Burns Night on Monday 25 January 2027: run a ticketed supper on a quiet Monday

The last Monday in January is one of the emptiest nights you trade. In 2027 it is also Burns Night.

Burns Night 2027 falls on Monday 25 January. To turn it into a full room, run one sitting with a fixed Burns supper menu at a fixed ticket price, paid in full or with a deposit when guests book. Price it so that about 21 sold seats beat an ordinary January Monday, open sales in the first week of January, and plan the evening as a running order rather than a normal service.

This guide gives you a costed menu, the ticket maths, a running order with kitchen cues, booking terms to copy, and the licensing points to check.

Last checked: 5 November 2026.

When is Burns Night 2027, and when do guests start looking?

Burns Night is 25 January every year, Robert Burns's birthday. In 2027 that is a Monday. In 2025 it fell on a Saturday and in 2026 on a Sunday, so last year's numbers will flatter a weeknight.

Interest builds late. Our analysis of Google Trends daily search interest for "burns night" in the UK (downloaded 5 November 2026) covered the eight weeks up to and including 25 January in each of the last two years:

Method: we summed the daily index over the 56 days and took the share in each period. Trends data is sampled and relative, so a re-run moves the figures by a point or two.

Much of that late searching is likely people planning a supper at home. The guests who book a table need to hear from you before the rush, which gives a simple calendar:

• By Friday 18 December 2026: menu, ticket price and booking page ready.
• Monday 4 January 2027: tell your mailing list and regulars; post on social and your Google profile.
• Monday 18 January: second push, the week searches climb.
• Monday 18 January, 11pm: last day for free cancellation (see the terms below).
• Thursday 21 January: confirm numbers with the kitchen and the piper.

Should it be the Monday, or Saturday 23 January? Run it on the Monday if your January Saturdays already fill, because the point is to fill a dead night. If your Saturdays are thin too, the Saturday will sell more seats, but you lose the reason guests have to come out on a Monday.

Why run a Burns supper on a quiet Monday?

Because guests in January want a reason to go out that does not feel like an expense they cannot justify. Natalie Isaac, director of Bar 44, said of the group's January promotion that it is "a pick me up for people feeling the pinch after Christmas and a way to get bums-on-seats during a quiet month" (Restaurant Online, 27 November 2024). The same article describes Celentano's in Glasgow putting a haggis-inspired dish and a Burns cocktail on during Burns week and hosting a private Burns supper for a group of regulars, and Wedgwood the Restaurant in Edinburgh selling a Burns Night box nationwide while it closes for the first three weeks of January. If you are planning the whole month, our January marketing guide puts the supper in a seven-week calendar.

A ticketed supper gives you three things an ordinary Monday does not: a known number of covers, a fixed menu the kitchen can prep in advance, and money taken before the night.

What goes on a Burns supper menu?

VisitScotland describes haggis, neeps and tatties as the centrepiece, with menus ranging from formal dinners to relaxed suppers. A three-course version most kitchens can run from one section:

• Starter: cock-a-leekie soup, or a smoked salmon plate.
• Main: haggis, neeps (mashed swede) and tatties (mashed potato), with a whisky cream sauce.
• Vegetarian main: vegetarian haggis with the same sides. Check the supplier's spec before you call it vegan; our Veganuary guide has a checklist for that.
• Dessert: cranachan (raspberries, toasted oats, whipped cream, honey and whisky).
• To finish: oatcakes or shortbread with coffee, and a dram for the toast.

Haggis contains oats, so it carries cereals containing gluten, and some recipes add other allergens. Take allergen details from your supplier's current specification and record them before you sell a ticket.

How much should I charge for a Burns Night supper ticket?

Start from what one guest costs you, add the costs that only exist because of the event, and find the number of tickets at which the night beats a normal Monday. Here is a worked example. Supplier prices and event costs are assumptions; use your own quotes.

At a ticket price of £45 including VAT, the net price is £37.50. Each ticket contributes £37.50 minus £5.86, which is £31.64 before drinks.

Now compare an ordinary January Monday. Say 18 covers spending £32 each including VAT at a 70% gross profit: that is £336 of gross profit. The supper covers its event costs at 10 tickets and beats the ordinary Monday at 21 tickets, before a single bar sale. That is the decision rule: if you are confident of selling 21 or more seats, run it; if not, put a Burns dish and a whisky flight on the normal menu instead.

Copy the calculation into a spreadsheet:

BURNS SUPPER TICKET CALCULATOR

B1  Ticket price, inc VAT          45
B2  Food cost per guest            5.07
B3  Dram cost per guest            0.79
B4  Event costs (piper, staff,
    menus, decoration)             310
B5  Ordinary Monday gross profit   336

B7  Net ticket price               =B1/1.2
B8  Contribution per ticket        =B7-B2-B3
B9  Tickets to cover event costs   =ROUNDUP(B4/B8,0)
B10 Tickets to beat a normal Monday =ROUNDUP((B4+B5)/B8,0)

Not VAT-registered? Use =B1 in B7.

On VAT: if you are registered, the ticket is standard-rated catering, and VAT is due on money you take in advance. The VAT section of our restaurant deposit policy guide covers deposits and prepayments.

Will the whisky cost more after Burns Night?

A little, and the official data shows the trade knows it. Alcohol duty on products above 22% ABV rises 4.55% on 1 February 2027, to £35.54 per litre of pure alcohol, according to HMRC's policy paper of 28 October 2026. The current rate is £33.99, on gov.uk's alcohol duty rates page.

Our analysis of the HMRC Alcohol Bulletin tables (28 August 2026 release, table 5c) shows what happens before a February rise. Duty went up on 1 February 2025 and 1 February 2026, but not in February 2024, when rates were frozen. The two Januarys before a rise cleared about twice as much spirit as the January without one:

January 2025 was 34% above that year's monthly average. Clearances record when duty is paid, not what pubs pour, so read this as suppliers moving stock out of bond before the rise, not as a January drinking boom. Method: total spirits clearances by month, all strengths, from table 5c.

What it means for your supper: the duty on one 25ml dram at 40% ABV goes from 34.0p to 35.5p, and on a 70cl bottle from £9.52 to £9.95. That is not worth stockpiling for. Order what the night needs in your January delivery and ask your supplier whether their list prices change on 1 February.

Should I take a deposit or full payment for a Burns supper?

For a single sitting with a fixed menu, bought-in haggis and a booked piper, full payment when guests book is easier to defend than for an ordinary table, because your costs are committed in advance. A per-head deposit credited to the bill works too, if you would rather keep drinks and extras on the night.

Either way, make the refund rules fair and clear before guests pay. The legal tests and amounts are in our restaurant deposit policy guide, and the sliding refund scale we use for set-menu nights is in the Christmas bookings guide. One thing specific to a ticketed supper: let guests pass their seat to a friend. A name change costs you nothing and settles most "we can't come" messages without a refund.

Booking terms to copy, with the square brackets replaced:

BURNS SUPPER, MONDAY 25 JANUARY 2027

Your ticket. [£45] per guest, paid when you book. It includes a
three-course Burns supper, a dram for the toast, the piper and
the speeches. Other drinks are paid on the night.

Arrival. Doors open at [6.30pm]. Supper starts at [7.00pm] and
the haggis is piped in at [7.45pm]. Please arrive by [6.50pm].

Changes. Can't come? Pass your ticket to a friend at any time:
just tell us their name. Cancel by [11pm on Monday 18 January]
for a full refund. After that we can only refund if we resell
your seat.

Food. A vegetarian haggis is available. Please tell us about
allergies when you book and again when you arrive.

If we cancel. If we have to cancel the supper, we refund
everything you have paid.

What is the running order for a Burns supper?

VisitScotland's order pipes the haggis in before the meal. Most restaurants serve the soup first so the haggis arrives hot as the main, which gives this running order, with the kitchen cue for each step, for a 7pm start:

VisitScotland lists the piping, the Address, the Immortal Memory and Auld Lang Syne as the core of the night. Many suppers add a toast to the lassies and a reply. You do not need a professional speaker; a regular who loves the poems often does it better. Brief whoever speaks on the timing, because the kitchen is working to it.

Do I need a licence to run late or bring in a piper?

Not if the night sits inside your premises licence hours. If it runs later, you will need a temporary event notice in England and Wales, or an extended hours application to the licensing board in Scotland. Our liquor licence guide covers both, including notice periods and fees, and gov.uk's TEN page has the form.

For the piper, gov.uk's entertainment licensing guidance says unamplified live music between 8am and 11pm does not need a licence. That applies in England and Wales. In Scotland, check that live music is in your premises licence operating plan. Check with your licensing officer if you are unsure. That exemption is about licensing only: recorded music, and live music still in copyright, needs TheMusicLicence from PPL PRS, which our music and TV licence guide prices.

Can TablePort handle this for you?

TablePort Reservations handles the booking side of the supper:

1. Deposits per shift. Set a deposit and cancellation terms on the shift that runs the supper, collected through Stripe. Guests read the terms before they confirm.
2. Confirmations and reminders. Guests get a confirmation and a reminder before they arrive, which is when they read the arrival time.
3. Deposit on the bill. When the guest is seated, the deposit is credited to their bill as its own line.
4. Private suppers. If you sell it as a private event instead, close the shift with a reason guests can see, such as "Private Burns supper tonight".

In Stock Management, the recipe builder shows the plate cost of the haggis main as you add ingredients. The limit: TablePort takes deposits, not event tickets, so a name change is a note on the booking. See reservations.