in the ceremony of a 12-course meal alone and undisturbed.
The alternative is a lively restaurant where even the buzz heard from the door promises a stimulating atmosphere. More and more restaurants offer tables that you share with other diners. A good concierge knows these restaurants and can make recommendations; most restaurant guides mention communal tables.
Restaurants where you can sit and eat at the bar are also a good choice for solo travellers. From there you often have a good view over the rest of the restaurant, can watch the chefs at work in an open kitchen or have a nice view of a well-stocked bar.
THE SOVEREIGN CHOICE OF TABLE
You can recognise an excellent restaurant by the fact that you, as an individual guest, are given a particularly good table and are served with select attention during the course of the meal.
However, if you are offered a “cat table” behind a pillar or another unattractive table, confidently ask for an alternative table, for example by the window or in a nice corner of the restaurant.
Depending on your reaction, enjoy the meal at this nice table or simply do without and nonchalantly leave the restaurant. There are other good restaurants that welcome individual diners with appreciation and subsequently deserve a recommendation.
A MAGAZINE INSTEAD OF THE PHONE
Continuously staring at your phone and almost memorising the Instagram thread does not make you appear confident. A book requires too much attention and it would be a shame to let the good atmosphere of a restaurant pass you by entirely. Instead, take an interesting magazine with you or indulge in dreamy thoughts. When else do you have the time?
PURE ENJOYMENT
Enjoy your meal in the restaurant. All the other guests are usually so busy with their counterparts, their food or their mobile phones that they take little notice of you. But you radiate good humour and enjoyment with your very attitude and many a guest will envy you and wish they could swap places with you, because you are dining in the best possible company.
