Ugly truth: High-end London restaurants ‘reject or hide’ unattractive customers

‘Ugly’ people hoping to dine at London’s most luxurious eateries will either find themselves seated at the back or turned away by waiters who fear they could put off other potential customers, a documentary has claimed.

The four-part Channel 4 series, Tricks of the Restaurant Trade, will expose the ‘ugly truth’ about discrimination in the capital’s restaurants when it airs on Tuesday evening. 

As part of the investigation, the show’s producers sent four attractive models into three of the most expensive restaurants in London and they were immediately led to the “golden tables,” near the windows.

Adam Pearson, who is one of the program’s main presenters, suffers from neurofibromatosis, which has left his face covered in non-cancerous tumors.

When he visited the same restaurant with his friend, the pair were either refused a table or offered one that was hidden away.

The restaurants visited in the program have not been named.

Commenting on the incident, the TV presenter said: “It’s disappointing. The next time you get sat at the back of the restaurant, now you know why.”

Celebrity chef Simon Rimmer, who also hosts the documentary, said every restaurant “has a golden table” where the best-looking customers are seated.

“A restaurant’s clientele give off a certain message about the place. Good-looking customers attract more people and make you more cash, so you sit them where they can be seen,” he told the Evening Standard.

Neil Gill, owner of the Season Kitchen in London, told the Sun: “Everybody likes to associate themselves with cool people and good-looking people. You want to feel like you are eating in a restaurant where there are other cool people.”

The revelation comes two years after two trendy Parisian restaurants in Paris were accused of seating guests according to how good-looking they are.

Former hostesses who worked at Georges told French newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné the “good-looking ones are led to the good places where they can be easily seen.”

“As for the non-good-looking ones, it is imperative that they be dispatched to the corners of the room,” they said.