A Diner’s Wish List for Restaurants

Nine suggestions that will bring patrons back again and again

Today’s tiny tables get way too crowded when too many dishes are brought to the table at once.

Some restaurants have been running into trouble lately, due to spiraling rents, rising labor and utility costs, scarcity of trained staff, and ballooning ingredient expenses, all intensified by the pandemic. These pressures caused some restaurants to change the way they operate, curtailing amenities, reducing comfort level, installing reservations systems that make it difficult to actually get one, and sometimes treating customers in rude ways.

All are understandable as acts of economic desperation, but the result has been to discourage loyal repeat customers, who have long been the bedrock of the industry. Here are nine things to lure them back.

Reduce the decibels

Despite grumbles from critics and the public, deafening restaurants where you can’t carry on a conversation have become the rule rather than the exception. Reflective surfaces chosen as building materials are partly to blame, but so are loud thumping soundtracks, storefronts open to the street, and drunken knots of patrons by the bar shouting for more booze. Sound dampening — at least in the dining room — would usher in crowds who want to talk to each other, especially dating couples and families.

Make the furniture more comfortable

Remember when restaurant chairs had backs with padding, and padding on the seats, too? You could really sink into them and enjoy your meal. Nowadays, you often find short metal stools that might have been filched from a high-security penal institution. Their function is obvious — to make you eat fast and run. Comfortable furniture encourages patrons to relax, stay a little longer, and run up the tab.