Restaurant's pay what you want offer brings double the customers

Peter Ilic, the restaurateur who abandoned bills at one of his restaurants for a month and instead told customers to pay what they thought their meal was worth, saw trade almost double during the promotion.

Diners flocked to Little Bay​ restaurant in Farringdon throughout February to eat at Ilic’s restaurant after news of his promotion spread across the world.

Ilic told BigHospitality the average weekly number of covers rose from 1,100 to 2,000 over the course of the month and customers were frequently turned away because the restaurant was too busy.

And despite leaving diners to choose how much they paid, Ilic said takings were up on the same month the previous year.

“It went extremely well,” he said. “Better than I expected. We had a lot of publicity in the beginning - I was even contacted by TV stations in Brazil, Germany, France and Italy - but then people came because they were looking for value for money.

“There were some people who didn’t pay, but the majority of them paid pretty much what the price is on the menu.”

Although the promotion was a success, Yugoslavian-born Ilic, who first introduced the ‘pay what you think it’s worth’ concept at his Finchley Road restaurant Just Around the Corner in 1984, said he had no plans to run it again in the near future.

“The only problem with this is there is no control. People leave money but you can’t guarantee how much,” he said.

“In all my restaurants (There are also Little Bay restaurants in Kilburn, Croydon and Battersea) I did much better than last year for February, so I am going to concentrate on delivering the quality, well priced food we are known for.

“A lot of people know I am reasonably priced and we did extremely well in the last recession, so we will continue with offering value for money.”

London restaurant abandons bills