Queuing for restaurants leaves tourists with a bad taste in their mouths

Long lines outside London’s most popular restaurants are “leaving a bad taste” among the capital’s foodie tourists, according to the creator of an app designed to avoid queues.

Law student Max Schroeder, 20,said it was unfair that many restaurants did not take bookings, forcing visitors to spend hours waiting for a table rather than enjoying other attractions.

Mr Schroeder, who studies at Queen Mary University and is based in Aldgate, launched his free app Skip the Line which monitors queues for restaurants and other venues at the end of last year.

He said no-bookings restaurants can “give off a sense of arrogance” and added: “Visitors come here and have to spend hours waiting in crazy lines to go to a restaurant they have heard about. I don’t think it puts people off, but it leaves a bad taste in their mouths.”

Some of the most talked-about restaurants in London do not allow bookings, and Peter Harden of Harden’s restaurant guide called queues “masochistic.”