Global Experiential Trends in Dining

The experience economy has reshaped how people engage with travel, retail and entertainment. And dining is no exception.  

Today, many restaurants and F&B brands fuse food with design, performance and storytelling to create memories that set the guest experience apart. 

Here are a few of our favourite examples of experiential dining, with stories that span UK, Europe and the UAE.

Experiential Dining Trends 

• Intimate Rooms 

• Immersive Narratives 

• Technology In the Kitchen 

• Shifting Voices 

• Dining & Gastro Tours/Experiences 

• Workshop and Experience Rooms 

• Food in New Settings  

Intimate Rooms – Aulis (London) 

Aulis London in Soho has become a benchmark for intimacy in dining. The restaurant is limited to twelve seats around a chef’s counter. Diners watch as dishes are prepared in front of them, with chefs explaining ingredients and techniques in detail. 

The format is direct and unfiltered, turning the meal into both a performance and a dialogue. Each evening feels personal and unrepeatable, marked by the connection between diner and kitchen. 

Small scale is being valued. Chef’s tables and hidden counters with only a few seats create intimacy and allow diners to connect directly with the chef. Larger dining halls can deliver spectacle and atmosphere on a grand scale, while smaller formats provide quiet focus and personal attention. Each setting offers something different, but in the smallest rooms, the meal often feels like a private engagement. 

Immersive Narratives – Sublimotion (Ibiza) 

At Sublimotion in Ibiza the idea of dining as multi-sensory theatre is pushed to its most elaborate form. The restaurant hosts just twelve guests at a time for a twenty-course tasting menu staged over three hours. Each dish is matched with shifting projections, scents, soundscapes and immersive design. A course may arrive alongside a desert storm or under the illusion of an ocean floor, with the room transforming to match flavour and story. 

Experiences like this show how dining rooms are no longer just backdrops. Ambience is composed with the same precision as food itself, each element timed and choreographed so the meal unfolds as narrative rather than as sequence. 

Technology In the Kitchen – WOOHOO (Dubai) 

In Dubai WOOHOO is set to open in September 2025 with Chef Aiman, a large language model designed for culinary creation. Aiman generates recipes, flavour pairings, ambience concepts and service flows which are then reviewed and refined by the human team before reaching the table.

The model acts as a collaborator rather than a replacement, expanding the field of ideas while chefs provide judgement and craft. 

Technology has moved into the role of creative partner. AI, data modelling and machine learning are now used to shape menus, predict ingredient use and guide guest experience. The kitchen is becoming a place where human intuition works alongside algorithmic suggestion, marking a new stage in how dining is imagined and delivered. 

Shifting Voices - Refettorio Paris (France) 

At Refettorio Paris guest chefs from around the world are invited for limited residencies. Each one brings their own culinary language, reinterpreted through French produce. A season may focus on Andean traditions, another on the structures of Indian spice. The result is a dining room that never settles into routine, where guests return not for a fixed menu but for change itself. 

This reflects a wider movement where restaurants embrace rotation and renewal. Menus are no longer static documents but evolving dialogues. Through residencies, pop-ups and takeovers, kitchens remain alive and connected to the global flow of talent and ideas. 

Gastro Tours & Guided Dining Experiences – Devour Tours (Spain) 

In Spain Devour Tours leads groups through markets, tapas bars and wine cellars while guides explain the traditions that shape each stop. The walk becomes more than a series of meals. It is a narrative of place, culture and history told through food. 

This reflects a broader rise in gastro tours where eating is framed as cultural immersion. Routes are designed so that visitors move through local settings with context and meaning. Dining becomes a way of travelling, where each stop is both lesson and meal. 

Workshop and Experience Rooms – Seed & Bloom (Abu Dhabi) 

At Seed & Bloom in Abu Dhabi, new rooms are being planned for coffee tastings, pastry sessions and wellness gatherings. Guests will be able to learn directly from chefs and baristas in a setting designed for practice as well as enjoyment.

The café becomes not only a place to eat and drink but also to take part. 

This reflects a wider movement in which restaurants and cafés introduce spaces for participation. Workshops, classes and tastings are being built into the dining offer so that guests engage in process as well as product. The meal is paired with learning, extending hospitality into experience.  

Food in New Settings – Gucci Osteria (Florence) 

At Gucci Osteria in Florence the restaurant is set inside the fashion house and shaped by Massimo Bottura’s team. The interiors reflect Gucci’s aesthetic while the menu carries the same sense of craft. The result is not a separate restaurant but an extension of the brand, a dining room embedded in the world of fashion. 

This model is being adopted more widely as meals move into fashion houses, members’ clubs and concept spaces. Dior has opened cafés attached to its boutiques, while Armani has developed restaurants and clubs that extend its identity into hospitality. Dining is no longer confined to restaurants alone but is becoming part of broader lifestyle settings where food, design and culture coexist.  

Want to know more about F&B trends? Check our recent F&B Trends Report, 2025 Edition.