A review of Chester Tandoori states that one should avoid all Indian restaurants in the UK after 11 PM. Why?

Traditionally, this is pub 'chucking out time': the pubs close, and people, already worse the wear from drink, head off to the Indian restaurants for a late night curry. Now that the licensing laws are more relaxed, though, pubs can stay open after 11: the idea was partly to stop the sudden emptying out of all the city's pubs and thus dilute the problem (hmmm - dodgy choice of metaphor...).

Jonathan

Have you noticed any changes in the behaviour of late night drinkers since the changes in licensing law? Maybe the slow development of the 'cafe society'? Would be very intertested to know.

Julie

Much discussion of this in the papers in the last week or so. The general impression seems to be no great change, not least because not many places have applied for longer licensing times, and those that have them aren't really using them. And any benefit from staggering (pun intended) chucking-out times is probably outweighed by people getting tanked up on excessively cheap hooch from other outlets anyway.

There has been a lot of stuff on the TV/radio over the past couple of days just about how the change in the licensing laws has not resulted in a move to a more relaxed 'cafe society' - I think the attitudinal problems go far deeper than that.

Having said that, there is a large pub at the end of my road (in a leafy London suburb) which applied for the extended license - was opposed vigorously by the residents of our road and those surrounding roads. We failed and the pub was given the extension (local democracy counting for naught)

It did coincide with a change in ownership, but we have had no additional trouble - in fact things have been a great deal better. The new landlord won't tolerate rowdiness and gave the student rugby team its marching orders( which was one of the sources of problems before) and actively tried to give it a more upmarket and family feel. He gave all the road an invitation to come and have a free drink and a look around at the refurbishments and gives notification, by little notes put in thru' everyone's letterbox, of any particular late events (music or sport).

In contrast, there have been problems in the main high street with the extended hours of another pub, with people making their noisy way out at unreasonable times and a landlord who is just not bothered on his pub's effect on the residents (or should that be 'bovvered'!)

It is greatly down to the clientele attracted to the pub and the attitude of the landlord (or the remote corporate owners who are just looking at the bottom line)

The country pubs around us seem to have benefited, no big rush to drink up at 11pm and just as visitors would imagine an English pub to be, but the food is remarkably better in the past couple of years. The town centre pubs are pretty wild though, but maybe I'm just a yokel.

No, they are indeed wild!

To be honest, I think if you go to an upmarket Indian restaurant rather than a high street (or Brick Lane) curry house, I can't imagine it'd be a problem after 11pm.

I don't think the cafe society is taking off in Britain. It's a great shame. I don't know what can be done to solve the binge drinking culture we have here, but I hope someone can come up with something soon.