Marco Pierre White has a name for the hush of a modern degustation dining room. "It's like sitting in the chapel of rest," he tells me over a video call from Auckland. He'd know. White was the first British chef to earn three Michelin stars, and the youngest anywhere to do it at the time, before handing them back in 1999. But these days, he'd rather be in a bistro. "They just do set menus, small little portions, multiple courses. They've stripped all the emotion, all the romance out," he says of a lot of modern fine dining experiences. "It's about their evening, not yours. You're served something very small, which at best is tepid, and it's meant to be hot. They tell you what you're eating, they tell you how to eat it, you have one mouthful, and then they ask you if you enjoyed it." If you've sat through a mandatory degustation in the last few years, you'll know firsthand that fine dining can drift into performance — more chef's narrative, less dinner. White has stories to prove it. White recalls a recent dining experience at a one such restaurant: "I asked for butter and was told the bread was so good it didn't need any. I said, 'Excuse me, where I come from, we like butter with our bread.' They've got one star in Michelin. Big deal." When White was coming up, the industry "was ruled by individuals who were romantic and they had a dream". Now? "Small portions, no romance, ruled by accountants." His idea of romance is being a regular. He points out that his friend Heston Blumenthal doesn't have regulars at The Fat Duck, because people go once in their lives. White prefers a place where staff bring him a bottle of still, room-temperature water the moment he sits down. "They know me by name. I like the ambiance, I like the service, I like the food. And if it's affordable — I may go there three or four times a week." He has a clear directive for what makes a great restaurant: an environment you're comfortable in, service with a smile, and good food at a fair price. Then he puts the question to me: "Does your favourite restaurant have three hats? I doubt it." (It doesn't) — "Exactly. They're boring. They're patronising, and you leave hungry." As a lifelong chef and patron of some of the world's best restaurants, White still believes in the magic of fine dining, with a caveat: "We're buying a night out; we're not buying gastronomy." The alternative leaves you poorer and still hungry, he comments. "There's nothing worse than being mugged without violence." White is an ambassador for EatClub, the Melbourne-born app that lets restaurants set their own discounts during quiet services. Its co-founder and CEO, Pan Koutlakis, wants restaurants to be places you'd go on a weeknight as well as for a big night out. "I think the most successful restaurants today are the restaurants that are still set up for a special occasion on a Saturday, but also you feel totally comfortable walking in on a Tuesday and Wednesday night for a much more casual meal," he says. [caption id="attachment_1156365" align="alignnone" width="1920"] EatClub CEO, Pan Koutlakis[/caption] The idea is volume. Fill the empty tables, and restaurants can afford to bring prices down for everyone. "Your profit is the price and the volume, and the higher the volume is, the lower the price can be while you still make money," Koutlakis says. White puts it more bluntly. "How many times do you go to a restaurant on a Monday and it's half full? Empty tables cost you money, they don't make you money, and there's no buzz." He argues restaurants already discount, they just call it something else. "A set menu is another deal, isn't it?" And diners rarely pocket what they save. According to Koutlakis, the average EatClub diner spends about 45 percent more than a restaurant's full-paying, in-house customers. "And the beauty of it," White says, "no one knows you bought a deal." White's favourite local places to dine? He rates Tipo 00 in Melbourne and Ronnie Di Stasio's Di Stasio Citta ("He's very naughty. I love him.") and Catalina in Rose Bay. In Auckland, he's eaten at Baduzzi three times this week. "I'm a creature of habit. I don't look for excitement — every time I do, I get into trouble. But that's another story." The best meal of his life was in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a hilltop village inland from Nice, at a restaurant whose menu "hasn't changed since 1955". Think crudités and sea bass baked in salt. Closer to home, he remembers lunch out in the Barossa and the spit-roast chicken he ate with his daughter at Bib & Tucker in Fremantle, on the drive down to Margaret River. Of guilty pleasures, White says he has far too many to count. But, his forever order is a pasta pomodoro with lots of fresh basil, a bit of Parmesan and a glass of red — and he's a big burger man. He had three from Kiwi chain Re Burger this week alone, in his words: "so dirty and delicious." Sold. Want to take Marco Pierre White's advice on becoming a regular somewhere? Download EatClub to see which restaurants near you have tables (and deals) going tonight at eatclub.com.au. Images: Supplied | Trent Van Der Jagt