The World’s Late Night Dining Capitals: The Cities Where Booking a Late Night Meal is Easiest
When you leave the cinema or theatre, or just when you’ve enjoyed a long day out, there is nothing like sitting down to a late meal with friends or family, especially at the weekends when you don’t have to be up early for work. But the chance of finding a good restaurant still open for business late at night will depend on quite where you are.
Some cultures eat longer and later than others, so to give you a round-up of where you are more likely to be served a late meal, we have delved into reservation apps to find the cities where booking a very late dinner is easiest. We analyzed the dinner reservation calendars of over 4,400 restaurants in 89 cities worldwide, noting the last seating times for each restaurant at weekends. We then ranked these cities based on the median value of the last seating time, or last food order time.
We looked at all types of restaurants and checked their reservation apps to identify seating times 2-3 weeks in advance. (Please refer to our methodology section below for more information.)
Our rankings highlight the cities where you’re most likely to secure a late dinner reservation.
Cities in the Middle East and South Asia Top the Rankings
Madrid is famous worldwide for its vibrant dining scene and nightlife, with late dining deeply ingrained in the local culture. However, the Spanish capital is beaten by several cities in India and the Middle East for late dinner options.
In Cairo, Egypt’s capital, booking a dinner well past midnight is a breeze. The average last seating time is midnight, making Cairo the world’s capital of late dining. So, if you need one more reason to visit the pyramids or explore the new and fabulous Grand Egyptian Museum, now you have it.
Across the Red Sea, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s top financial and commercial center, is another haven for late dinners. The average last seating time here is 11:30 pm, ranking it second worldwide.
Famous for its many holy sites, proximity to Mecca, beautiful beaches, and plentiful museums, Jeddah’s numerous restaurants and cafes remain open late into the night, particularly in popular areas like such as Corniche, Al-Balad, and Tahlia Street.
Tied in second place with Jeddah are two Indian megacities: New Delhi and Mumbai. In New Delhi, it’s common for people to have dinner between 20:30 to 22:00, but many restaurants, especially those in popular areas such as Connaught Place, Hauz Khas, and South Delhi, stay open much later, sometimes until midnight or even beyond. The late-night food culture is evident in the growing number of eateries and street food vendors who cater to those looking for a meal after a night out.
Mumbai, known for its lively nightlife, has an even stronger late dining culture. Many Mumbaikars dine between 21:00 and 23:00, and several restaurants, particularly in areas such as Colaba, Bandra, and Lower Parel, stay open until midnight or later. For last seating times, our research found no differences between New Delhi and Mumbai.
Late-night dining is also very popular in other top Middle Eastern destinations such as Dubai, Doha, and Muscat, Oman’s capital. The average last seating time in all three cities at weekends is 23:00, ranking them fifth worldwide.
These cities have embraced late-night culture, with many restaurants staying open well into the night, attracting locals and expatriates who prefer to dine late.
Only now do we come to Madrid, although still in a respectable fifth place worldwide. The last seating time in Madrid’s restaurants is on average at 23:00, the latest in Europe – though this accolade is shared with the Greek capital, Athens.
Three Latin American cities – Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo – are also famous for late dining and thriving nightlife. On average, the last seating time in these three cities is 23:00, some staying open late some shutting up shop a little earlier.
Argentina’s capital city is world-famous for its vibrant nightlife and that energy needs feeding. Dinner service ranges from around 20:00 to after midnight. Uruguayans are late eaters too at the weekends and as late as 23:00, though mid-week they are a little more reserved, typically dining at 21:30.
Northern Africa has another top entry in our ranking, this time with Marrakesh, the charming Moroccan city. Its vibrant medina and lively streets come alive in the evenings, and numerous restaurants offer visitors a taste of Moroccan cuisine late into the night, well after 11:00 pm.
Europe Spotlight
For those of you spending some time in Europe, the rule of thumb for finding late dining is to head south. The highest ranked European cities, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Athens and Lisbon, are all on or in the proximity of the Mediterranean.
As we have already seen, Madrid is the top European city for late dining and shares this attribute with Athens. The average last seating time in both cities is 11:00 pm.
The Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean are also a safe bet for a late diner with Istanbul, Bucharest, Zagreb, Belgrade and Limassol ranking high on our list. Paris, Brussels, and Milan rank also highly among European cities.
We conclude with Luxembourg, the European city where restaurants, on average, end their service the earliest at 8:45 PM.
Americas Spotlight
Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Montevideo are the late dinner capitals of the Americas. Argentina’s capital city as well as Mexico City are world-famous for their vibrant nightlife with dinner service ranging from around 8:00 pm until after midnight, while Uruguayans typically go out for dinner at 9.30 pm mid-week and as late as 11:00 pm on weekends.
Not far behind are Miami and Las Vegas, where the average last seating time is 22:30 – later than in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago. Miami stands out as an outlier in the U.S., with local dinner times typically later than the national average. The city's restaurant industry, which caters largely to international visitors, keeps many establishments busy until midnight.
While it might be expected that Las Vegas, with its tourism, gambling and entertainment-driven economy, would rank high in late dining, the city not only surpasses most of its national counterparts. It also outpaces Macau, Asia's gambling capital.
The last city in the Americas, the city that appears to like sleeping early, is San Francisco. The average last seating time is 9:00 pm for the city, substantially lower than its American peers.
The Cities Where Late Dinners Are Less Common
While some cities embrace late-night dining, others are rather more reserved, preferring a more respectable closing up time with restaurant service typically ending between 21:00 and 22:00, and the last seating or food orders taken is usually half an hour to an hour before closing.
Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, has the earliest restaurant closing times in the world, according to our research. The average last seating in Auckland’s many restaurants is 20:30. Dinner in New Zealand is typically served between 5:30 and 7:00 pm, which is early compared to many other countries where 5:30 pm might still be considered late lunch. If 8:30 pm sounds early, some Kiwi Redditors complain that it’s even worse outside Auckland. They’re likely correct, as restaurants in large cities tend to stay open longer than those in smaller towns.
Luxembourg City, and its suburbs, can also be counted among the sleepiest cities in the world, at least in terms of dining hours. On average, the last seating is at 8:45 pm in Luxembourg, making it the second earliest closing time in our research.
The Baltic trio of capitals – Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn – as well as neighboring Helsinki, also observe early dinner times. The median last seating time in these cities is around 21:00.
Surprisingly, some of Asia’s largest cities – Tokyo and Seoul – also score low on this scale. While it’s not impossible to dine out late in Tokyo and Seoul (Tokyo alone has 137,000 restaurants and plenty of them cater to the late-night crowd), the average restaurant closes by 9:30 or 10:00 pm, with the last seating around 9:00 pm.
The same goes for Australia’s culinary hotspots – Sydney and Melbourne – where the last seating is typically around 9:00 pm, quite early for a global city.
Additional Visuals
The Downside of Late Dinners
Working in a restaurant is mentally, physically, and emotionally demanding, and burnout is common. Because of the long working hours and unable to take weekends of work (in many cases), finding a work-life balance is hard for many restaurant employees.
This is especially true for employees with families and for women, many of whom struggle to reconcile their work with expectations at home. This challenge is one of the main reasons why so few women advance to executive positions in the industry.
Earlier this year, Spain’s Minister of Labour, Yolanda Díaz, sparked controversy by suggesting that restaurants in Spain should no longer remain open late into the night. She described the custom of keeping restaurants open until 1:00 am as “madness.”
However, her remarks were met with immediate criticism from many quarters, including Madrid’s regional president. She argued that “Spain has the best nightlife in the world, with streets full of life and freedom,” which provides employment for many, and that the central government’s approach would leave people “bored and at home.”
Methodology
Our team has researched booking calendars for over 4,400 restaurants in 89 cities worldwide and identified the last seating (or last food order) at weekends for each of these restaurants.
We then ranked these cities based on the median value of the last seating time, or last food order time.
We looked at all types of restaurants and relied heavily on reservation apps to identify seating times, completing the search for dates 2-3 weeks in advance for Fridays and double-checked for Saturdays (no cuisine or pricing criteria was used to filter restaurants). We used reservation apps such as opentable.com, resy.com, thefork.com, bookingham.ro, sevenrooms.com, openrice.com, tableapp.com, catchtable.com, and many more.
For cities that are not covered by these websites or apps, we relied on the restaurant’s own reservation systems. In some cities where online reservations are less common, the results might be skewed towards marketing-savvy restaurants and international chains.
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