From merely expecting good food and service, diners increasingly want to design their own meals by adding or removing certain ingredients.
“More customers want to choose what they want and how they want it, like Subway,” said Stonegate Pub Company’s head of food Perry Huntley.
“It is customisation. We have given people flexibility through options on the menu but we don’t want to make it too complex for the staff and kitchen. It is getting more popular as customers want to be in control.”
Classic Inns’ menu gives the choice of adding salmon or chicken to the risotto and customers can add chicken or cheese to burgers at Yates’s.
Brian Whiting, founder of the pub operator Whiting & Hammond, has also noticed a shift in customer behaviour, though he credits sites such as Twitter and TripAdvisor for driving the change.
“Diners are becoming more demanding,” he said. “I blame it on social media as people can tell the world about their dining experience in an instant — good or bad.
“Sometimes they are demanding for the right reasons and make us up our game. It can be a good thing, but I hope that it doesn’t go too far.”
Between Whiting and the company’s seven pub managers, they endeavour to respond to every comment across social media.
JD Wetherspoon senior food development manager Jameson Robinson said modern menus need to be a balance between offering enough choice for the consumer without over-complicating the kitchen.