See:Table at 7? L.A. begs to differ – Los Angeles Times
According to industry insiders, business has been slow lately for L.A. restaurants. With so many new restaurants opening, competition for diners is fierce, they say. Menu prices have been rising and people aren’t spending as freely. Yet when diners call and try to reserve at a time when the restaurant clearly has plenty of tables, they’re told no.
This is so annoying and so true. We used to eat at this great American style restaurant. It was completely reservation less, you would show up put your name on the list and wait for a table. Once you got to know the hosts you could call ahead and get your name on the list a little early. The place was fantastic and always packed solid (I’m talking Tuesday night flowing out the door). We ate there so much that Quicken thought it was a recurring transaction.
A couple of years ago they switched over to reservations and two things happened from my point of view. 1) It’s become a total nightmare to try and eat there because the hosts give so much attitude. I had one girl tell me if I didn’t write down the reservation number and recite it to them at the door we couldn’t get a table, and 2) the place is a shadow of it’s former self for customer traffic.
I’ve noticed that for most places if we call they are booked and we cannot have a reservation until 9pm, and when we drive over we get a table almost immediately. There’s the expression “fake it till you make it”, but at some point you are just shooting yourself in the foot.