London restaurant tests 'surge pricing' menu

Fans of the posh London eatery may have to fork over a bit more for the bill than usual. (iStock/Google Street View)

London restaurant Bob Bob Ricard will be charging patrons less to dine during “off-peak” and “mid-peak” hours during the week.

The fine dining restaurant was inspired by the concept of “surge pricing,” which can be best explained as when ride-sharing apps like Lyft and Uber charge their riders a higher fee to use the service during their busiest hours.

“The idea just came from looking at how the rest of the world functions,” Bob Bob Ricard owner and founder Leonid Shutov told Bloomberg. “Airlines wouldn't be able to exist, the business model wouldn’t work unless you could balance supply and demand. Everything that we have taken that is widely accepted in the modern economy and applied to restaurants, seems to have worked.”

However, the restaurant will not be charging more during peak hours, just less during “off-peak” and “mid-peak” times.

Bob Bob Ricard will charge 25 percent less on their à la carte menu during “off-peak” hours — Monday to Wednesday lunch and Monday dinner — and 15 percent less during “mid-peak” hours. They will charge their listed prices Wednesday to Saturday during dinner.

With meals at the Anglo-Russian restaurant averaging 100 GBP, the 25 percent off could attract customers looking for fine dining at more affordable prices.

This article originally appeared in The Daily Meal.