Chefs are hoping the concept will tempt diners to spend a little more and fight the cost-of-living crisis
Linden Stores, in the Cheshire village of Audlem, has started a whole sharing menu of modern British food, with two people sharing seven dishes including charred pepper and Cornish Quartz cheddar croquettes, hake wrapped in wild boar pancetta and chocolate and peanut butter tart.
Laura Christie and her partner, Chris Boustead, relocated the restaurant to the village from London in 2020. She has been surprised by the reaction.
“We weren’t expecting it to be such a big deal,” said Christie, who grew up in Wirral.
“It was quite a new idea for people. We’re in a small village but it turned out we were breaking more boundaries than we’d thought with this sharing concept. One customer said to me, ‘Is this how everybody eats in London?’, which made me laugh. Lots of people have said, ‘I’ve tried things I wouldn’t have picked and I really enjoyed it.’”
Linden Stores is not alone in rethinking its menu to make sharing food more commonplace. Stealing your partner’s dessert is a time-honoured restaurant tradition, but restaurateurs are increasingly offering two spoons as a matter of course as sharing platters become the latest way for the hospitality industry to fight the recession. One in seven desserts on restaurant menus is now intended to be shared, according to Lumina Intelligence, a leading research firm, which notes that people are spending 14% less compared with last year. Part of this reduction in spending is the result of people buying main courses only and skipping starters and desserts.
“Restaurants are introducing more sharing dishes across discretionary courses, including starter and dessert dishes, to encourage spend as customers cut back,” Lumina said in its latest Menu Tracker report.
Sharing works because restaurants have become less formal and stuffy, Christie believes, although she is careful to make sure guests don’t need to fight over portions.
“It makes people feel like they’re getting more of an experience. It helps our spend per head. It helps with efficiency, because you know what you’re having to prep and you need less people to deliver it because you know, ahead of time, what you’re doing.”
Christie’s other restaurant, Oklava in Shoreditch, east London, which she co-owns with Selin Kiazim, serves modern Turkish food and also emphasises sharing. Near by, Apothecary East has started offering several Japanese-inspired sharing menus.
Tom Kerridge has introduced a £15 two-course lunch menu at his Michelin-starred restaurant the Coach, in Marlow, where diners can try dishes such as rotisserie bacon with fried Cacklebean egg and chips, and will introduce it to Kerridge’s Bar & Grill in London in the new year.
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Lumina Intelligence’s research also found that customers were drinking less – from June to October, the number of meals including alcohol fell from 38.5% to 33.9%, with the biggest fall among cocktails and other spirits. Those aged 18 to 34 were most likely to have a booze-free meal.
And people were more likely to meet friends for a coffee than a full meal, the research showed. Average spend per head at a restaurant has fallen from £25.38 to £21.80, while cafes and sandwich shops saw a rise from £6.05 to £6.69.
Separate research by the consumer consultancy CGA showed that 34% of people were choosing cheaper food options and 25% were ordering fewer courses.
“We’ve started to see major shifts in the market – consumers using their buying power to manage their own basket inflation,” Andrew Opie, the British Retail Consortium’s director of food and sustainability, told MPs at the environment, food and rural affairs committee last week. “We’re seeing people changing their shopping habits, just to try and make their household income go a little bit further.”
People are eating fewer ready meals and cooking from scratch more often, he said. “And also, [there’s] less eating out, potentially, going forwards,” he added. “People eating more in the home, so more of a home focus.”
