Key ingredients for a successful restaurant

In all your hotels you will have a restaurant either doing really well or a complete waste of space.

If your restaurant does well, it is a good sign that the space allocated to it is being used well. However if it is not doing well, as an owner or operator you begin to question the entire industry and if you are better off doing something else.

The restaurant business is a cut throat industry and many restaurant do not survive the onslaught of new ideas, guest need to keep trying something new and the need to innovate constantly.

It is also a business with less margins than rooms, so you may worry about Returns on Investment and other things.

I wrote a previous article on tips for success in the industry but in this post we will look at the building blocks of the restaurant industry and ideas needed to make it successful or the key ingredients for a successful restaurant

Vision

Everything starts with a vision. If your restaurant is a seafood restaurant, what is the vision you have for it. Fresh catch, sustainable, local produce are some examples of what you may want.

Defining the vision is very important as it sets the tone for the next level of preparation. If you have never made a vision statement, google : how to write a good vision statement and you will get some ideas.

Team

While you go about setting your vision for the restaurant, it is very important to think about the team you are planning to hire and the leadership quality that you want to look for. Your chef and bartender are essentially the face of the restaurant and the driving force behind a good kitchen. Once your vision is set then the next place you need to spend most time is on getting the team. In the book Good to Great the author emphasizes highly on the concept of First who then what.

Essentially it means, once you have your vision, the next important thing is to select the team that can deliver on the overall vision.

Authenticity of Concept

Once your team is set and you have a vision, the next thing is the what or sticking to the authenticity of the concept. The question to ask at this stage is why should a person get out of the house, and come to your establishment. Ambiance, Food, Decor, Music should be the things that you look at and establish as a standard. If you get all this things right and consistent the business will follow

Marketing

Simple enough concept, tough to execute. With so many different forms of marketing and medium including Public Relations, Advertising, Social media, getting your word out is not difficult. Getting the word out to the correct mix is the most important thing and that is a difficult task.

Consistency

Once you start your business, then you need to ensure consistency. You are only as good as your last dish. Restaurants like Dum Pukth and Peshawari come to mind when you think of consistency. These restaurants have lasted more than 20 years without changing their menu significantly purely because they are consistent.

Controls and Process

Every good restaurant have succeeded because they implemented controls and processes. Controls to improve revenue like menu engineering, pilferage control, standard recipes and purchase processes.

Menu engineering alone can help improve 5-10 % profit in your restaurant in a year. Contact us to get one done for your restaurant

In conclusion

Running a restaurant is a busy and complicated task however by getting some characteristic right you can ensure it is successful

• Vision
• Team
• Authenticity
• Marketing
• Consistency
• Controls and Process