As the light lingers longer, and tanned limbs are stretched out of dormancy and into skirts and shorts, there’s something in the air that allows our social batteries to forget that they ever lose charge. However, somewhere along the way, we collectively, it seems, decided that the best place to be at 9pm was home.

Before the world stopped, late reservations were just how things were done. You didn’t bat an eye at a 10pm media dinner. 9:45pm drinks were simply a Tuesday. Patrick Bateman of course only wanted 8:30pm on a Friday night. 

But then Covid happened, and like many things, we lost the art of accepting the late dinner. People wanted to be home, horizontal and in bed at a reasonable hour. And then of course, the relentless culture of optimization moved in and filled that gap. Oura rings, sleep cycles, and cortisol anxiety all left a general sense that a late dinner is something you are inflicting on your body, rather than doing for yourself.

The numbers are not fun and the city that never sleeps is looking increasingly drowsy. Time Out New York reported in April 2026 that 6pm to 6:59pm had become the most popular dining hour in the city in 2025, up 12% year on year, and 45% of New Yorkers said they’d prefer an early dinner in 2026. Only 30% chose late. For a city once defined by the 8:30pm reservation followed by bar hopping to the wee hours, is this an identity crisis? London isn’t looking much better, although a city that very much leans into its reputation as early to bed early to rise, a study by Zonal, a hospitality tech platform, the new national average dining time in the UK is 6.12pm, and their survey of 5,000 British adults found that just 2% of bookings are now for after 9pm. 

Have we gone from a generation of people who previously thought nothing of starting a new bottle of wine at 10:30pm to treating a 9pm res like a walk of shame?

But as the summer evenings stretch on, the promise that anything can happen arrives – the unique, romantic energy of being out late in the city. Perhaps summer, especially summer in the city, is the real silly season: silly about sensibility, and silly about time. It’s for leaning into long evenings that feel full of possibility rather than scheduling them into oblivion. Holiday mode. Your plans change with the light, the city stays warm, everything feels, briefly, never-ending. As Ed Cumming put it in The Telegraph on this same topic, “Nobody has ever fallen in love over a salad at 5.30pm.”

Hospitality on both sides of the Atlantic is taking a hit – soaring costs, lack of tax breaks, and a cost-of-living crisis that’s hollowing out the industry. In London particularly, draconian licensing – yes, Westminster, we’re looking at you – is beating exciting independents into closure, and dining rooms that used to pride themselves on their glorious late-night buzz are emptying out by 9:15pm. It’s time to join the resistance. 

And those that know best, the conductors of the orchestra are giving us reason to. Restaurateur Jeremy King, who recalls last orders being taken at 1am when he started in hospitality in the 1970s, has introduced a 25% discount for anyone dining after 9:15pm at Arlington in Mayfair and The Park in Queensway, while Rita’s in Soho is offering £10 martinis for anyone sitting down after 10pm. 

Duck & Waffle in Edinburgh has created the 9pm Club – 25% off for post-9pm bookings. Across the Atlantic, New York’s Libertine has responded to the early-bird creep with Après Hours – a reverse happy hour designed to draw diners back to the later sitting.

The Case for the Later Table

Think about the pros of a dining room that has been working hard for three hours. The restaurant has found its rhythm. The kitchen choreography is confident. The staff are present and the tables are not for turning. It’s a dance that is working, and one that feels electric to be part of. The room itself is full of a specific kind of company. Late diners have abandoned their daytime persona. Shrugged off the weight of their 9-5. They’re unhurried and have arrived by way of the long route: a walk, a drink, a conversation.

And then there’s what the late reservation gives you before you even arrive. An entire evening before your evening. Somewhere for a languid drink rather than a swift half before sprinting to the table. The aperitivo hour – that specifically European institution of drinking unhurriedly before dinner, something to nibble, no worry about ruining your appetite – suits city summers intrinsically. 

So the next time you log onto OpenTable and your only option is 9:45pm, or the Resy alert comes for 10:15pm – take it. Live like the (mainland) Europeans – all of whom are living longer and eating better than most of us and most importantly have never abandoned the late dinner. 

Lean into the romance of the late reservation. Summer doesn’t last. The long light doesn’t either. Go on, stay up late.

Our 11 Favorite Late Night Haunts in London, NYC and LA

1. The Bar Room, Chateau Royale, New York
2. Minetta Tavern, New York 
3. Sip & Guzzle, New York
4. The Dover, London
5. The Pink Chihuahua at El Camion, London  
6. Brasserie Zedel, London
7. Bob Bob Ricard, London
8. The Jazz Café, Cipriani, Beverly Hills
9. The Kettle, LA
10. Mitsi, LA
11. Jones Hollywood, LA