The latest CGA by NIQ data shows consumers are opting to eat and drink earlier, with almost a quarter (23%) eating earlier and 16% drinking earlier in 2024 compared to 2023.

This shift has resulted in a sizeable overlap between eating and drinking occasions, with mid-afternoon drinks sales rising from 20% in 2022 to 23% in 2023, while late night purchases fell from 30% to 23% in 2024.

The results dovetail with data from cloud-based reservation and guest management platform SevenRooms, which found 16.6% of total weekly reservations made in Australia during 2024 were for Mondays, with 6pm being the preferred dining time. 

According to Good Food, it’s not just Monday being the new favourite night, early dining is now the norm. It describes it as the “toddler-inspired dining trend sweeping Sydney restaurants”.

The website reported: “On a typical night last week, the hot new King Clarence [above] restaurant in the Sydney CBD – part of a stable that includes the hatted Bentley and Monopole – had more than 60 per cent of its bookings in the slot between 5pm and 6pm.”

Restaurateur Maurice Terzini said he believes Sydney’s lockout laws rolling into COVID-19 lockdowns have shaped the new early-bird culture. 

The early dining trend started gaining momentum in 2022, when ResDiary reported: “Early dinner bookings are on the rise accounting for 39% of all bookings in 2022. The 5pm seating time now makes up 13.5% of all bookings, with 6pm hosting 25.5% of all bookings in 2022.

“This is a sizable increase from 2021 when the 5/6pm booking times accounted for 36.2% of all bookings, (12.3%/23.9% respectively) which presents venues with the opportunity turn tables multiple times during a service.”

It’s a sharp contrast to the eating and drinking culture in locations such as Europe, where a typical dinner reservation time is between 8-9pm.

Restaurants in Spain, for example, typically don’t open until around 8pm and it’s not unusual for dinners to extend to midnight and beyond.

However, Australians aren’t the globe’s earliest diners, with a survey by international food magazine Chef’s Pencil, restaurants in Auckland take the earliest last orders in the world.