Solo dining is one of the genuine pleasures of travelling alone and one of the things people worry about unnecessarily before they try it. Counter seats are better than tables. Lunch is easier than dinner. The right seat in the right restaurant is one of the best things you can do on a city break.

Counter Seats and Bar Seats

Always ask for a counter seat or a bar seat rather than a table for one if the option exists. Counter seats are structurally better for solos for several reasons: you face something interesting (the kitchen, the bar, the street), you are not visible to the room as a single person at a table, and there is usually someone nearby to talk to if you want conversation or to ignore if you don't.

Counter seats at a chef's bar or kitchen counter are the upgrade. You watch the food being made. The chef or the staff are often willing to talk about what they're cooking. It is a different experience from sitting at a table, and it is frequently available to solo diners when tables are full.

Lunch Over Dinner

Lunch is structurally easier than dinner for solo diners. The social pressure of the evening meal is absent. Restaurants at lunch are more casual, more functional, and less likely to seat you somewhere awkward or give you a look when you say "just me." The solo lunch is also one of the most enjoyable things you can do on a city break: an unhurried meal in the middle of the day, somewhere decent, with no agenda for what happens next.

Cities Where Solo Dining Is Culturally Normal

Tokyo and other Japanese cities: solo dining is expected, counter seats are designed for it, and nobody looks twice. Paris: more complicated. The French dining culture is social, and a solo diner at dinner in a traditional restaurant can feel conspicuous. The workaround in Paris is lunch, bistros rather than formal restaurants, and counter seats wherever possible. Anywhere that expects groups and sets tables of two by default requires slightly more confidence, but not much.

What to Do With Your Hands

Bring something to read. A phone is fine. A book is better. Not because you need to be entertained, but because having something to do with your hands in the minutes between ordering and being served removes the self-consciousness. After the food arrives, put it away.

Tell them it is just you without apologising for it. "Table for one, please" or "just me" is a complete sentence. No qualification required.