It’s inevitable that when someone takes something away from you, that’s ultimately going to be the thing that you think about or want the most, and when it came to pandemic lockdowns and subsequent restrictions, enjoying a delicious meal out at a restaurant proved to be one of the activities people missed doing the most.
It’s no surprise really given that we were forced to spend more time inside our homes than ever before, while not having the chance to socialise with friends and family members in person proved to be a real hardship for many. Add to that the fact that those of us who aren’t adept at creating lovingly home cooked meals each and every night had to learn to fend for themselves rather than rely on the expertise of a professional chef and it’s no surprise that diners have returned to restaurants with gusto.
Getting into the habit of dining at home every day certainly did nothing to satiate our desires for dining out, in fact it has increased – there’s data to prove it – and not only that but our tastes and desires have developed, too, with huge jumps for a particular country’s cuisine being searched for online.
How do we know this?
Tastecard, the company which provides keen diners with a range of restaurant offers to enjoy meals out for less, conducted the research into how our eating habits have changed when it comes to dining out post pandemic. They looked at search engine results to determine where and how often people are eating out in restaurants in 2022 compared to 2019.
Leaving time to gather the data since lockdowns and further restrictions eased and people’s confidence around dining out increased, it seems that, across the board, people are more interested than ever when it comes to dining out and not only that, but they have a clear idea of what type of food it is they wish to devour.
Despite the difficulties the hospitality industry faced at the time and since then, with staff having been a major issue for many dining establishments, it seems that keen diners are here, and they want to try new foods and a range of cuisines from different countries.
The research shows that there have been huge increases in search volume for people looking for specific types of food, for example, interest in Japanese restaurants has jumped 222 per cent, with more than 25,000 searches alone in April 2022 compared to 11,414 searched in April 2019.
And Japanese cuisine isn’t the only to be hugely coveted by those seeking a break from the meals they would typically dine on at home. It will come as no surprise to learn that searches for Indian restaurants rose, the love in the UK for this cuisine is well-known, but would you expect it to have increased by 209 per cent? In addition to this, the popularity of Italian restaurants more than doubled with searches coming out at 38,137, a 204 per cent jump from 18,689 after the three-year gap, while searches for Spanish restaurants rose 234 per cent and there were 136 per cent more searches for French restaurants from before the pandemic.
Add this to the fact that the general search term ‘restaurants near me’ was recorded at 692,103 in April 2019, plummeted to 79,103 in April 2020 to reflect the UK’s first lockdown, and skyrocketed to 1,222,729 by April 2022 and it’s clear to see that people are more keen than ever to head out and make up for lost time, whether that’s for socialising purposes, to try a selection of different foods or to simply enjoy the fruits of a good chef’s labours.
When we look back to those countries and their cuisines above that have garnered a lot of attention on the search engines since the end of lockdown restrictions, it’s perhaps no surprise, given our love of dining on a variety of cuisines.
Though some dining outlets were able and intuitive enough to pivot their operations by offering takeaway or collection services, many simply weren’t in the position to do so and so we were largely left to our own devices. Also, not everyone had a food delivery service available to them during lockdowns, especially for authentic foods that are often best enjoyed cooked fresh and placed at a table in front of you.
There’s nothing quite like a platter of sushi served up fresh or a well-made plate of pasta using a long-standing family recipe, and we are all clearly glad to have the opportunity to sample a range of foods once more and support our restaurants as they recover from the challenges of the past few years.
