The curious case of the restaurant chair

So yesterday evening, I went to Two One Two Bar & Grill at Worli and I was confronted yet again by an old bugbear - the restaurant chair.

I feel I must start by offering disclaimers about Two One Two, before I begin this rant. The food was lovely (special mention for the chocolate fondant and the roasted chicken salad with rocket), and the waiters were extremely helpful.



But the chair, that darn chair. It was so heavy that I could barely pull myself in and when I finally managed to drag a few inches, it knocked against the table and wouldn't budge further. I spent all evening perched on the end of my seat, hoping that after a second apple martini, I wouldn't slide off while discussing how wonderful a holiday destination Sri Lanka is (yes, we're still talking about that).

The supremely uncomfortable restaurant chair is now a given at most fine dining establishments across the city. I see where the owners are coming from. Vanilla seating must be a no-no, with edgy furnishing styles and theme interiors that ape international trends to make a patron feel that the meal and the feel would be no different if he was sitting down to dinner in Mumbai or in Manhattan. For example, take Wink at the Taj Vivanta with its dark wood furnishings and dim lights, where it is impossible to eat a meal at the tables without a considerable amount of discomfort. Or Vie at Juhu, that has a similar sofa seating arrangement, and where the only way I'd really have enjoyed that meal, is if I were holding my plate in my lap. The owners may argue that patrons visit these places to have a drink rather than have a three course meal, but then why not just offer high-end bar eats and do away with mains? What about the diner, yes the man or woman who came there to eat(!), and not get shitfaced on daiquiris? He's likely to ring up a bill as much as the PYTs at the bar but by forcing him to squirm in his seat all night, he's probably going to notice everything wrong with the meal a whole lot more than he would if he could actually lean back in between bites, and not be swallowed whole by the sofa while doing so.

Give me a boring chair over a couch anyday. Surely, you'd spend less on laundering the upholstery too.