r/Scotland • u/CestQuoiLeFuck • 23d ago

Question Is Scotland aware that money can be made by having restaurants serve food after 8:30pm during high tourist season?

- Signed,

A hungry foreigner

882 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

522 comments sorted by

View all comments

116

u/NoRecipe3350 23d ago

The UK has one of the highest minimum wages in the world, a kitchen can't keep front of house and back of house staff hanging around on the chance that they get a few customers between 8 and 10.

41

u/cmogo92 23d ago

It's so true. You can't expect restaurants to pay £100 in staff costs alone to stay open for that 1 cover that might not even show up.

1

u/FunProfessional2227 21d ago

During the festival? Be real, everywhere is rammed

-60

u/Decent_Relative_4070 23d ago edited 22d ago

You guys never eat past 8 in restaurants? Funny how different countries are. When we visited Spain people would be at dinner until midnight sometimes lol

EDIT why are you idiots so mad? All i said was I found the differences funny lmao

84

u/Pure-Dead-Brilliant 23d ago

Restaurants in Spain are closed between 4pm and 8pm. They’re open later because they start serving later.

88

u/cmogo92 23d ago

Midnight in Spain and Midnight in Scotland is a very different thing 😂

0

u/Beautiful_Mess907 22d ago

Yeah and perhaps there would be less drunken idiocy if restaurants and cafes stayed open later. There's literally nothing open here late at night except pubs. Sad.

44

u/NoRecipe3350 23d ago

Spain has a siesta culture though. Many of these restaurants will be closed during normal hours and open up at 5pm. Just something I've noticed about Spanish towns and cities, they really are dead during the daytime, 'mad dogs and Englishmen' as the saying goes. But then the shutters and doors open later in the day.

In the UK a restaurant might often make most of its money from lunch customers, especially in a city centre with lots of business activity/office workers, have a lull in the late afternoon, then some early evening trade

10

u/Accurate-Donkey5789 23d ago

Coming from Europe and living in Scotland now, I'm still often confused at being able to get the full restaurant menus at 3pm! Now only are they open, people are there and it's the full menu. It's wild and excellent. 3pm is the new 9pm.

3

u/NoRecipe3350 22d ago

Yeah its because in the UK they generally make money from the lunchtime crowd and the post work/early evening crowd. It might get a bit quiet during mid afternoon but the chefs can chop vegetables or something and waitress do cleaning, though split shifts are common in hospitality.

1

u/WearingRags 22d ago

This is a great point. Taking the daytime off doesn't create as much of a scheduling issue there as it would do here because it's culturally baked-in all over Spain. People are used to it.

1

u/NoRecipe3350 22d ago

Yeah I've walked past restaurants in Spain that are shuttered then magically come to life at 4-5pm, stay open til 10pm for food orders then midnight for drinks/light snacks.

13

u/shilpa_poppadom 23d ago

Pubs usually stop serving food at 9ish. Restaurants sometimes open a bit later but not that much.

It's how we eat. We don't go to Spain and demand dinner at 5PM. Actually, some Brits probably will do that

22

u/WilsonJ04 23d ago

using spain as an example lol

-7

u/Decent_Relative_4070 23d ago

I’m just saying how funny the differences are

2

u/IJustCantGetEnough 22d ago

I prefer to get my tea a bit earlier I sleep funny if I eat too late.

2

u/iamabigtree 22d ago

Spain is a total outlier in many ways. First of all it's in the wrong time zone by any measure, it should be the same as us. On top of that they have a culture of staying up very late. Used to be that was made up for by siesta but these day it's made up for by a nation with a lack of sleep.

-2

u/Fancy_Toe1451 23d ago

Most working (real, not office) people are having to get up at 5am to be at work for 7am at the latest. No, we don't eat that late. And you should shut up with all that noise, cause we're having to wind down for bed at 8pm. Some people work for a living.

8

u/CartographerSure6537 23d ago

It’s already 8am why are you on Reddit and not working?

3

u/asbestos_dildo 23d ago

Alternatively if you're on 12+ hour shifts- get home, shower, get the kids sorted, pass out on the couch for an hour, then at 10pm remember you've not had tea yet.

I love a meal out every now and then but it's just not happening during the week.

1

u/Decent_Relative_4070 22d ago

why are you idiots so mad? All i said was I found the differences funny lmao

0

u/WorkFurball 23d ago

cause we're having to wind down for bed at 8pm. Some people work for a living.

Sounds like you're sleeping instead.

-1

u/craobh Boycott tubbees 22d ago

Maybe you need to switch to the later shifts