How A Restaurant Smells Is More Important Than You Might Think

First century Roman gourmand Apicius purportedly said, "We eat first with our eyes," but our nose definitely comes in close second. Our sense of smell is integral to our sense of taste, as anyone who's suffered from a stuffy nose can attest. Humans possess 400 types of scent receptors capable of detecting, at minimum, 1 trillion different scents. With this in mind, it makes sense that bad scents or distracting aromas might be a sign of a bad restaurant, debilitating an establishment's overall relationship with their customers.

Taylor Hester, the Executive Chef of Roscioli NYC and one of many esteemed presenters at nonprofit City Harvest's BID 2024: CHTV! fundraising event on Tuesday, October 29, spared a few moments to speak with Chowhound about how odors can affect dining experiences. He offered sage advice for unwary diners about certain scents to be cautious about. "If there are any rotten food smells coming from a restaurant it might be best to skip," Hester warns. "Any overpowering chemical or fragrant smells like scented candles can also ruin a meal."

Ambient odors from cleaners, sewage, and rancid or burnt oil can severely damage a restaurant's reputation, with customers running to social media to report their unpleasant experiences. Even wearing personal scents will affect your own ability to fully appreciate the gourmet experience you're paying for, let alone how it influences those around you. Considering how an errant aroma can impact a meal, it's easy to understand why arguments around banning customers wearing strong perfume or cologne carries weight with upscale chefs and restaurateurs. Of course, not all smells in a restaurant are bad for business. 

Considering these facts alone, aroma is arguably one of the most important characteristics of a dining experience, meaning it can also be leveraged to a restaurant's advantage. Not to mention that, like sound, a scent can trigger memory — and with it the all-powerful sense of nostalgia. Take, for example, the shopping mall sensation Cinnabon. While the company doesn't pump a sweet, buttery scent through its stores' air vents, Cinnabon does purposefully place its ovens out in front, because the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls influences the chain restaurant's success on a grander scale.

In a fine-dining setting, layout, serving strategies, and design can help to intensify appetite-inducing scents. Many modern, high-end restaurants feature open kitchens, allowing diners to not only admire the staff's expertise, but enjoy the delicious, anticipatory aromas emitted as chefs prepare their food. For instance, this approach may leave an Italian restaurant smelling deliciously of garlic and basil. Another scent-forward technique employs those silver plate domes, which allow smells to billow out enticingly when the dome is lifted off the plate in front of a customer. Finally, instead of off-putting perfumes, some restaurants use diffusers scented with signature elements associated with their cuisine. An Indian restaurant might be saturated with rich aromas of curry and fenugreek, while the scents of a brisk ocean breeze might fill a seafood spot. Pleasing aromas will only lead to an increase in happy customers, who will be more likely to visit again.