Unless you are Brahmin’s Coffee Bar in Bangalore or Al Ustad in Dubai, or any other legendary restaurant that has been around for several decades, you need to update your restaurant’s menu every couple of years. When do you do it? How do you go about it? So many more questions you need to ask yourself. Once your restaurant catches rhythm in the market and has gained momentum in the first 6 months or even a year of opening, revise your accounts and see which dishes are the money makers and which ones are dead weight on your menu. This is just one of basics.
Changing your menu means you’re keeping up with time, revisiting what might have been mistakes, clearing clutter and finding ways to improve business and having your customers come back for more. Obviously, starting off right by getting the menu done effectively is a great base for you to work on. Furthermore, revising a menu is also a way to increase profit margins.
Food has sure become fashionable, of late. From the freakshakes to the salads in jars, there’s nothing that restaurants don’t try out at least once. When it comes to following trends, it’s best to have a special menu or special dishes running for a limited period of time. From television to social media, there are a number of outlets that talk about food today. You really can’t miss these trends floating on your timeline everywhere. If a particular trend seems like a fit for your restaurant, test it out by keep it around for a short time. Going by customers’ response you can make it a regular or discard it all together. This gives people a reason to walk into your establishment as well as one for you to work out better margins with whatever is trending at the time.
When you can’t make up your mind, you end up putting everything on the menu. It really doesn’t work for customers though. There are way too many multi-cuisine restaurants with a plethora of dishes under each category and cuisine they are serving. 200 dishes on a menu is daunting enough for diners to go through, let alone making a decision. This is when keeping track of the hits and misses pays back. By letting go of dishes that don’t work and have barely been ordered, you’re keeping the menu clutter free and easy on the eyes.
Revision of menu includes revision of prices and not just the dishes. Sometimes restaurants change only the prices. With inflation, prices of produce, ingredients and fuel go up. Obviously, you cannot increase prices every time there’s a hike in an ingredient or fuel for instance. Ideally, when there’s a spike in operating costs it should take you 6 to 9 months to implement the new prices. If you hike your prices every few months, you’re going to drive every customer out.
If a year has gone by without any changes at your restaurant, including the menu, drop by at your neighbouring restaurants to see what the market scene is like. You don’t want to be left behind now, do you? If they have introduced a prix fixe menu, diners have something to look forward to. Time for you to pull up your socks too. Keeping yourself up to date also means keeping a keen eye on the happenings in your neighbourhood restaurants. From restaurant promotions and menu changes to what’s trending and what’s out, you have to be on top of your game.