Well, maybe if the Prince was alone, with a few bodyguard and a few reporters who stood out of the way? Maybe he could have been squeezed in? But he showed up with a group of twenty four and the restaurant was already packed? I know of a few restaurants in good old, liberal, democratic, DC, USA, where room would have been found. If the owners had to hand out free meal tickets for a later night, room would have been made for the prince. They would have thought of the publicity value of having him dine in their place, while his name is in the heights of the gossip sheets, and thoughts short of murder would have crossed their minds to make space. And anyone who came between them and such a celebrity diner would have been assured of a beat down.
I mean ordinary people are hustled out of the way all the time, to make way for the kings and queens of the celebrity circuit. No ones cares, because kowtowing to the rich and famous, in America happens all the time, and us, the normal people in America, know our place.
In England, the people weren't cleared out for the royal? The eating guests weren't hurried. The unseated ones reservations weren't lost? Why?
Well, come to think of it, to turn away the prince? Well? What better way to get publicity? Everybody is talking about the event. It is on the Internet. Right? Posh restaurant treats everybody like a royal? Right? Royal treated like everybody, right? Sounds like a PR man's scheme, right? See the video.