With tables for one on the rise, we present the etiquette of eating alone.

What would your death-row meal be? My answer to this question is always straightforward. It would be the same thing that I’ve been ordering in the Viet Hoa Café in east London for the past 15 years: soft summer rolls dipped in thick peanut sauce; a bucket-sized bowl of pho with lumps of spongy tofu bobbing to the surface of the salty soup; a palate-cleansing side dish of crunchy bean sprouts; and a pot of jasmine tea. Not fancy, not clever, and never going to win a Michelin star or appear in your Instagram feed, but it always hits the mark for me.

However, the food would be only part of the experience. Ideally, I’d be in there an hour before the evening rush, at a corner table. I’d have a freshly delivered subscriber’s copy of The Economist or Viz to read, and absolutely nobody joining me. No conversation, no interruptions and no sharing of the food.

Individual dining is a subject of increasing interest to the business end of the restaurant trade. Reservations site OpenTable recently reported a 110 per cent rise in bookings for one over the past 24 months. A YouGov survey found that 87 per cent of British restaurant-goers would now have no problem eating out by themselves.

But why is this kind of restaurant visit becoming so popular, and how can you ensure you get the most from your solo dining? Below, we offer you some handy tips for your first solo culinary voyage and provide our recommendations of the six best places to give it a try.

“I think we’re seeing this phenomenon partly because of the rise of the ‘foodie’,” explains Mr Stefan Chomka, editor of Restaurant Magazine. “People want to go out and experience new things, and if that means going on your own, then that’s part of the adventure. Having a lot of people in your restaurant who are happy to eat there by themselves only says positive things about your place. And with lone diners, you can turn tables around quickly and be more flexible about seating. It’s why you’re seeing restaurants opening up bar spaces where people on their own can eat and be out in half the time.” So revel in being by yourself: put your phone away, or it might seem as if you’ve been stood up; sit facing the restaurant rather than the wall – there’s no need to hide. But don’t go to the other extreme of sitting in the window, as you’ll look like a dog waiting for its owner to return.

“The last thing a restaurant owner really wants on a Friday night is a solo diner taking up a table for two that could have had cocktails and wine,” says Ms Anna Kibbey, founder of restaurant consultancy 2Forks. “But, at the same time, solo diners tend to be customers who are appraising the experience in much more depth, so savvy restaurateurs know they can’t be relegated to the no man’s land by the bathrooms any more. Plus, you never know who that solo diner is: he could be a potential regular, a prospective investor, a food critic.” Basically, don’t be apologetic about turning up solo, but also don’t start acting like notorious “gastro-gnome” Mr Michael Winner if they ask you to sit somewhere a little tucked away during peak hours.

Ideally, treat a solo meal as one of your “dry days” – after all, it’s not as if you’re going to have to drink enough to make someone else’s company bearable. If you are going to drink, stick to one glass of something from the higher-priced end of the list; necking pints while attempting to engage the visibly uncomfortable waitress in “flirtatious” conversation is likely to cross the line from “culinary lone wolf” to “sinister pick-up artist” in a matter of minutes.

Just in case you encounter any ingrained prejudice and sense that fellow diners are looking at you with the sort of pained, sympathetic expression usually reserved for the hapless wheezer bringing up the rear of the fun run, take solace in the fact that some of history’s greatest men were fully onboard with the idea of one-man meals. Mr Andy Warhol once floated the idea of opening a restaurant chain called Andy-Mats – “the restaurant for the lonely person”; Mr P.G. Wodehouse’s peerless comic creation Bertie Wooster was always keen to give his Aunt Dahlia the slip before “pushing round to the Drones for a bite of dinner”, while Greek philosopher Epicurus was even more enthusiastically antisocial, writing that “Dining alone is leading the life of a lion or wolf”. Eat by yourself and you’re on the right side of history.

Tip like you would if there were two of you there. Then you’ll definitely be welcomed back.

London:** Naughty Piglets **28 Brixton Water Lane, SW2 1PE

“I have to pass it on the way home from work, and I often can’t resist stopping in for a glass of wine, some fried sardines and a plate of charcuterie. It’s tapas-style, but it’s not Spanish. If you had to pigeonhole it, I’d say it’s a French wine bar that does small plates. The Korean pork belly is a mainstay.”

Recommended by: Mr Daniel Flower, partner at the projects* agency

Hong Kong: **Yau Ma Tei food stands **Woosung Street and Nanking Street, Yau Ma Tei

“You can never really eat ‘alone’ in Hong Kong, but when I do I like to be out on the street, watching (the night) life go by. There are a couple of great, no-frills places at the corner of Woosung Street and Nanking Street for a cold beer and fresh seafood. Grab a plastic chair, settle in and people-watch.”

Recommended by: Mr Chris Hatherill, Hong Kong-based founder of creative agency super/collider

Sydney: **Momofuku Seiōbo **The Star, 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont, NSW 2009

“Momofuku Seiōbo is the ultimate dine-alone restaurant, whether you're propping up the bar with its semi-secret snack menu – hello, experimental sandwiches, dukbokki [spicy rice cakes] and perfect deeply golden canelés [sweet, crunchy pastries] – or doing the full-tilt boogie on the multi-course dégustation, the place is almost designed for the solo eater.”

Recommended by: Ms Myffy Rigby, editor of Good Food Guides, Australia

Paris: Le Dauphin 131 Avenue Parmentier, 75011

“Paris has a lot of options for counter dining, but Iñaki Aizpitarte’s Le Dauphin, a modern French tapas-style restaurant in the 11th arrondissement, is a standout gem (and much easier to get into than Le Chateaubriand next door). It’s got a lovely, Rem Koolhaas-designed white marble counter.”

Recommended by: Ms Anna Kibbey: food writer and restaurant consultant at 2Forks

LA: **Zinque **8684 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA 90048

“The tranquil yet well-designed garden at Zinque helps create the rare feeling of taking a vacation in a town, where it often feels as though no one works but everyone is always on the hustle. Whether it’s delicious small plates (devilled eggs and Marcona almonds) or memorable Le Bowl (a delicious combination of brown rice, avocado, tomato, arugula [rocket], aged Comté cheese, cilantro [coriander] and sriracha hot sauce), Zinque perfectly marries the city’s twin obsessions with health and excess in a laid-back atmosphere.”

Recommended by Ms Carly Eiseman, editorial director at music streaming service Rdio

New York: **Blanca**261 Moore Street, Brooklyn, NY 11206

“This engaging and immersive place is set up as a 12-seater bar. The food is curious but never pretentious: the kind of thought-provoking, big-flavour, small-plate stuff that tends to stir up conversation between neighbouring diners. But you could just as easily tune out and watch the action in the kitchen. Outside of a basement sushi bar in Ginza, Tokyo, it’s the best high-end solo-dining experience I’ve had, and I’m making myself hungry just writing this.”

Recommended by: Mr Adam Sachs, editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine