Dinner-Call

Was reading a restaurant review in the Guardian this morning, and here's the twist:
a restaurant where the queue is virtual; you get to go for a drink or coffee and they text you when your table is ready. How awesome is that:

Then a friend told me the queue was fine after 9pm, so I went along. The friend was wrong. We were told there would be a 30-minute wait, so you’d expect me to be grouchy. But no. Having experienced the way a little bit of tech was used to manage it, and weighing up the impact on pricing at a restaurant able to keep its tables constantly full, I’m going to recant. No-reservation restaurants are fine when, as here, the place is surrounded by good bars and cafés and they use a text system to call you to your table from nearby. And yes, I’m told this has been in use elsewhere for a while now, but what the hell would I know about that given I don’t queue?
The point is I did queue for Hoppers, albeit in a very civilised manner, over an espresso with a shot of Amaretto in it at Bar Italia across the road. I’m glad I did. Inside, the space, formerly the Koya noodle bar, has been panelled in glossy wood. There’s rattan on the ceiling, old movie posters on the walls and Ikea plates on the tables. It feels like they’ve done it over with a tight eye on the bottom line for which again, hurrah. I hate going out for dinner and paying an enormous bill to fund the interior designer’s mortgage.

Jay Rayner, Hoppers

February 21, 2016.