This past February, the chain of Little Bay restaurants (in Kilburn, Croydon, Battersea and Farringdon) hit the headlines when they introduced a ‘pay-what-you-think-it-is-worth’ pricing policy for the month of February. Designed to be ‘recession busting’, the irony was that diners ended up paying about 20% more on the menu price.

This ‘pay-what-you-want’ concept was not new. Clifton’s Cafeteria in California operated such a system as far back as the 1960s, and since then, there have been a sprinkling of other eateries in the States which have also done the same throughout the decades. And, Peter Ilic, the owner of Little Bay, actually first introduced the concept to the UK in the 1980s.

So was the ‘pay-what-you-think-it-is-worth’ campaign back in February designed to be recession busting, or a masterstroke in marketing? Call it what you will, but Little Bay are certainly clever with their offers, and have come up with another one. The latest, available to diners at any of the Little Bay restaurants in the months of June and July, is a half-price theatre ticket voucher for use on either of the two summer shows at Sadler’s Wells . For full details and terms and conditions go to the Little Bay website. I haven’t been to a Little Bay in about a year, but when I last went the food was really cheap and fairly decent.