Nicola Waldren: Restaurant Association NZ General Manger on Auckland restaurants closing earlier than anywhere else in the world

New research has revealed Auckland eateries have the earliest closing times in the world.

According to international food magazine Chef’s Pencil, it's unusual for Auckland restaurants to take bookings past 8:30pm, with many closing up between 9pm or 10.pm

Restaurant Association NZ's Nicola Waldren says dining early is a key part of New Zealand's culture - and it's helpful for the restaurants. 

"Those early diners will come in early, have a quick meal - and that allows them to take advantage of a quieter dining environment and they don't have to wait for a table."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A new survey, as I was telling you, is found
that Auckland restaurants close earlier than anywhere else in the world.
International food magazine Chef's Pencil looked at four four hundred
restaurants in eighty nine cities around the world and worked
out the medium medium time for the last seating in
each of these cities. In Auckland it's half past eight.
It's the earliest time of any city in the survey.

(00:20):
Nicola Waldron is the general manager of the Restaurant Association. Hey,
Nikola Cura, why are we like this?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, you know, I think there's lots of different reasons
why people may decide to eat early. You know, it's
a good time if you've got a young family, maybe
catching a bite after work with some friends. I think,
you know, also Auckland, the spread out nature of Auckland

(00:49):
sort of probably plays a bit of a part as well,
so you might have to drive home afterwards. So there's
lots of different reasons I think that play into this.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
But I sort of had I'd wondered if it was
the children thing as well, But not everybody is a parent,
right and even if you become a parent, we're leaving
it later in life. So surely there's a quorum of
people out there who want to have a few drinks
and then go out for dinner a bit later. Is
it maybe a hangover? Have we just got into a
pattern because we're an old farming country.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Look, I think dining early has probably always had its
place in New Zealand, but we do need early diners
to help restaurants to spread out the flow of customers
over the night. You know, otherwise we're all traditionally going
out at seven or seven thirty. So you know, those
early diners will maybe kind of come in early, have

(01:43):
a quick meal, and then that allows them to take
advantage perhaps of a quieter dining environment. They don't have
to wait for a table but then that table is
freed up again for customers to come in that those
traditionally peak time. So I think they've got a good place.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well do tourists find us dull?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
I don't think that we're dull. I think we've got
a really.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Come on, Okay, stop it out now, you're going overboard
now trying to put a good spin on this. I mean,
if you're in Cairo and you're eating at midnight and
then you come to New Zealand and we stop taking
orders at half past eight. That's pretty boring, do you know.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
I think that the visiting tourists actually do have play
a good bit of influence on our dining patterns as well,
because they do traditionally eat later than us. So, you know,
in those peak tourist times and we've got those international
tourists coming in, then we might see them typically eating

(02:43):
later than our domestic customers. But again that is a
good thing for our restaurants to help with the flow
across the evening.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Nicholas, thank you. I appreciate your time. It's Nicole A
Waldron Restaurant Association general manager. Hither it's because we're trying
to get home before the frigging roads come. This is true.
My mom lives in Pokakoe, which is down the motorway
from Auckland, and she's always saying she comes up to
visit me in Auckland, comes up to do whatever. I
don't know, and then she gets stuck by the bloody

(03:13):
motorway that's closed. That motorway has been closed since I
was at university. What the hell are they still doing
to it? I mean, geez, surely by now, the thing
should be bloody gold and like we should be going.
It's like an like the amount of work that's put
on this bloody thing should be like an Autobahn. But
it's not, is it anyway? So that's part of it.
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(03:34):
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