Hugh Corcoran and The Yellow Bittern: is the customer really always right?

The Yellow Bittern on the Caledonian Road is not your typical London restaurant. Seating just 18 diners, the somewhat old-fashioned establishment is open only at lunchtime on weekdays, takes cash only, sells books, and reservations must be made by phone – or postcard.

However, having opened just three weeks ago, it's not the slightly quirky features that have got people talking, but the complaints about customers by the restaurant's owner, Hugh Corcoran.

'A two-way street'

The Belfast-born restaurateur took to Instagram to decry a lack of "etiquette" from diners who were not "worth serving" because they shared courses or did not eat and drink enough to "justify [their] presence in the room that afternoon".

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His post was met with hundreds of comments, some accusing him of "entitlement" and being "tone-deaf", while others were supportive of his outspoken approach to customer eating habits.

Corcoran doubled down on his take in an interview with The Guardian by telling customers "if you're not hungry, don't go" and lambasting "restaurant tourism", in which people go "to show that you've been to that place, without actually eating".

The Yellow Bittern's "defiant attitude to fine-dining" has been "praised" by some fellow restaurant owners, said Lucy Bannerman in The Times. However, it was "inconceivable" for most to open only at lunchtimes, not at the weekend, and to expect people to engage in a "long, boozy lunch".

But restaurant dining is a "two-way street", argued Adam Hyman in The Good Food Guide. While owners should make their establishments "egalitarian places" where "people from all walks of life can break bread together" and not look at customers "as pound signs", it does not mean the customer is "always right".

Diners need a "greater understanding of how restaurants work" to gain a "different perspective", Hyman added. A spell working in hospitality would be a "simple way" of doing this, just "don't tell anyone they’re not spending enough money".

'Throwing their toys out the pram'

Questions have also been raised over whether Corcoran's move to chastise customers is a ploy for publicity. If it's true that the "borderline insulting comments" are just "designed to fill a few column inches", then "it's working" and "people are talking", said Mike Daw in London's The Standard. But it "smacks" of owners who have hit the "stark reality of running a restaurant in London" and are "throwing their toys out the pram" because it isn't "going their way".

The model of the restaurant and the owner's comments will do nothing but "alienate diners", said Hannah Twiggs in The Independent. Corcoran has missed the "simple truth of running a restaurant" that you need to offer "flexibility and respect" to diners and, while his "frustration might be genuine", it is "misguided" to blame "diners for these problems".

Corcoran should be "applauded for fighting back" against customers "always thinking they are right" and for "coming out swinging", wrote Ed Cumming in The Telegraph. Though it "might not work" in making The Yellow Bittern a commercial success, it is "gratifying to see an ancient debate" between owners and customers "given a 2024 twist".