Masterchef star hits out at ‘no show’ diners
● Dean Banks to introduce charges at St Andrews restaurant
One of Scotland’ s rising culinary stars is to penalise socalled “no show” diners at his inaugural restaurant
Dean Banks, who shot to fame as a finalist on the BBC Two television series Mast er chef: The Professionals, was left shocked after 14 people failed to honour their reservations at his Haar eatery on Saturday evening, the equivalent of 30 per cent of the bookings.
He blamed golf package companies in St Andrews who make reservations at a number of the Fife town’s restaurants for the one sitting, only to ask tourists to choose one of them at short notice, leaving the other establish - ments out of pocket.
Mr Banks, who described such behaviour as“totally unacceptable ”, said he had been forced to throw out a sizable quantity of fresh produce as a result, and ended up making a loss.
Now, he is following in the footsteps of a growing number of restaurateurs who require diners to provide debit or credit card details when making reservations, with charges for those who do not show up.
He told The Scots man :“I can’ t tell you how annoyed I was after Saturday. We lost out on what should have been more than £1,000 of revenue.
“We’ re still trying to get off our feet and become a trusted brand that treats its staff well, but something like this has a domino effect.”
Since opening Ha a rat the beginning of April, Mr Banks, who trained at Rick Stein’s The Seafood Restaurant, has enjoyed praise from restaurant critics and writers.
One particularly glowing review published at the weekend prompted a deluge of enquiries from would-be diners, who were told the restaurant – based in St Andrews’ five star Kin nettles Hotel– was fully booked. However, as Mr Banks soon discovered, he could easily have accommodated many of those who called.
Come the evening’s end, the no shows included a table of eight, a table off our, and a table of two. It was the fourth time in the space of just six weeks that a party of eight had bailed on its booking.
“I think what we’re seeing is golf tour companies booking three restaurants at a time and asking people where they want to eat,” Mr Banks explained. “I’ m not going to stand for that, and I’d love to get everyone involved in the hospitality industry in St Andrews to take a stand as well.”
Last year, chef Mark Greenaway introduced charges for people who failed to turn up a this eponymous eatery in Edinburgh. Par ties who did not appear for lunch bookings were charged £30 per person, with the penalty rising to £50 a head for dinner bookings.