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Term: Communal tables.

Look: Long, awkward and making a comeback.

Communal Dining is Back? Oh no. The Sole Appropriate Location for Refectory Tables is the School Canteen

What kind of adult chooses to dine alongside strangers? Gen Z, it seems. According to data from the dining booking company Resy, "Nine out of ten of gen Z diners say they enjoy communal tables, compared with just 60% of boomers".

A Sign of the Times. Before Complaining About the Youth of Today

Group dining in patriotic “British Restaurants” was a major trend during the WWII, actually – there were about two thousand five hundred of them, backed by Winston Churchill.

I Suppose It Made Sense When Food Was Scarce, But Why Do It Now?

It’s an alien concept for you, I know, but shared dining can be enjoyable! As the Resy CEO explains: "They naturally turn dinner into a shared experience," and "You never know who you’ll be seated next to; that’s the fun of it!"

The “Fun” of Having Dinner Interrupted by Someone Explaining Loudly About Their Therapy Says They’re “a Highly Sensitive Empath”

Or being squeezed next to a fitness enthusiast chomping chicken breasts to fuel his "farmer’s carries"? Or a social media user capturing you in the background of their reel while eating a salad? Consider this: gen Z – the most online generation, who grew up during COVID, and many of whom entered an almost exclusively digital workplace – love a structured communal activity. It’s the same impulse behind the rise of youth running groups, hiking outings and art nights: they’re craving offline social connection.

I Prefer Dining in One of Those One-Person Ramen Booths They Have in Tokyo.

This may not appeal to you, but lots of young people are lonely (Nearly half of them, as per an Oxfam survey released this summer). In a 2023 US report , one-third of men aged between 18 and 23 reported they had no contact outside their household in the previous seven days. Isn’t it a good thing they’re getting out and breaking bread with strangers?

I Suppose. Studies Indicate Those Dining in Groups Report Greater Happiness

Talking to strangers is beneficial, too: it gives us a greater sense of belonging. Additionally the Resy survey points out another advantage: one in seven survey respondents said they’d landed a date at a shared meal event. Given gen Z have gone off the apps, this offers a chance for a spontaneous "meet-cute".

I Hate That Pun Nearly as Much as I Hate Communal Tables.

Mission accomplished.

Appropriate comment: "Young adults believe shared meals are a total success."

Don’t say: "It’s all fun and games until someone drops a katsu prawn on your Y2K baggy jeans."