Eating out’s become a fast food affair

IT used to feel like a treat to go out to a restaurant and enjoy a leisurely threecourse meal with family and friends.

But these days eating out is seen as a more routine affair – so much so that three-quarters of us no longer bother to dress up.

And when we do get there, we often settle for just one course which we eat in a hurry before dashing off again.

Researchers at Manchester University looked at our changing attitudes to dining out in the last two decades.

These days, eating at a pub carvery or local Italian restaurant is simply seen as a cheaper and easier option to cooking at home.

The survey of more than 1,100 people in three British cities in 2015 was compared to similar research in 1995. While 39 per cent of people dressed up to go out for dinner in 1995, that has fallen to less than a quarter. In 1995, 29 per cent of people said their most recent restaurant trip was for a special occasion – a proportion which has now dipped to 26 per cent.

Lead author Dr Jessica Paddock said: ‘We saw from the survey that people now sometimes see eating out as a more ordinary event. It is impromptu, after a day at work, as well as being for special social occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries.’

She added that some people can even go out for dinner just ‘because they don’t have any food in the fridge’. Perhaps happily for our bulging waistlines, going out to eat no longer necessarily means three courses. The third of people who had a starter and dessert with their evening meal in 1995 now stands at 22 per cent.

Dr Paddock, who looked at diners in London, Bristol and Preston, said the frequency of those eating out has not really changed and the trend is not being driven by laziness or a decline in home cooking.

But, where almost all meals out, even as recently as in the 1990s, were seen as ‘an exception’ to the everyday, ‘a source of pleasure and a highly valued opportunity for social interaction’, there has been a shift.

Events are no longer planned as far in advance, with an increase in people deciding to eat out on the same day and a fall in those planning weeks ahead.

The survey also revealed that British food is still the nation’s favourite, closely followed by Italian and Indian.