empty restaurants
Several reasons for not entering an empty restaurant:
- You will not be able to have anonymous conversations. Since there is nobody else in the restaurant besides you, there will inevitably be some eavesdropping by the waiters.
- If you are dressed to impress, there will be no one to impress.
- All of a sudden you will find yourself perceived as a prime customer by the waiters. (Remember you will probably be their only source of a tip for the whole day.) If too much attention turns you off, do not walk in.
- There may be a good reason why the restaurant is empty. (e.g. The quality of food or service may be pretty bad.)
Further points:
- Every once in a while you should take your chances. Otherwise you will never be able to discover a gem restaurant. (i.e. a restaurant that serves great food but is ignored by most people)
- If prices are not declared upfront, you should beware. Lesser the number of customers, more is the per unit fixed cost that needs to be reflected onto each customer's bill. (Decent restaurants have fixed menus. So this advice is more for the sketchy ones.)
- In front of you are two restaurants looking exactly the same, serving exactly the same food. One is crowded while the other is empty. Which one will you choose to enter? The empty restaurant is stuck in a really bad equilibrium. (Crowd is attracting more crowd and emptiness is resulting in further emptiness.) What if it had a non-transparent façade? Most customers, once greeted with a warm welcome, would not have the face to leave the restaurant even if it is completely empty.
- You will not be able to have anonymous conversations. Since there is nobody else in the restaurant besides you, there will inevitably be some eavesdropping by the waiters.
- If you are dressed to impress, there will be no one to impress.
- All of a sudden you will find yourself perceived as a prime customer by the waiters. (Remember you will probably be their only source of a tip for the whole day.) If too much attention turns you off, do not walk in.
- There may be a good reason why the restaurant is empty. (e.g. The quality of food or service may be pretty bad.)
Further points:
- Every once in a while you should take your chances. Otherwise you will never be able to discover a gem restaurant. (i.e. a restaurant that serves great food but is ignored by most people)
- If prices are not declared upfront, you should beware. Lesser the number of customers, more is the per unit fixed cost that needs to be reflected onto each customer's bill. (Decent restaurants have fixed menus. So this advice is more for the sketchy ones.)
- In front of you are two restaurants looking exactly the same, serving exactly the same food. One is crowded while the other is empty. Which one will you choose to enter? The empty restaurant is stuck in a really bad equilibrium. (Crowd is attracting more crowd and emptiness is resulting in further emptiness.) What if it had a non-transparent façade? Most customers, once greeted with a warm welcome, would not have the face to leave the restaurant even if it is completely empty.
