Small plates are a big hit

At Yardbird, the menu comprises "bigger" and "smaller" items, and the mantra is "sharing is caring".

Elsewhere, at Papi it is almost entirely based on small-plate approach, and at the newly opened Sal Curioso they talk of "palate teasers" and "sharing cultures".

It doesn't have anything to do with eating less, or the size of the plate, but we're talking about the trend-gone-mad of small-plate eating.

This casual, flexible way of eating is nothing new, of course. Centuries ago, it was considered highly inappropriate to take food with tea, but the Cantonese changed all that with the development of dim sum, and the very notion of yum cha is imbued with a sense of relaxation and chatting. Japanese yakitori was created as far back as the Edo period, and it was during the 1960s that yakitori bars - usually small and smoky - became immensely popular, considered as drinking spots with great atmosphere, quick service and no-nonsense, tasty food.

The term Spanish tapas, which perhaps reach their epitome with the pintxos bars of San Sebastian, is derived from the Spanish verb tapar - to cover. The original cover, to protect sweet sherry from irritating flies, may have been a piece of bread or a slice of salty ham, which then gradually became aggrandised.