Mother's Day a boon for Australian restaurants

If the idea of perfecting a homemade souffle or roast chicken for Mother's Day lunch fills you with stress, spare a thought for Tom Brockbank. The executive chef of Melbourne's Hotel Windsor is responsible for one of the biggest afternoon teas in Australia on Sunday, with a turnover of more than 1000 guests, 2000 scones and 3000 individual desserts.

"We start planning for Mother's Day months in advance to make sure the experience is seamless and all the produce arrives on time," said Mr Brockbank. "For instance, we need 50 kilograms of fresh strawberries just to make sure we have enough house-made jam for the day."

It's not just scones and cucumber sandwiches that families will be leaving the house for on Mother's Day. According to online restaurant reservation platform TheFork (formerly known as Dimmi), Mother's Day weekend is the busiest weekend for dining across Australia, with a spike of 161 per cent more bookings than the average weekend.

Mother's Day itself has more people dining out than any other day of the year, with the number of bookings made second only to Valentine's Day, however the majority of reservations on February 14 are for couples rather than families.

TheFork also reports there has been an uplift in the number of people booking a set menu for Mother's Day, with more restaurants reducing their menu to keep tables turning. Twenty-four per cent of diners have booked a set menu for Mother's Day lunch via the online platform.

"To deliver a seamless experience on such a busy day we have to reduce the amount of choice generally offered to guests," said Graham Ackling, general manager of one-hatted Otto Ristorante in Sydney which will serve more than 400 desserts on Sunday.

"This allows for faster service and helps with the additional volume of guests wanting to dine on the day."

Spice Temple at Crown Melbourne will offer its full menu for Mother's Day lunch and extend opening hours to meet dim sum demand.

"At Spice Temple we open an hour earlier than normal to ensure we have as much availability for our guests throughout the day," said Joshua Hillary, food and beverage director of Rockpool Dining Group's premium restaurants in Victoria.

"We also utilise our private dining spaces to cope with the additional demand at Rockpool Bar & Grill and Rosetta."

Data from TheFork shows that most families don't book Mother's Day lunch too far in advance.

Eighty-two per cent of diners waited until May to book their Mother's Day celebrations in 2018 and 13 per cent left the crucial reservation until the day.

Matt Moran's Chiswick in leafy Woollahra bucks this trend with general manager Callum Morse reporting that Mother's Day lunch was fully booked by early April. Chiswick will list a special Mother's Day dessert of apple, thyme and honey from its own hives for the occasion.

With no set menu, Morse said he has "possibly over-staffed" the restaurant to ensure tables are efficiently turned. Although guests are made aware at the time of booking they have a limited window for lunch, lingering customers may still have to be asked to make way for the next family.

"It's never a pleasant conversation to have," said Morse. "As much as we would absolutely love all our mums and families to stay with us the entire day, we have to manage expectations and reservation times.

"We're lucky at Chiswick to have a long communal table we can move people to if they want to finish dessert over a couple of drinks. There's always a lot of spritzes, rosé and champagne to be consumed."