5 Menu Pricing Tips To Increase Profits

There’s no particular process or set guidelines to refer to when you’re setting your restaurant’s menu up and deciding the price points. But the norm is to triple your food costs for a dish which would ideally cover the overheads and profit margins. Other ways restaurateurs go about would be to keep their prices slightly lower than competition’s, a rough guess without careful costing, and begin at a lower price point only to increase it every six to eight months. The risk that comes with these methods is that it has a direct impact on profits and if you haven’t already, your plan to break even in a short period of time. Pricing will also determine the kind of establishment you are perceived as by customers.

What you need to factor in:

There are no set rules to how you should be planning your menu and its pricing so it results in increased profits. However, three simple tricks should help.

Clutter free

Hundreds of dishes doesn’t necessarily translate to high order volumes. The idea of having so many dishes on one menu would be to cater to a wide variety of customers with varied tastes. But if you take a good look at customers’ ordering patterns, you can be sure to eliminate a number of dishes from your menu. There might be dishes in there that require seasonal produce and when you have to tell customers that you aren’t serving them at the time, it immediately puts them off and will definitely affect their ordering.

Describe to sell

Most restaurants today make it a point to have a description under the name of the dish with the price across it. Sure, it gives the diner an idea of what the dish is. But depending on how the dish is described, it can influence the diner’s decision of whether or not he’d order it. The description is how you’re going to sell the dish and the customer wouldn’t mind paying for it once they’re sold on it. This works particularly on expensive dishes. You know that crab dish won’t sell itself to a seafood lover who’s probably going to go safe with a fish or prawn dish.

Something special, perhaps?

Adding a specials menu or having dish of the day can create great value—both for you and the customer. As a restaurateur, you can take a low value ingredient or produce and turn it into a high value dish by adding it to the specials menu. Since it’s special, it’s not on the regular menu, which diners wouldn’t mind trying. The idea of it not being a regular dish, and that they won’t get to pick from the regular menu tomorrow or next week might influence their decision.

Keeping it safe

Look at any menu and you’ll see that a few dishes are cheap and a few, expensive. Then there are a few that walk the middle ground. What you want as a restaurateur, is for customers to order all kinds of dishes across price points. But what you need is more volume selling from the those in the middle ground. If you look at menu page with dishes ranging from the lowest value, to the more expensive ones. The expensive ones are an add-on for you, the cheap ones won’t move the needle but are necessary to have. The ones in the middle will keep you safe.

One plus one

If yours is a casual restaurant combining multiple dishes at one price will work great for you. A sandwich priced at Rs. 200 and a milkshake at Rs. 150 will see more orders as a combination of the two than separately, but at the price of Rs. 280. It’s value for money for the diner and more volume of dishes sold for you. For instance, many casual dining Chinese restaurants today have a range of combos to offer. It makes sense for a diner to order a combo of noodles, rice, and a couple of pieces of an appetizer, as opposed to three separate dishes. For single diners who prefer takeaways or home deliveries, this works best.

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5 Ways For Restaurants To Reduce Food Costs

The restaurant business looks like a glamorous one. Looks being the keyword there. It takes a lot of passion and a commitment like no other to run a successful restaurant. Certain investments in a restaurant are reflected in its decor, expensive cutlery and the likes. However, most diners aren’t aware of the cost that goes into what arrives on a plate in front of them. But then, that’s not a diner’s headache either. The responsibility of economics falls squarely on the restaurateur. Which is precisely why some questions are worth tackling: As a restaurateur, to what degree are you involved in managing food costs? Are you aware of hidden costs within your general food costs? Do you know how you can trim most of these?

As a golden rule, in a hurry to get operations up and running, you should not compromise on what goes into the food that comes out of your restaurant’s kitchen. If you choose shortcuts and go cheap in order to cut down costs and increase profits, diners will be the first to recognize the drop in quality of food being served. As we know, for a restaurant, reputation is everything.

On the other hand, to serve (consistently) good quality food, if you choose to go with expensive imported ingredients your costs will hit the roof. Be wise with how you work with your vendors and use your supply of produce. Unlike many other one-time investments, food cost is a recurring one. Which is why you need to know how to control it in a way that it doesn’t eat into your profit margins. 

Yogesh Mukashi from Bangalore’s Egg Factory gives us insights on a few smart ways to reduce food costs.

1. Manage vendors

Give yourself some time to zero in on the right vendors. Consider this to be as important as hiring your staff. Come to think of it, you ARE hiring a vendor. Meet as many vendors as you can. Ask for recommendations. Compare their prices to make an informed decision. It means, find the ones that provide you good quality produce at a reasonable price instead of plain cheap produce.

If you’re hoping to include a healthy section in your menu with currently trending superfoods, ensure you plan this well bearing in mind how expensive the end product might be and how you would price it. The same principle applies to gourmet foods like imported cheese and other dairy products, cured meats, oils, and such. Another important factor is to be sure that you are getting what you paid for. Ensure the supplier gives you the exact amount of what you’re being invoiced for.

“It’s very easy for suppliers to con you. For instance, you should make sure you’re not getting 80 kilos instead of 100 kilos that you have been invoiced for. That can happen if you stop paying attention.”

2. Refine recipes

Once you have your menu down, it’s time to calculate how much will one dish cost you per portion. Doing this will help you understand whether or not the food cost is high or low, and price your dish accordingly. If that’s too much for you to do, refine your recipes. On paper, your recipe might be right, but unless your chefs don’t execute it right it won’t matter. Work on your recipes till they become a standard. Chefs also need to understand the importance of food costs and how it impacts the business overall.

“Refine your recipe and bring it to a point where it’s a standard recipe to be followed to the T by your chefs. They play a key role in the economics. Listen to them.”

3. Revise menu

Your food costs being high doesn’t justify the frequent and steep bumps in menu prices. Take a step back before increasing the prices and have a good look at your what’s adding to your costs. A root cause analysis will help you understand the situation better and find appropriate solutions. Adding a specials menu is a good way of keeping food costs in check. Ideally low value produce can be a part of the special menu to create higher value. By doing so, you also end up facilitating variety to your customers. It is also a great way to keep your chefs motivated and have them innovate by going off the regular menu.

“Food inflation has been steep for the past 5 or 6 years. But that doesn’t mean you simply hike your prices. The market won’t be ready to absorb such hikes.”

4. Manage waste

The ground rule says “buy what is enough” and for a very good reason.

Plan your purchases in a way that you don’t end up wasting produce. Keep a log and keep a check on what’s going into that waste bin. If you have to go through your bins to be sure, do it. By doing so, you’ll be setting an example and your staff will be careful about unnecessary wastage. Be aware of the cost that goes into making a dish. If you see this eating into your time, appoint someone as a monitor in the kitchen. Planning ahead will also help with managing waste. Basically look at it as money being thrown in the garbage bin.

5. Rotate stock

This would ideally be a step before you get to monitor waste. If you’re smart with the stock in your pantry, wastage will also reduce. Label your stock with receive dates so you know when they got there and will give you time to use them wisely. A good option is to rotate the stock based on the ‘receive’ labels. Use up the older ones before laying hands on the newer stock. This in turn will help with waste control and eventually with cost control. Without knowing when you received something, it becomes a guessing game and invariably you’ll end up throwing away food that could have been used on time.

“You need continuously review ingredients because of price fluctuations and availability. At times, the recipe will permit changes and at other times you need to completely drop it from the menu altogether.”

 

Expansion On Your Mind?

Your restaurant is not only surviving but also thriving. It has passed the test of time—of a couple of years—and you are either going to keep it going or you’re thinking of expanding. First or third, there are a number of factors that need to come together for a restaurant to be up and running. The first restaurant’s success doesn’t warrant you the success of the next one. In spite of having the advantage of experience on your side, you will still need to start work from the grass root level. Do you want to replicate your first restaurant, or do you want to change things up a little for the second one? Do you want to open it in another city, or stick to where you are now? So many questions you need to ask yourself before opening the doors to expansion.

Regardless of the kind of restaurant you want to open, or where, or why, the two biggest and the most important factors that lead to it all materializing are market and location. Arun Prashanth of Tovo Fusion in Chennai and the trio, Ashwini Chaudhary, Subodh K Singh and Lalit Ahalawat of Striker Pub & Brewery – Gurgaon, Adda by Striker – New Delhi, Adda by Striker – Gurgaon, Soi 7 Pub & Brewery and Walking Street by Soi7, share insights on expansion and why these two factors are key to success.

Market for the product

“You first need to understand if there is a need for your product in the market and whether you can grow your brand or not.”

Arun Prashanth, who owns and runs Chennai’s Tovo Infusions, strongly believes that one needs to study the market before venturing into expansion. With that comes understanding your customers’ needs. In a city like Chennai, the demand for niche cuisine or style of food won’t be as much in demand as, say, a biryani or local fare. Having said that, certain localities that are dense with corporate offices and residents are more inclined to experiment and try out newer things. Another factor is whether there is a meeting point for your product and the spending capacity of people. The chances of a gourmet burger restaurant doing well in an area with colleges is less likely than a fast food restaurant.

“With floating population in any busy area there’s no real probability to survive. It’s the residents that decide whether my restaurant will do well or not. They are the repeat customers as opposed to the floating ones.”

When you have an existing customer base, it leads to loyalty which in turn validates your brand. This is when you think of growing. Once you learn that there is a certain demand for your product in the market, you should now think of what will attract customers in and what is it that your restaurant has that sets it apart from a neighbouring restaurant. “If I open a pub across an already established and successful one, I need to offer something that that pub across doesn’t. I could keep my price points competitive or I could make the decor more interesting to draw more people in, and so on.”

Arun believes that if you’re planning to open a restaurant similar to the ones already doing well in a particular area in the city, you must dine in these restaurants to understand what is it that they’re doing that makes it click.

Location, location, location!

Probably one of the most important factor of all – location. Understanding the demographic comes a close second, going hand in hand with location. While in conversation with Ashwini Chaudhary, Subodh K. Singh and Lalit Ahalawat co-owners of Striker Pub & Brewery among others, Subodh asks “When you decide to go out with your friends, where do you go? Don’t you consider going to a popular area in town, like CP, Sector 29, Hauz Khas?” When asked about how they opened Adda by Striker in Sector 29 during a period when that area had no buzz like it does now, pat came the reply with a smile, “First mover’s advantage!”

“Sometimes you have to go with your instincts. When you learn about a catchment area and its people enough to make a judgement call on whether or not your product will work there.”

All three of them are passionate restaurateurs and tell me that passion for food and restaurants is why they don’t replicate their restaurants. “What’s the point in opening the same kind of pubs in one city. We give customers different experiences at different outlets, so much so that one can’t tell that the different restaurants are owned by the same set of people.” When you’re more attuned to the happenings in the business—which restaurant restaurant is a hit, which one bit the dust, and why—they become learnings from which you can base many of your operational decisions. 

“Restaurants and pubs in malls don’t do well anymore. Five years ago, malls were ideal for restaurants, but now nobody wants to go there with the intention of dining.”

Istanbul: Resilience Exemplified

This post isn’t for the easily offended. If you’re the type of person who puts 2 and 2 together and gets 5, I suggest closing this tab and reading no further.

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I was chatting with Oytun, our Turkey country manager, this past weekend, because I’ve been quite concerned about what’s going on in Turkey. I was worried about our team’s safety and well-being (in addition to being concerned about the well-being of the world in general). Oytun reassured me that Turkey is a resilient country, that it always bounces back in about 2 weeks, and that I shouldn’t be worried.

That thought stayed with me, and I figured that our traffic data in Turkey should very easily be able to prove the hypothesis that Turkey bounces back in two weeks. After all, the frequency of eating out is a fair indicator of how a country is reacting to a particular terror attack or situation.

For those not in the know, here’s some context on Turkey. The country has seen more than its fair share of unrest in recent times. Since the start of 2016, they’ve suffered a series of attacks and events that have put the country on high alert. Istanbul alone has seen three violent attacks, and been at the centre of an attempted military coup.

Every time one of these events occurs, we see a country that reacts the way any country in its place would: businesses pull down their shutters, people stay indoors, security measures are beefed up, and day-to-day life is disrupted. Sitting helpless thousands of miles away, it’s terrifying – all we can think of is the safety of our colleagues, and pray that normalcy will be restored soon.

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Something that’s amazed us is how – every time, and without exception – our team carries on with business as usual (while taking all necessary precautions, obviously). We can put this down to their incredible resilience and work ethic.

But what about the rest of the city? Does it actually take Istanbul as a whole just two weeks to get back up on its feet and get back to life?

One rarely gets to see that from an outsider’s perspective (and we were curious), so we started digging through Istanbul’s traffic patterns on Zomato. Here’s what we found:

Our website traffic in Turkey drops by as much as ~50% in the immediate aftermath of an event, but recovers to its original point within ~10-15 days.

Here’s some data to illustrate this better.

• Attacks in Ankara (March 13th) and Istanbul (March 19th): The attacks in Ankara on the 13th of March had a strong effect on traffic in Istanbul, causing a sharp dip in traffic. Just six days later, on the 19th of March, Istanbul was hit by attacks. However, the effect it had on traffic was nowhere nearly as dramatic. By the 27th of March – just two weeks after the attack in Ankara – traffic in Istanbul had returned to the point it was at just before the attacks.

• Attempted military coup across Turkey, July 15th-16th: Between military-imposed curfews, widespread protests, and the declaration of a three-month state of emergency, Turkey seemed to be in complete disarray. By the end of the 16th of July, our traffic in Istanbul had dropped to almost nothing. But by the 30th, it had recovered the gap and then gone on to grow to 6% higher than it was on the 14th of July.

Interestingly – but not entirely surprisingly – delivery restaurants gained more share of the recovering traffic (compared to dine-out restaurants) after these events. Dine-out restaurants’ traffic was also near normal within two weeks. What does that tell us? That slightly fewer people want to head outdoors to eat in the wake of any unrest, simply because it’s safer to stay indoors.

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The hypothesis was right: two weeks.

It takes Istanbul two weeks to bounce back from events that have rocked the city. It speaks volumes of the fortitude of the Turkish people, and their ability to get on with their lives.

When I mentioned this to someone yesterday, they argued with “Yeah, but many cities bounce back from adversity. What makes Istanbul unique?” To be honest, we don’t have a benchmark to compare Istanbul to – and we hope we never do. No city, and nobody, should have to suffer what Istanbul has in recent times.

This post is simply a salute to a city with immense courage; a city that refuses to take things sitting down. But more than that, it’s a tribute to my colleagues in Istanbul, whose unyielding and eternally positive spirit is an inspiration to us all.

Pokémon (Catchers) Go To Restaurants

You don’t need to look too far to see how Pokémon Go has caught on. It’s all over your social media feed and if someone around you is walking around aimlessly trying not to hit a pole or trip over a stone, you know they’re trying to catch ‘em Pokémons. Let’s take it from the top. Pokémon Go is a GPS enabled mobile game that projects various Pokémon characters on your screen via the phone’s camera. Your bathroom, office, gyms, salon–they’re everywhere for you to catch!

Where do restaurants fit in here, you wonder? Since these little characters are found in public spaces, restaurants turn out to be one of the spots for their chasers to get them. These restaurants have now introduced irresistible offers to convert Pokémon Go maniacs to customers. From offering discounts if a Pokémon is caught and a screenshot is uploaded on social media, to simply announcing that their restaurant is a Pokéstop, all kinds of restaurants are marketing themselves to the right target audiences. This augmented reality game has completely changed the way people have been playing video games. For starters, they’re all outdoors. Restaurants are looking at this as an opportunity cost and are playing along by giving their customers offers that keep them in for longer. Play, eat, drink, and catch ‘em Pokémons!

Read on to find out more about how restaurants in Sydney and Libson have warmed up to this game.

Cup Half Full, Surry Hills – Sydney

Cup Half full is located across the road from a very busy Poke Stop park in Surry Hills. Although Rowley, the owner, believes that “Pokémon Go would help [his] business a lot more if the shop itself was a Pokéstop.”

They are currently offering a Pokémon Go special on the weekends where customers can purchase any plate of food to receive a free drink. This is to help incentivise Pokéfans to come into the cafe rather than “linger outside”.

When asked about whether he plays it: “Yes, I play it. In fact, I take it way too seriously. I believe it is an unbelievable concept that is encouraging people to get out and about and walk around.” Rowley has also been giving tips out to customers and friends by suggesting they visit the Poké Vision website to see where all Pokemon are so that they know where to walk. In fact, in his last meeting with his Zomato account manager, he interrupted business chat to give her a Pokémon Go tutorial and show her how to use it.

Above all, Rowley from Cup Half full remains open to anything Pokémon Go “as long as it remains good for business.”

Andiamo Trattoria, Rhodes & Summer Hill locations – Sydney

Owners of Andiamo Trattoria believe that because of Pokémon Go “things for normal customers have changed” and they are “fearful that it might decimate their current loyal customer base”. That being said, “[They’re] all for it, but there is always two sides”. “[They] have also definitely seen a shift in the core business that [they’ve] been building because of Pokémon Go”

Note: Rhodes is one of the biggest hot spots in Sydney.

Tang Hui, CBD – Sydney

They are very interested in attracting Pokémon Go players and are now using it as a marketing tool.

Copo Cafe & Diner, Drummoyne – Sydney

Copo Cafe is another lucky cafe to have a Pokestop across the road. Because of this, Cafe owner Danny believes “Pokémon Go has had a big influence on the cafe as it has driven a lot of people to here”

Check out Zomato’s PokéNom Pitstops in Sydney!

Pizza na Brasa, Belém – Lisbon

“Pokémon Go is a huge trend nowadays in Portugal, but once I got into the Zomato Collection I’ve seen an increase of young people (the segment I’m focused on captivating right now) going to our restaurant in Quinta da Fonte (Paço de Arcos).

The Pokémon Go visits transformed into restaurant visits, due to the fact that most part of the kids that go there ask for an espresso or a glass of water and they are astounded to see the restaurant. So, they convinced their parents or, for some grown-ups, to go there with their wife or kids. Also, in visit stats it increased quite a bit comparing to other months – from 12 visits to 35 and going up. Even the presence on the Pokémon Collection is highly regarding and valuable to us!”.

Shawarma House, DLF Phase 4, Gurgaon

Navneet Nagpal, who owns and runs Shawarma House, opened the doors to his restaurant for Pokémon catchers and rewarded them with sodas, fries, wraps, platter and more, based on what level the player was at. “We ran it for three days and it brought us a lot of footfall, and the promotion did really well!”, he said sounding excited. He plans to run the promotion again this week, so all the hungry catchers know where their pitstop is to fuel up!

In short, Pokémon Go has stirred up a storm and it doesn’t show signs of stopping anytime soon. And if you’re a restaurateur, hop on the bandwagon and enjoy the ride!

Our millionth order in a month!

This milestone achieved by our online food ordering team is dedicated to our mates in Turkey. Our thoughts are with our team and everyone in Turkey  – the people who show an undying spirit in the greatest moments of adversity.

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“Will we get there? Will we not?” – Everyone at Zomato

Before the start of July, we knew that if we did our job well, we could grow our online food ordering business to a million orders a month in July. We kicked our planning into gear, and made sure that we did enough to get there. We came up with a plan – a day-by-day prediction of our order volumes for the entire month.

The first time we circulated a projection chart within the team was at end of day on the 3rd of July. This is what that chart looked like:

A few days later, we were pleasantly surprised to see that things were going according to plan:

I’ll be honest – such things don’t really happen too often at Zomato. We are usually over-ambitious, and often fall short of our own expectations. This time, us meeting our expectations was a result of two things – 1) setting realistic expectations (even though the expectation would need us to stretch ourselves), and 2) the team doing a great job and smashing out results one day after the other.

In general, my predictions have never been spot-on. So much so, even when I wanted just one kid, I got twins 🙂

The fact that July had five weekends certainly helped our cause. Finally, at 8:23 pm on the 31st of July, we hit the million-order mark for July – and then we racked up another 20,000 orders before the night ended. This is what the chart looked like at the end of last night: 

The average order value (AOV) of our orders is holding well at ~Rs 480, and our unit economics have improved by 10% since the last time we wrote about it. We now make Rs 23 per order as contribution margin compared to Rs 21 two months ago. Our customer retention has also improved sharply; in fact, our cohorts are now looking even more like a smile – a shape that lets me sleep well at night.

Note that this cohort is for returning users – not orders from returning users. Orders from returning users cohort looks even more exciting because of the ever-increasing frequency from retained users.

Congratulations to our entire team, which has worked super hard to get here. But this is just the start, and we’re going to power on keeping in mind – what got us here, will not take us there.

What’s Been Hot This Year?

Last year there were multiple predictions on what this year’s restaurant trends would be. Some of them like chef-driven restaurants, emphasis on local produce and demand for healthy food have been predicted right and are going strong as we have crossed the mid-year mark. Others like spiralizing vegetables and fruits and underground restaurants didn’t quite take off like expected. Let’s take a glimpse of what this year has been like for restaurant trends.

Chef in charge

Chefs are no more bound to just the kitchen any more. They’re creating dishes along with a name for themselves in this competitive industry. We saw Saransh Goila completely change the perception of Butter Chicken. It sure is the country’s favourite dish and just when you thought it can’t get any better, Saransh reintroduced by tweaking it just a little and got Butter Chicken lovers to fall in love with the dish all over again when he opened Goila Butter Chicken in Mumbai.

Chef Nimish Bhatia who is the chef and owner of Nimissere in Bangalore says that earlier only restaurants in a 5-star hotel were associated with high quality of food. Now with the acceptance of a high standards in restaurants, stand-alone ones are breaking that norm. Chefs have put in years of hard work and effort to get to where they are and they are now becoming a brand on their own. Besides, since they put everything on the line, it is natural for them give it their all.

“Chef driven restaurants are done so with passion and not just as a business. Food is all about celebration and diners need a guarantee not to be disheartened with an experience. With chefs, they trust that their years of work will reflect in the food they serve.”

Videsi twist

Years ago, restaurants began ‘Indianizing’ everything. As a result we got Gobhi Manchuri, Butter Chicken Pasta, Chicken Tikka Pizza and Tandoori Momos. A couple of years ago, things changed and tables were turned. Indian cuisine was given a modern makeover by top chefs like Manish Mehrotra, Manu Chandra and Floyd Cardoz. It’s the same familiar taste we grew up with, but with a modern twist that validates the fact that there’s no end to innovation when it comes to food. Today every food enthusiast wants to get a bite of Misi Doi Cheesecake, Vindaloo Tacos, Tandoori Chilean Pork Ribs and most of what modern Indian cuisine has to offer. According to chef Nimish, serving one huge portion of Butter Chicken with Roti isn’t value for your money, but trying out smaller portions of different kinds of food is. Cleaner and leaner are surely the way to go.

Healthy signs

As fast food lovers are growing (pun intended), there’s a section of food lovers that are counting calories and weighing in their food choices. More and more restaurants are including sections in their menu which draw in health conscious diners. From the rise in cold press juices and sophisticated salads delivered to you any time of the day, it’s safe to say this isn’t just a fad. Restaurants are now adding vegan and gluten-free dishes to their dishes too. Bangalore had 10 healthy food based establishments open last year and in 2016, so far, there have been at least 16 new ones in the city. Chef Nimish says there’s no trans fat in his dishes. From the looks of it, adding a few such dishes will make your restaurant become an option for healthy food lovers as well.

Scroll down, order in

This year has seen a substantial rise in the number of online orders. According to our data, from January 2016 till June 2016 alone, there has been a month-on-month growth of at least 30% in Zomato’s online orders. That’s huge! Home delivery has always been an add-on facility for most restaurants, making customers lives easy. But today, technology has gone a step ahead and is making restaurateurs’ lives easier. Working hours, traffic lights, waiting line are all getting longer; not having to go through it all—especially all at once—sounds like such a relief. The convenience of it all is most appealing; a few taps on the app and your food is delivered. Hassle free.

As a restaurant, your food delivery business is more streamlined. No more reading orders back to the customer and mishearing orders. You save time and make the process seamless and convenient for your customers. One of the most important benefits of online ordering is data. You can now study behaviour patterns of your customers which in turn will impact your food costs. Trends come and go but the love for food, and more importantly, variety in food is only growing stronger.

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Women’s Place In The Kitchen

In every industry today, we can see women rising to the top on their own merit, making a name for themselves and carving the path for others. Fortunately, to some extent, the same can be said about the restaurant industry as well. It is often assumed that women don’t want to work in professional kitchens because of the demanding nature of the job, the long hours and the stress of juggling work with family. Well, this clearly isn’t the case anymore. From Anahita Dhondy of SodaBottleOpenerWala to Pooja Dhingra of Le 15, women are soaring to new heights in the kitchens—one dish at a time.

We spoke to a few fabulous women to know more about them. As a result, we stumbled upon interesting stories about them – in the kitchen and as a boss!

Ivy & Bean, Delhi

Radhika Khandelwal trained to be a chef in Australia and ran her own cafe before moving to Delhi to open the doors to a lovely cafe, Ivy & Bean. Her love for food and cooking took her to Australia to be trained as a chef. Speaking of women in the professional kitchen she muses, “Things are changing, but it still isn’t easy for staff to accept a female boss. They will take time to address you as ‘chef’ and not ‘ma’am’.”

“In the beginning, they don’t take you seriously, but with time they see your work and understand that you mean business.”

The Bombaykery, Gurgaon

Having a mother who was a pastry chef and with a childhood spent in her family bakery in Mumbai, Mithali Sahani’s The Bombaykery was sure to be a hit. She later trained to be a pastry chef and worked at five star kitchens as an intern, only to eventually begin her own endeavour. Mithali thinks times are changing for sure, but there still are a few problems in the industry for women like dealing with suppliers, building a team and—no surprises here—the male staff not wanting a woman boss.

“In five star kitchens, women still aren’t taken seriously as their male counterparts. It won’t be incorrect to state it’s mainly a male dominated space”

Paris Cafe, Kolkata

Having been trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris to become a pastry chef, Sneha Singhi turned her dream of opening her own cafe into a reality in Kolkata. She, on the other hand, has had the best experience working in Hyatt’s kitchen. Her advice to young women who aspire to open their own eatery someday is to work under experienced chefs and learn as much as possible because there is no substitute to hard work.

“In my experience, I haven’t had faced any problems in a professional kitchen just because I was a girl. In fact, I was accepted wholeheartedly by the industry.”

The Palms, Kolkata

Priyadarshini always dreamt of opening her own restaurant. One which brought luxury dining and affordable dining under the same roof. Currently in its ninth year, The Palms is still going strong. She says there are preconceived notions about obstacles in the restaurant industry for women. Her tips: Be clear to your family about your career and the working hours that come with it.

“If one is disciplined, willing to work hard and understand that it’s not a regular job, anyone can work in a professional kitchen.”

Barley & Grapes, Bangalore

Meghna Varkada, who owns and runs Barley & Grapes in Bangalore, has been a part of the restaurant industry for 16 years now. She says, women now have the exposure and education to move away from the routine of getting a degree and then a 9-5 job. For her, family’s support and an understanding partner are the key to running a restaurant without compromising on family life.

“A man is able to go out and work because he has his family back home supporting him. It’s the same with women. When your family is your backbone, you can go out and accomplish anything.”

Kaficko, Hyderabad

Stemmed out of pure love for food and inspired from travels is Kaficko in Hyderabad. Suma Chereddi opened the place a year and a half ago and has a pan-Asian restaurant in the works, to be opening soon. According to Suma, the restaurant industry is like any other where there aren’t obstacles just for women to overcome. Her cafe has inspired home cooks and others to start their own food ventures.

“I’ve build a personal relationship with my staff. We discuss everything together. They’re like family to me and that’s the kind of faith I have in them.”

Me So Happi, Mumbai

Pooja Arambram’s family has always been in the restaurant business and it was only natural for her to open one of her own. That’s how Me So Happi happened. From bunny chow to dhansak, their menu has ‘comfort food’ written all over it. Pooja believes that a keen eye for detail and the lady’s touch they bring to the table and on to the plate is what gives women the edge in the kitchen. Having said that, most teams in restaurants are still mostly all-male.

“Customers have evolved and so has food, and that has given way to many women to enter the professional kitchen.”

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Why You Should Respond To Negative Reviews On Zomato

A customer, regardless of whether they’re right or wrong, wants to be heard and wants to be acknowledged. As a business, when you are prompt with your responses, you are invariably showing them that you care. And caring about customers’ experiences is a key aspect of hospitality. A positive review or not, by responding to them, you get to express gratitude, share your side of the story, or even apologize if needed. Customers come on to Zomato to share their experiences, and as the ones who are a part of those experiences, you get to engage with them.

Responding to a positive review is a piece of cake. But here’s a pro tip – do away with those canned responses, because customers can smell it from a mile away, and it loses the effect. Take that extra minute to personalise the message, and thank them. Little things like these go a long way in keeping those customers coming back for more.

Negative reviews, however, are a slightly different story. Here are a few handy tips on how to handle them…

Don’t ignore them

One thing you mustn’t forget is that an interaction between you and the customer, about a review, draws plenty of eyeballs from other customers who are reading reviews. If you choose to ignore a negative review and respond to only positive ones, it shows you in bad light. It will look like you don’t care about your customers and their feedback.

Don’t take it personally

Don’t take it personally. It isn’t about you, it’s about your restaurant. Someone dined at your restaurant and had a bad experience. Sit back, take a deep breath and look at it objectively. Read the review thrice if you need to, and address every single problem. The only way to get rid of any negativity is to face it. The more you let it linger, the more it’s going to affect your business.

Treat this as real-time feedback

Negative reviews more often than not, is feedback. Particularly, when it’s about service and specific experiences with food – like if a diner found something in their plate, or if their food was served cold, and the likes. As right as you may be about being extremely cautious of how food is served at your restaurant, give the benefit of doubt to the customer. Acknowledge, apologize, and ensure that feedback makes its way to your staff.

Look at it as an opportunity

Look at a negative review as an opportunity for conversion. When someone’s complaining, they want to be heard and even pacified. And when you do address their issues, there is closure – for them, and for you. When they see your concern for them and how you value their feedback, there is a high possibility of them returning to give your restaurant another chance. Now, it’s up to your staff to ensure the customer has the best experience.

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All reviews are subjective opinions. You can’t possibly believe that every single customer that walks into your restaurant has had an amazing time. Someone won’t like the food, there will be another who didn’t like the music, and another who thought the staff wasn’t friendly enough. It’s a given that you can’t please every palate. If a customer didn’t like your spaghetti alla carbonara because it wasn’t spicy enough, you can respond by telling them that a carbonara isn’t meant to be spicy. If they aren’t convinced, it’s alright. Let this one go.

There’s another side to negative reviews as well. The kinds that aren’t genuine. For most of such cases, Zomato has checks in place.

• Tracks each user’s activity by their ratings and reviews pattern
• Assigns a Credibility Score to users based on their activity and followership
• Users with low credibility score have little impact of your rating
• Only reviews by high-credibility users will appear on the popular reviews tab

Either way, your safest bet is to respond to reviews without dwelling on them. You have a restaurant that needs to be run. Don’t let the negativity take up your time and peace. You can’t control what one says online, but you can salvage the situation with damage control. Since all good end things on a sweet note, here’s an example of good responses to a negative as well a positive review.

 

Turn Slow Season To Your Advantage

Business has been good, your best selling dishes are selling like hot cakes (pun intended), and you’re happy with the way things are rolling. Now when it’s off peak time – be it the monsoon, or when people are away on vacation, they aren’t crowding your restaurant as much; or when you aren’t booked out on a Friday or Saturday night, is when you pull out a few good tricks that are hidden somewhere up your sleeve. This also holds true for empty tables during lunch hour at many restaurants. Let’s talk about a few key areas you could tap.

Don’t drop the mic!

Let’s say it’s a multi-cuisine family restaurant, but that shouldn’t stop you from introducing new elements in your restaurant. Something new in the restaurant will bring in curious diners. Options are plenty – from karaoke to stand-up comedy, from live music to poetry slam, there’s a wide range of small-scale events people love to attend. Keep it light and simple so it doesn’t seem forced, yet there’s some buzz about the restaurant. The more you’re talked about, the more diners it’s going to draw. Remember, these events might bring the diners in, but you need to ensure they stay for the food.

Zomato For (Your) Business

Introduce offers to boost your sales. Like Happy Hours, free dessert when you order a seafood platter, or a complimentary drink when you upload a photo of your food on Zomato – you get the idea. Even introducing happy hours might get more and more tables getting full. Make these announcements on your social media channels so you have some activity going on there as well, keeping it interactive and informative. Having said that, your database should have a healthy fill of your customers’ email ids. Shoot emails to them periodically with ongoing offers so they can avail them in time (but exercise control, lest you come across as spammy).

Burbee’s in Noida for instance, is using Zomato Order to promote the restaurant’s home delivery business. “It’s rainy season and people hardly want to step out. They want to have pakoras and such so they order from us.” He also says it’s important to keep these discounts lucrative and to turn something like monsoon for instance, to your advantage.

Let’s Roll That Dice!

One of the reasons diners come back to restaurants and cafes is engagement. There are cafes who have their corners stacked with books. There are others who have merchandise for sale. Some of them have board games to keep their diners entertained.

Nishant Sinha from Coffee Cup in Hyderabad says a cafe is something in home and office. The kind of place you’d visit regularly. And when you have regulars you want to keep them coming back for more. Coffee Cup has a fun range of board games like Snakes & Ladders, Ludo, Jenga, and the likes. They also have 500 – 600 books including fiction, non-fiction and comics they keep for sale. “When customers come into the cafe and place their order, they don’t wait around for their food to get to the table. Instead, they get themselves a board game and get playing”.

With these added elements, your business is bound to increase, even if marginal. It could also work as a USP – something for people to talk about and something for people to come back for.

Sweet Deal!

Look at what’s around you – sports arenas, colleges, corporate offices, etc. Work out a partnership with them giving them the best your restaurant has to offer. And once the ball gets rolling, they are sure to turn into loyal patrons. A few examples – providing lunch combos delivered to corporate offices at a discounted price, offering discount cards or giving a beverage free for every meal to college students, giving restaurant vouchers worth a certain amount to winners in sports arenas, and the like.

Revisiting the menu

Lastly, revisit your menu. Keep the ‘hot cakes’ aside and focus on what’s not selling as much, and what’s not selling at all. You have a couple of choices here – either get the non-selling ones off the menu, even temporarily, or bring in a new specials menu for that time. It’s also the best time to introduce local seasonal produce in your menu. Sit with your chef and see how you can work around this. Keeping non-selling dishes on the menu will only increase costs. Might as well do away with it and give diners something new and refreshing.

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The slump in business should be looked at as an opportunity to understand it better. Every restaurant goes through a lull – it could be monsoon, peak summers, peak winters, schools reopening, and many other factors that contribute to it. Find the gaps, be imaginative, and fill them with ideas that could really work like magic for you. Keep your eyes open for what’s picking up in the industry, and apply what might work for your establishment.