Meet the designers making London restaurants less loud and clattery

Why do so many restaurants get their acoustics all messed up? Is sound the final frontier of luxury? Adam Bloodworth spoke to the experts attempting to quieten the cacophony A pal’s in town. You’ve booked a trendy new restaurant. It’s been a while and you’re looking forward to catching up. There’s one issue: the place is so loud you can’t chat and you end up shouting over your sashimi. “Restaurants don’t realise they’ve got it wrong until people start complaining,” says Steven Saunders, co-founder of interior design firm Fabled Studios. “Railway arches in places like Bethnal Green are the worst offenders. Any curved ceilings are the perfect enemy…” No one would accept bad food, drinks, or service, so why pay to go where we can’t hear ourselves think? “It defeats the object of being there, really, doesn’t it?” says Bob Albon, founder of Sandy Brown acoustics. “It affects everybody. Everyone wants to be able to have a conversation when they go into a restaurant. That is ultimate