Anyone who is single, or who just likes doing things on their own occasionally, will know just what a disadvantage they face, whether it’s being charged swingeing single rooms supplements when going on holiday, or paying more during their weekly shop because ‘buy one get one free’ offer don’t really work when you only want one in the first place.

This is despite the fact that some 8.3 million people live alone in the UK, which is around 15% of the population, or 30% of all households.  It doesn’t seem fair that there is such a penalty to pay for doing things on a solitary basis.

So it’s understandable that there was such an outcry when top London restaurant Hotel Café Royal announced recently that it would in effect charge single diners twice as much as everyone else, imposing a minimum spend equivalent to what two people would pay for the same meal.

Now you may be thinking that what happens at a £195 a head, two Michelin-starred eatery in the capital has no bearing on our lives here in East Anglia; but the fact is that it never takes long for such innovations to filter down to a more prosaic level.

Café Royal’s argument is that a solo diner takes up a table which could otherwise be occupied by two bill-paying people.  

They say that if their restaurant is full of tables with just one person eating, they cannot break even.  

And, to be fair, they are keeping a small number of tables available for solo diners at each service where the one-for-the-price-of-two rule will not apply.

Running a restaurant in the current climate is far from easy, and for small establishments with limited space, maximising the revenue from each table is an absolute necessity in order to meet soaring costs.

What is interesting is the level of backlash which this announcement has caused.  

You might think that for most people, eating out is a sociable activity, and the concept of spending an evening at a table for one, feeling like Billy No-Mates, would not be a popular one; but no, it seems there is a clamour to dine alone.

I am on the side of those who argue that a table for one is one of the great luxuries of life.

The ability to be completely selfish, order what you like, choose a bottle of wine which only you like (and not have to share it), to take as much time over dinner as you want to, and to settle in with a book or simply people-watch, is compelling.

Eating out alone is no longer thought of as weird or sad, and many establishments - glad to attract custom of any sort in the current climate – have adapted their offer to accommodate this trend, from reconfiguring their dining rooms so that lone diners aren’t consigned to the rubbish table by the loos, to creating bar dining around open kitchens, where the solo diner can interact with the people cooking their bespoke dinner.

While this may be new in Britain, such indulgence of people who want to eat out alone is common elsewhere.  

As it happens, I am typing these words in Burgundy, before heading out to a traditional French bistro for dinner.  While I will be enjoying dinner with my wife, I am confident that if I were on my own, I would receive the same respect and level of service as anyone else; in fact, I would probably be pampered rather more.  

The French know that while a lone diner will spend less per table than a couple, they will almost always spend more per person, and because they have only themselves to please, will be more likely to return to somewhere where they have been treated as a valued customer.

So is the Cafe Royal wrong to penalise solo customers in the way they have decided to do?  

Well, every restaurant has to make decisions which will ensure their viability, and if a large proportion of the establishment’s 11 tables were indeed being booked by single people, then perhaps they have the right to do that.

But if there is a genuine demand for tables for one, wouldn’t it make more sense to think about reconfiguring their restaurant to accommodate that demand, rather than doing everything they can to drive it away, especially at a time when hospitality is on its knees and hardly turning customers away?

Experts predict that an even higher proportion of Britons will be living alone in the future, and those businesses which adapt to offer a good service at a fair price to those on their own will prosper.

Meanwhile, if you spot someone eating on their own in a restaurant, don’t pity them.

They are probably having the time of their lives.