Spot the american! (I mean that in a good-natured way). There are a few 1700s restaurants in london, plenty of 1800s, and of course if you look at pubs in the UK then 1840 is practically modern. One pf my local pubs dates to 1381. The food is probably better now than it was then.

1381?! Speaking as an American like the first poster: I should move.

Checked my own comment too late to clarify: Of course I meant "are there any older restaurants in the US"...America's just a young'un compared to everywhere else :)

Certainly if you go outside the US there are. Supposedly Stiftskeller in Salzburg was established in 803. Yeah, over a thousand years earlier.

http://www.stpeter-stiftskeller.at/en/the-restaurant.html

I think there's also a hotel in Japan that was established around King Arthur's time. (Approximately speaking; if there was a historical figure who roughly corresponds to King Arthur, he would probably have lived in the 500s or 600s, opposing early Saxon settlement/invasion.)

Correction -- from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies -- there's a construction company from the late 500s, but the oldest hotel is from 705. (But, considering that Charlemagne was born in 742, that's not too shabby.)

Some random ones from Scotland (I'm sure there are plenty more):

Drovers Inn, Inverarnan (1705) http://www.droversinn.co.uk/

The Sheep Heid, Edinburgh (allegedly 1360, but a bit vague) https://www.thesheepheidedinburgh.co.uk/

There are older restaurants, but for example, Cafe Procope in Paris (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Café_Procope) was opened in 1686, and is still in operation. It was worth it for me to eat at a place where (for example) Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin ate.

'Rules' [0] in Covent Garden, London. 1798. Great place!

[0] http://rules.co.uk/

There are many in Japan. I even remember an article on HN about one.

A quick search on Google showed this link:http://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/the-10-oldest-... The first listing was "Established in 1659".

Wikipedia's list of oldest companies says that Stiftskeller St. Peter, an inn within the monastery walls of St. Peter's Archabbey, Salzburg, Austria, is the oldest restaurant (dating to at least 803), but hotel Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan has presumably been selling food since its founding in 705.

It's difficult to define exactly the boundaries between tavern, tea house, and restaurant, but I'd be curious what the oldest business serving prepared meals but not offering accommodation.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies

It seems like the Nürnberger Bratwursthäusle may have been serving grilled sausage without offering accommodation since 1313.