Solo Dining Is Growing: What Restaurants Need to Rethink

A table for one is no longer simply the result of a cancelled plan or a business traveller with nowhere else to eat. For a growing number of customers, it is an intentional occasion: time to try somewhere new, enjoy a particular craving or experience a restaurant without coordinating a group. Recent OpenTable data reported that US reservations for one rose 23% over the previous year. More strikingly, solo diners spent an average of $94 per person, compared with $60 across all party sizes, while their average spend increased by 7% year on year.

Those figures are not a universal forecast, but they challenge a common assumption: one cover automatically means weak table economics. The opportunity depends on whether the restaurant has designed a proper one-person experience or merely tolerates it when capacity allows.

For restaurants in a highly mobile market such as the UAE, where residents, business travellers and tourists often eat outside a fixed social routine, this deserves deliberate attention. The answer is not a separate ‘solo menu’. It is a service and menu system flexible enough to work naturally for one. A well-structured digital restaurant menu can support that experience, but only when seating, pricing, portion logic and staff behaviour are aligned around it.

One Cover Is Not Half a Two-Top

Solo demand is growing from a small base. Toast’s latest restaurant data found that reservations for one rose 22% in the third quarter of 2025, yet they still accounted for less than 1% of booked reservations on its platform. That combination matters. It is early enough for operators to test without rebuilding the floor plan, but substantial enough to measure as a separate occasion rather than burying it under general covers.

The wrong measurement is the cheque size alone. Of course, one person usually spends less time than two people together. The more useful calculation is contribution per seat-hour: what the visit contributes after food costs, relative to the number of seats occupied and the time they are held. A solo customer at a counter seat during a quiet Tuesday lunch may be more valuable than an empty chair. A one-person booking that occupies the final four-top at peak time is a different commercial decision.

This is a capacity-management question, not a reason to treat solo diners as second-class guests. Give hosts clear rules for different periods and seating zones. Make counter seats, bar seating, compact two-tops and comfortable edge tables easy to book, matching the occasion to the right inventory without making one guest feel less welcome than a group.

Remove the Social Friction Before It Reaches the Menu

Operational design matters because solo dining can still carry a degree of self-consciousness. A peer-reviewed hospitality study based on in-depth interviews with 27 solo travellers found that evening dining could feel uncomfortable because of perceived judgment from others. Books and mobile phones helped participants manage that discomfort. The practical lesson is not to entertain a solo guest constantly; it is to give them control over how visible, occupied and attended they feel.

Small service choices shape that control. Avoid the apologetic ‘just one?’ at reception. Offer a genuine seating option rather than automatically placing the guest beside a service station. Explain the menu once, then give enough space to browse. Some guests want interaction; others want privacy. Good service notices the difference.

A QR code menu can reduce the most awkward part of the experience by allowing customers to explore privately on their own device. Clear categories, search and filtering reduce the need to ask repeated questions, while images, videos and accurate descriptions give the guest confidence to try unfamiliar dishes. This is the same principle behind helping customers make faster decisions: clarity should make ordering feel easier, not rushed.

Build a Complete Meal for One

Many restaurant menus are designed around couples and groups. Starters are described as ‘for the table’, side portions are meant to be shared, and large-format dishes carry much of the experience. Yet OpenTable’s 2026 outlook found that 52% of Americans would rather order their own dish than share in 2026. Even beyond solo dining, the preference for individual choice is strengthening.

The goal is not to miniaturise the entire menu. It is to ensure that one person can build a satisfying meal without ordering too much or settling for the only item that works on its own. Review the journey from the guest’s point of view:

• Can one person order a starter, main and dessert without every course feeling oversized?
• Are portion expectations clear enough to prevent accidental over-ordering?
• Can sides, sauces and drinks be added individually rather than only as group-sized bundles?
• Do tasting experiences or signature dishes have a credible one-person format when operations allow?
• Are recommendations useful for one guest, or do they repeatedly suggest food ‘for the table’?

Each option must still be costed and consistent. A smaller serving is not automatically profitable because labour, garnish and service remain. Start with dishes already shared, left unfinished or frequently adjusted, then define the recipe and plating standard before offering the format.

On a digital restaurant menu, restaurants can show portion context alongside the dish, use an accurate image, and recommend a drink, side, or dessert that creates a coherent meal for one. Cross-selling should solve the guest’s problem rather than inflate the basket. That protects the experience while applying the broader principles of average order value in a more occasion-specific way.

Measure the Occasion, Not Just the Cover

A restaurant does not need to redesign the whole operation to test this trend. Choose one or two relevant periods, such as weekday lunch, early dinner or bar service, and run a six-to-eight-week pilot. Brief the host team, adjust a limited number of menu items and keep other variables as stable as possible.

Track a small group of measures that reveal whether the occasion works commercially:

• Average spend per solo guest and contribution per occupied seat-hour.
• Drink, side and dessert attachment rather than main-course price alone.
• Table duration, cancellations and repeat visits by daypart.
• Plate waste and the frequency of requests for smaller or adjusted portions.
• Guest feedback on comfort, clarity, value and seating choice.

Use reservation and point-of-sale information to understand the commercial pattern, then compare it with aggregate browsing behaviour in the QR code menu. Menu analytics can show which categories and items attract attention, while customer surveys or polls can test why a choice was made. Do not assume a popular view is a successful dish, or that a shorter visit is always better. The objective is a profitable, comfortable occasion that customers want to repeat.

Make a Table for One Feel Fully Designed

Solo dining is not a request for less hospitality. It is a hospitality request that does not depend on a group. Restaurants that understand the difference can fill overlooked seats, adapt to changing customer routines, and build loyalty with guests who may later return with others.

Redro can help restaurants put the menu side of that strategy into practice through a brand-customised digital restaurant menu with images and videos, search, filtering, FAQs, nutritional and health information, save-order functionality for waiter recall, cross-selling, dynamic recommendations, customer surveys and menu analytics. The CMS also allows restaurants to test and update the experience without reprinting while maintaining a single source of truth across online and in-restaurant menus.

The main takeaway is simple: stop evaluating solo guests as incomplete groups. Give them the right seat, enough control, a complete meal path and the same sense of occasion as any other table. Then measure the economics properly. A table for one can be small in covers and significant in value.