How Acoustics Affect Bars and Restaurants – The Facts

Noise impacts our perception of taste

Ever wonder why some restaurants, cafes, and bars just “sound” better?

At one place, your lunch chat feels private and easy. At another location, you strain to chat over a din of music, kitchen clatter, and everyone else’s conversations ricocheting around hard floors and windows.

Beyond just being annoying, loud, chaotic audio shapes how we experience meals.

Research suggests that restaurant noise directly impacts taste perception, enjoyment, and our intent to return to a venue – sometimes nearly as much as the food itself!

On the upside, the right acoustics can take customer experiences to a new level while creating a more comfortable, inclusive space for those hard of hearing or with sensory problems.

Let’s digest the science of why restaurant acoustics matter and how you can optimise it to create a more comfortable environment.

Beware! noisy environments turn people away

“We turned up for our table booking at 8 o’clock, walked in the front door and turned around and went straight back out. The noise was unbearable” – Fiona C.

Maybe you’ve felt the same as Fiona? If so, you wouldn’t be alone.

A survey of 13,000 people identified noise as being the number one most irritating thing about restaurants. 24% of all the diners mentioned it, followed by bad service (23%) and high prices (12%).

Conversely, consider a restaurant where sound is controlled, and everyone can hear themselves speak without conversations spilling out into the room.

This creates the perfect ambience, and evidence suggests it affects how food tastes for the better.

A quick disclosure before we continue: We, as a business, help restaurants improve their acoustics, so we may be a little biased when we say that the way a restaurant sounds is just as important as the way it looks.

But seeing as there’s evidence to back this up, acoustics might just be your secret ingredient to creating a more comfortable restaurant space.

Building inclusivity with quieter spaces

The quest for quiet dining spaces isn’t just about preference and food. Loud interior environments also create stress and anxiety and impact our concentration.
For some, particularly those with hearing difficulties or sensory processing conditions, such as autism, loud environments are overwhelmingly stressful.

With this in mind, more people recognise the value of quieter spaces where they don’t have to strain to hear.

SoundPrint, a crowdsourced app, was designed for this very need.

Dubbed a tool to “Find Your Quiet Place,” SoundPrint empowers users to discover venues that prioritise conversation-friendly atmospheres and are mindful of noise levels.

The app features a built-in sound metre, allowing anyone with a smartphone to measure an establishment’s decibel (dB) levels in real time. These measurements create a community resource highlighting an area’s quietest spots.

The insights gleaned from SoundPrint’s data are revealing. A study conducted by the app’s founder, Gregory Scott, found that at peak dining hours, a staggering 31% of restaurants surveyed crossed into the ‘Very Loud’ category. In some cases, ambient sound levels reach 81 dB – comparable to the roar of a lawnmower.

Spending more than two hours in an environment with 80-85 dB of noise can elevate the risk of long-term hearing damage – yet another reason to take interior volumes more seriously.

Other benefits of soundproofing your café or restaurant

Soundproofing upgrades provide cafes and restaurants with various benefits that merit consideration, including:

Welcoming remote workers

Some 44% of workers in the UK work remotely at least some of the time, including 16% that exclusively work from home.

Cafes and restaurants have become go-to spots for remote workers, freelancers, and professionals seeking a change from the home office environment.

Soundproofing is an asset here, turning venues into quiet, conducive workspaces.

Enhancing social gatherings

We often go to restaurants to connect with others, but conversations struggle in noisy settings. Soundproofing allows for easier chatting over a meal.

Promoting calm over anxiety

Noisy spaces heighten stress, while tranquil spaces promote relaxation. Soundproofing aligns with health and wellness and promotes an elegant, calm environment.

With soundproofing, your venue can better serve remote workers and host social gatherings alike.

The upgrades could lead to better reviews and experiences. It’s about adaptability – making your business a multifunctional, Soundprint-approved space.

Improving acoustic design in restaurants and bars

Let’s discuss how to practically create an acoustically controlled venue.

It starts by recognising the challenges. Vast spaces with sleek but sound-reflective surfaces look great but can make a place noisy.

Modern interior design, with minimalist, hard furnishings and lots of glass, metal, and other geometric forms, can quickly elevate internal volumes to unpleasant levels.

If this sounds like your space, here are some initial considerations to tackle noise:

Creating intimate zones

One effective strategy is to section off larger areas into smaller, more intimate zones.

Adding banquet seating and creating secluded nooks can reduce overall noise levels, making each dining experience more personal.

Plants can also play a surprising role in this setup. They serve as natural dividers that help absorb sound, making spaces quieter and more visually appealing.

Softening hard edges

Hard surfaces are great for durability and maintenance but can be a nightmare for noise control.

To counteract this, introducing soft furnishings can make a considerable difference:

• Heavy curtains: Placing these near windows can cut down on echo and add a touch of elegance.
• Padded fabric seating: Swapping out hard chairs for ones with fabric upholstery can reduce noise and increase comfort.
• Carpets and rugs: These can dampen sound effectively, especially in areas with hard flooring.
• Artistic acoustic panels: These not only improve sound absorption but can also enhance your décor.
• Timber acoustic panels: Ideal for walls or ceilings, they blend style with functionality, improving your space’s acoustic quality.

Maximising acoustic panel efficiency

Acoustic panels are specifically designed for sound absorption, offering a cost-effective solution to your noise problems.

The right panels can deliver the desired quiet with less material than other methods.

For instance, a small area outfitted with Class A acoustic panels will provide the same noise reduction as a much larger area covered in heavy curtains.

This means you can maintain your space’s modern aesthetic and functional integrity without compromising on sound quality.

Acoustic panels are an extremely effective means of optimising a space’s acoustic performance – something which will always pay dividends for bar, restaurant, and café owners.

Final notes: the sound of success

And there we have it – incorporating soundproofing into your café or restaurant’s design isn’t just about reducing noise – it’s about recognising that people genuinely value this.

There are so many advantages to proper acoustic panelling, from better conversations over dinner to comfortable work environments and more inclusive spaces for those who find loud noise unpleasant.

If you’re looking to get started in improving the acoustics of your venue, contact us today. We’ll work with you to determine exactly how to optimise your space for top-quality acoustic control.

 

 

References

Woods, A. T., et al. “Effect of Background Noise on Food Perception.” Science Direct, Food Quality and Preference vol. 22, no. 1, 1 Jan 2011, pp. 42–47, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0950329310001217.

“Junk Food or Haute Cuisine to the Ear? – Investigating the Relationship Between Room Acoustics, Soundscape, Non-Acoustical Factors, and the Perceived Quality of Restaurants.” Frontiers, 13 May 2021, https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/built-environment/articles/10.3389/fbuil.2021.676009/full.

Fleming, Amy. “How Sound Affects the Taste of Our Food.” The Guardian, 11 Mar 2014, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/mar/11/sound-affects-taste-food-sweet-bitter.
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“Quietest and Loudest US Restaurant Chains as Rated by the SoundPrint App.” Hearing Tracker, 27 Oct 2023, www.hearingtracker.com/resources/quietest-and-loudest-us-restaurant-chains-as-rated-by-the-soundprint.