Here’s the bill, and you haven’t even finished your mains. Welcome to the era of time-capped eating, a counterculture practice that gets diners in and out and never mind the experience, or the bottle of wine there wasn’t time to finish. 

You finally snag a reservation at a restaurant you have been wanting to try, only to hear upon arrival that the restaurant needs your table back in 90 minutes. From the moment your order is taken, you might have an hour to eat multiple courses. If the food comes out late, you have to rush the eating and knock back the wine pairings like they’re tequila shots. You want to order dessert, but you can’t, because your time is up. 

Time limits are logical from a restaurant-slash-business perspective. Post pandemic, they are a new reality diners are usually willing to accept – we want restaurants to survive, after all. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when faced with limited space – thanks to social distancing – and staffing, most surviving restaurants needed to turn tables around more quickly to fit in more sittings. 

Now everything is back to normal, but it’s not. Profit margins remain tight, salaries are what they are, and restaurants face the same electricity, rent and cost-of-produce issues that the average household does. Diners, who want long, lively meals out with friends and need them more than ever, are finding the tight lead a little too restrictive.

Related story: Don’t want to pay for your friend’s boyfriend’s drinks? Here’s our guide to splitting the bill fairly

Is time up on the traditional notion of hospitality? 

Most diners are sympathetic about timed tables, but the ongoing policy in more popular and usually upmarket restaurants can run at odds with the pre-pandemic notion of a good night out. Diners often pay more for a meal out, thanks to tightening costs and inflation, and knowing they’re up against the clock takes the sparkle out of a much-anticipated meal. 

Once upon a time the cue that it was time to leave was obvious to any diner with an ounce of awareness. Think: light turned up, music down or off, tables cleared, and chefs packing up to leave while you’re still nursing your glass of Shiraz. Nowadays it’s a blatant “would you like to order dessert” before you’ve taken a bite of your entree. 

When it first opened in 2018, Bert’s in Newport enjoyed the kind of customers who came in for lunch and stayed on through dinner and beyond. The restaurant vibe was inspired by the grand hotel dining rooms of the 1930s, injected with the easy air of Sydney’s Northern Beaches. “We want to create that sense of relaxed indulgence you experience on a coastal European holiday; to capture that feeling when you decide to order the fresh lobster or relax into the afternoon with Champagne and oysters”, said Jordan Toft, executive chef at Merivale, including Bert’s, at the time. 

Evening reservations at Bert’s on a Saturday night are now limited, but to 2.5 hours; long enough to finish your house brioche fingers with fragrant salmon and fennel pollen, the lamb cutlets with salsa verde and cumin salt, plus a dessert and a bottle of Champagne or two. But such generous dining slots are now rare, and difficult for smaller restaurant enterprises to manage cost wise. 

Related story: Surge pricing isn’t just for Ubers, it could soon be a reality at a restaurant near you

The increase in no-reservations restaurants post pandemic has only enhanced the strict time limit discourse. There is however an upside few people realise when they’re actually dining. Nobody likes being rushed, but timed meals do eliminate the seemingly endless wait for tables created by lingering customers with their feature-length meals. 

Restaurants have taken control from diners, enforcing their authority on how long it should reasonably take to eat a meal in their establishment. As it is with many paid experiences in the modern world, the customer doesn’t choose how long they get to enjoy it. 

Nobody loves being ushered out the door before they’ve had a chance to browse the dessert menu, sure. But a subtle “here’s your bill” from a waiter sure beats the watch-tapping, hovering queue of hungry diners by the entry of the restaurant, eyeballing your table. Nothing puts you off the cheese course like an awaiting couple muttering “you done?” and “tick-tock”. 

Related story: Should you stack your plates at the end of a meal at a restaurant?