Dining Out: Five Solo Meals I Have Known and Loved

Where to eat when you're going it alone.

The heart and soul of Dining Out is the fact that while it is a restaurant newsletter, it’s also basically a record of time I spend with people that I love every single week. I have, however, been feeling reasonably solitary lately, and wanting to spend a little more time alone has had me thinking about particular solo meals I’ve eaten that have left impressions on me.

There are some places – a lot, in fact – that aren’t suited to attending as a party of one, and I think those that are have special qualities. They’re often casual and welcoming, memorable because of how at ease you’re made to feel. I think solo meals in general can also stick in your mind because you’re entirely with your own thoughts – there’s no companion whose opinion of the steak you can ask – and you just have to trust your own judgement, so maybe your ideas about the food you ate stay with you a bit longer. This is just one of many reasons why dining out alone is a fun, worthwhile thing to do, but if you’re not convinced, there’s also the simple fact that it is also an occasion for completely forgoing any need for compromise. This is, of course, great news when you are greedy.

So, if you happen to be in the market for a solo meal – maybe you’ve got a day off or a weekday birthday or you’ve got some pretending to be in a film to do – below are five of the London restaurants or “spots” I have eaten at or from, by myself, in relatively recent times, plus my thoughts about why I liked them so much.

Rita’s

My 30th birthday fell on a Friday and while I wasn’t about to go to work on my birthday, Friday is famously a weekday, and my friends were busy doing their ‘jobs’ so I had to entertain myself until the evening. This is me you’re talking to so obviously I took myself for lunch at one of my favourite places, Rita’s in Soho.

When you’re dining alone at Rita’s they sit you in the window on a stool which feels quite romantic in its way. My booking was at midday but this of course did not stop me from immediately ordering a mini martini (if you go to Rita’s this is the thing you must order non-negotiably), closely chased by a Caesar salad with fried chicken and fries.

I love how much of a crap imitation of a salad a Caesar is – the best ones honour this and basically just provide you with dressing and several kinds of salt, with a side of lettuce. This is what you get at Rita’s (see: the fact that the chicken is fried). This place, of course, has a constantly rotating menu of American-inspired classics – cornbread that comes to the table with a knife stabbed through it like the sacred heart of Christ; endive with mole – but it’s the Caesar that endures, surviving menu changes and culls. The people love it, the chefs love it, and I had a great time eating it, celebrating being old like I was at a country club or something.