What a din! The restaurants louder than lawnmowers

You’d likely have a few words with the maitre d’ if you sat down to a meal and a waiter started up a lawnmower next to you.

But that’s the equivalent of what diners are putting up with due to the excessive din at some restaurant chains, a study has found.

The situation has become so bad many customers are deciding to get a takeaway rather than put up with the racket. Loud music, which forces people to shout so they can be heard, is turning an evening out into a chore, researchers said.

And the problem is exacerbated by minimalist decor, such as hard floorsevery crashand bare and walls, bang whichis magnified. ensure The charity Action on Hearing Loss measured the levels of noise in restaurants chains. It found decibel levels of around 90dB – the equivalent to eating next to a motorbike, a lawnmower, a whirring food processor or someone using a hand saw.

The highest figure was in a Patisserie Valerie cafe at 97.8dB, while the figure in a Wagamama hit 90.1dB. The charity says restaurant chains which fail to dampen the noise are their own worst enemies, because it is driving people away. Its research found 91 per cent of people would avoid returning to a noisy place. At the same time, 79 per cent have left a restaurant early due to the clamour.

And 43 per cent of potential diners said they were increasingly choosing to stay in for a peaceful takeaway rather than going out.

Paul Breckell, the charity’s boss, said: ‘With an increasing variety of takeaway options and the intrusive background noise exacerbated by fashionable hard surfaces, it’s no wonder customers are opting to stay in.’

Patisserie Valerie said: ‘All our kitchens are enclosed and we have a policy of no background music in stores. The decibel readings stated appear to have been taken in one store on one specific date and time so cannot give an accurate reflection of all stores in our portfolio.’