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When the communal tables first arrived to be installed in the half- finished Wagamama restaurant in London in 1992, the builders went into a huddle, muttering among themselves. Finally, one approached the owner, Alan Yau, with a worried look on his face.

"We have to tell you," he said, "the British don't like sharing their table with anyone. Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

Yau's ambition to create a new dining environment made him persist, but he had to admit those builders had a point. "When we first opened, people tried desperately to create their own space," he recalls. "They would territorially put a bag or a coat on the bench beside them so nobody could sit there."

It's not surprising. While communal dining has long flourished in Spain's tapas bars, Germany's beer halls and Japan's sushi bars, the idea of eating with strangers is enough to make your average Brit lose their appetite.

Gradually though, the barricades were torn down. As the queues grew longer outside the pan-Asian Wagamama, and Wagamamas sprouted up across the country (now without Yau at the helm), the communal table began to establish itself as the new British way of eating.

At first it was associated only with noodles and chopsticks, at London eateries such as Tiger Lil's, Satsuma, Tampopo, the Pan Asian Canteen and Yau's own Busaba Eathai.

Today, the communal table has broken out of its racial straitjacket. It can be as casual as the help-yourself breakfast table at the Monmouth Cafe in Borough Market; as practical as the big wooden monoliths in the Aziz deli in Fulham; as romantically quirky as the raised models at Asia de Cuba, and the Gallery at Sketch; and as contemporary as the white-washed picnic tables at Yau's recently opened Italian bistro, Anda.

It doesn't suit all manner of cuisines, however. The traditional sharing of a number of Chinese or Indian dishes can lead to nasty excuse-me-that's- my-rice-not-yours issues with the diners-next- door. At the swanky L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Paris, where there are no tables at all, the elegance is strained as sommeliers lean over sushi bar-style counters in order to pour one's wine.

Yau says he was initially inspired by the communal dining tables of Japan and by films depicting boys eating in English public school dining-halls. "It creates a whole new social dynamic at the table," he says, "and it gives the room an almost instant buzz through the density of noise it generates."

But the heart and soul of the communal dining concept lie in that which is most precious to the restaurateur: the wallet. Yau admits that the combination of the physical dynamic (hard benches and backless seats) and a no-bookings policy, drives turnover in a way that no other dining concept could hope to achieve. "That's the beauty of it," he says. "It acts as an automatic mechanism that makes people eat and go, without you having to put any physical pressure on them."

The Wagamama influence spread far beyond these shores. One of the most sought-after communal tables in the world is to be found in a sunny little corner cafe in Darlinghurst, an edgy inner-city suburb of Sydney. When 22-year-old art student Bill Granger opened Bills in October 1993, the local council presented him with a somewhat unique problem: the cafe could only be licensed to seat 32 people, far fewer than the room could have accommodated. Having heard about the communal eating at Wagamama, in an effort to fill up the space Granger decided to put in a giant pine table that seated 16.

"I wanted the place feel domestic, and for people to feel like they were coming to my house," says Granger. "But when the table arrived, I totally freaked out and wondered what I had done."

Almost overnight, the table became an icon of the city, its broad blond surface and matching Chris Connell chairs pulling everyone from Kylie Minogue, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, to Leonardo DiCaprio, Baz Luhrmann, Sir Terence Conran and Robert Carrier. This motley crew is typical of the communal dynamic. At the many early morning breakfasts I have spent at Bills, I've sat next to end-of-shift nurses, dreamy all-night clubbers, teachers, Chanel-clad fashion editors, off-duty chefs, and - it being Sydney - property developers. We regulars became a mini club, as we shared hangovers, passed the sugar and swapped the free magazines.

Communal tables spread through Sydney like a bushfire, from the surgical stainless steel of the modern Fu Manchu and Sailor's Thai, to the feudal monster at Longrain and the elegantly long counters at Jimmy Lix. `

In Melbourne too, diners sit elbow-to-elbow eating pizza at A Taglio, Afghani breakfast pancakes at Blakes Cafeteria, and nabeyaki udon noodles at Chocolate Buddha. Communal dining suits the easy, democratic Australian style, but its success in Britain has surprised more than Yau's builders. After all, everyone is on the same level, and gets the same treatment. There are no discreet corners, nor natural "heads", and it's extremely difficult to insist on the best table when there is only one table in the house. It has to be Michael Winner's worst nightmare.

Worse, the average Brit is stricken with decisions: do you talk or make eye contact with fellow diners? (Entirely up to you.) Do you sit beside or opposite your partner? (Opposite if the table is narrow, side-by-side if the table is too wide to see each other.) What do you do about jabbing elbows, and women who put their handbags on the table? (Glare at the offenders.) Is there a "best" seat? (Yes, on the end, with one's back to the wall.)

In the US, the very things that stress Brits out - that lonely losers might have the temerity to address you as you eat - have been turned into a positive, as people discover the romantic possibilities of dining alone in a crowd.

Websites such as SoloDining.com give tips and alert single diners to good communal tables such as the bright-yellow suspended number at the Carriage House in New York and the two 14-seater communal tables in Zinc Bistrot in Portland, Oregon.

SoloDining.com's editor, Marya Charles Alexander, claims that communal dining became a phenomenon in the US soon after the press focussed on the Philippe Starck- designed 36-seater table at Asia de Cuba in Morgans hotel, New York.

"Communal dining allows the solo diner to blend into the restaurant scene more easily," she says. "As a result, they are now less content to remain at home, and restaurateurs report large increases in the numbers."

The only threat, says Alexander, is The Couple. Couples are starting to discover the joy of communal tables and their natural synergy, and are crowding out the solo diner. So the message seems to be that if you are lucky enough to find love on a communal table, please take it elsewhere.

Unless, of course, you happened to meet at Cafe Pascal in New Mexico, a colourful and popular restaurant famous for its fried eggs with tortillas, plantain and refried beans, and its 12-seat communal table, known as the Joiners. The table is now also known as the Love Boat, as at last count it had two marriages to its credit, not to mention two children named Pascal.

We may well see the same thing happen here, where the very top levels of dining still discriminate against the lone diner by placing them on a table for two and then pointedly removing the not-to-be- used cutlery, crockery and, sometimes, the chair. I'm just waiting for the day one of my colleagues pulls a photo out of his wallet and proudly announces the names of his new twins: Gordon and Ramsay. n