Q: Each time I try to book at a restaurant, I am asked to commit to either 6.30pm (too early), or 8.30pm (too late). How can I book a table for the time I want? E.B., PADDINGTON, NSW.
A: You're eating in the wrong places, that's your problem. You shouldn't be eating anywhere called a "restaurant". Or a "ristorante". Or a "trattoria" or "wine bar" or "rooftop pisco lounge". Because these are places where you have to make bookings and choose seating times and eat your food in stressful, strict two-hour sessions like you're doing an air-traffic-control shift.
These are places where you have to pay for extra stuff you don't even care about, like nice decor and cloth napkins and chefs who've been to proper chef school and learnt how to wash their hands before cooking. These are places where you can't find a single thing on the menu that you actually want to eat: it's all Dugong Tongue (With A Sultana). And White Vinegar, Done Six Ways.
You should be going to places where you can just walk in off the street, anytime you like: cheap-eats joints, pizzerias, food court stalls, any Asian noodle-bar with a hilarious pun name like Hey Honey, Take A Wok On The Wild Side (Doo Doo-Doo Doo-Doo). Places where you can go for a takeaway or be a bit posh and choose the dine-in option, sitting on a sticky plastic picnic chair in a corner, smooshed up beside a massive, chugging drinks fridge.
Places that don't take bookings, don't have seatings, don't expect tips: you just get the food you love, at prices you can afford, all cooked by an adorable granny who's been working for 40 hours straight and stays awake by flogging herself with a hokkien noodle.