Could Your Current Table and Chairs Layout Be Turning Customers Off?

What’s more annoying at a restaurant: bumping elbows with someone at the next table, not being able to get out of your seat through fear of clattering into the person sat behind you, or not being able to have a private conversation with a partner because you’re practically sharing a table with couples either side of you?

Moo Grill in London gets it right with its tables and chairs.

Most restaurant owners underestimate the impact table configurations have on a guest’s dining experience. Guest’s not only want great food and drink, they want a nice atmosphere, a clean and well-decorated establishment, somewhere they can feel comfortable and somewhere they can have a little bit of privacy. The way your tables are laid out strongly influences a few of those factors, not least the last two.

Grid layouts (tables in rows and columns) are fine for large, formal restaurants, but it seems as though every small to medium-sized restaurant uses that layout now purely to fit in with the conventions of restaurant interior design. This often results in tables being far too close so that you can fully hear the conversation on the table next to you creating an awkward dynamic, or, even worse, bang into the poor person behind you as you get up to go to the toilet.

Restaurant owners need to get more creative with their limited space and, in some cases, even sacrifice some tables to benefit the dining experience of guests. Think about some of the restaurants you’ve been to, have you ever knocked elbows with the person next to you or needed to have a private conversation with your guest, but felt inhibited because you had people so close either side of your table? These are things that affect customer loyalty and put people off coming back to your restaurant, so you need to get things right here.

The simplest tip is to not over-crowd your restaurant. Our best tip, however, is to lay your tables out diagonally! It sounds odd, but turn your tables 45° and stagger the columns so that no table is directly behind the other and you have a great layout with ample room in between tables and a creative seating plan that many of your guests will not have encountered before. In some rooms, you can actually fit MORE tables than if you had straight rows and columns.

Getting your layout right is about knowing your restaurant and, more importantly, knowing your customers. Fast-food outlets need not worry about slightly over-crowding their restaurants as the turnover of customers per hour is much greater than that of an up-market Italian restaurant, and fast-food guests care less about comfort and intimacy.

So, think about the typical profile of your customers and put yourself in their shoes. Think about what they want, what they like and what they might dislike about your restaurant.

Cube Company