Restaurant Categories III Fine Dining

A fine dining restaurant is the epitome of food production, service and hospitality. As mentioned above, the only thing that differentiates casual dining and fine dining is the price that is commanded.

To be able to successfully charge a high price a fine dining restaurant has to provide top class food, impeccable service and a classy environment. Decor features high quality materials with an eye towards the ‘atmosphere’, as desired by the restaurateur. Staff is highly trained and wears a formal attire.

Ambience

The challenge for fine dining restaurants is to match the innovation and uniqueness of successful casual dining restaurants and then take it to a level that they just cannot afford to match. The ambience will have to match across all aspects of decor, uniform, with menu cards, table linen, crockery, silverware, lighting and furniture. In a fine dining restaurant the level of detailing is very minute. It is important that everything has to be consistent with the style and concept.

The ultimate goal is to ensure a unique experience for the customer who is used to the best of the best. The Spice Route restaurant is Delhi’s Imperial Hotel has been listed by Conde Nast Traveller as one of the top ten restaurants in the world. It has been designed as a visual treat of the art and culture from the spice route that traverses through cultures of Kerala, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Indonesia to Thailand and Vietnam. The decor itself makes a visit to this restaurant an experience of a lifetime.

Service

Guests at a fine dining restaurant expect to be treated like valued guests. Most fine restaurants take on the service experience that royalty is used to. However, the service offered has to be flexible enough to suit the needs of each guest. Some may resent too much attention and view it as smothering and intrusive. The service staff needs to be able to provide discrete service that anticipates the needs and comfort of specific guests. Here too total detailing of the table service has to be designed, from putting napkins on the diner’s lap to serving from the correct side of the customer, to who should be served first in a group. . .the staff must pay heed to every little detail.

The level of service actually starts from outside. In this format of restaurant, you need to offer parking services and a reservation system. It is keeping all these issues in mind that most fine dining restaurants are located within the premises of five or seven-star luxury hotels.

Restaurant Categories II

CAFE

Cafe is termed as a place to drink hot and cold beverage and particularly coffee. Nowadays, a cafe has a lot to offer. The coffee at a cafe can be teamed with several beverages and a range of snacks. Generally, cafes are places where people go to relax, rejuvenate, socialise and to chit-chat.

Ambience

Cafes provide a number of different seating scenarios. People who come alone and people who come in groups can find seating to meet their needs. Customers who want to linger for a while on a couch and comfortable lounge style seating are also accommodated. Adjustable seating is possible for groups who are coming in for a meeting. Outdoor seating plans for a cafe are also important. Special thought has to be given to play the right kind of music for the right time of day.

Service

There is scope for providing a combination of counter and table service at a cafe. Customers tend to spend longer time in the cafe in comparison to other restaurants so a degree of table service can help increase sales.

CASUAL DINING

A place serving moderately priced food items in a comfortable atmosphere defines casual dining. These restaurants have table service, though some may offer buffet-style meals and some may be complete buffet restaurants. Casual dining restaurants could also have a bar and a limited wine menu.

Ambience

There is a wide variety of casual dining restaurants and the ambience depends on the targeted clientele. Thus, outlets aimed at a young customer would have bright colours and loud music and those targeting families and older customers would be more sober. Keeping in mind the need to keep the prices low, the ambience is more appealing and imaginative than luxurious. Creating thinking can be brought to play to suit the cuisine and the concept of the restaurant. The food is reasonably priced and guests tend to spend long hours at such restaurants.

Service

Customers expect table service at casual dining restaurants, but are satisfied with the serving of the food and drinks ordered and an occasional topping up of water glasses. Casual dining outlets also offer take out or home delivery services.

FINE DINING

A fine dining restaurant is the epitome of food production, service and hospitality. As mentioned above, the only thing that differentiates casual dining and fine dining is the price that is commanded. To be able to successfully charge a high price a fine dining restaurant has to provide top class food, impeccable service and a classy environment. Decor features high quality materials with an eye towards the ‘atmosphere’, as desired by the restaurateur. Staff is highly trained and wears a formal attire.

We will talk about the ambience and service needs in a fine dining restaurant in our next post.

Types of Restaurants and Business Formats.

There are many types of restaurants to choose from. Broadly, the choice falls into restaurant category, cuisine range and business format. The restaurant industry consists of a wide variety of categories: full service restaurants, fine dining, casual dining, fast casual restaurants, coffee shops, cafes, snack bars, quick service restaurants, food courts, take-out stands, street stalls, kiosks and other eating joint formats. These formats are further divided based on the food they serve. Either they are specialty restaurants specialising in one cuisine, or multi-cuisine restaurants, which means serving a variety of dishes from around the world. Furthermore, the prospective restaurateurs have three main business formats to choose from: the start-up model, acquiring a running restaurant and buying a franchise. Let us examine restaurant categories, cuisine range and business formats in some detail.

Restaurant Categories

As discussed above, there are many categories of restaurants. This book will deal with four basic types of restaurants: Fine dining, Casual dining, Cafe and Quick Service Restaurant (QSR). These are marked by the level and nature of the service. As the name suggests, QSR category offers quick service and the level of service keeps increasing and is at the ultimate in the fine dining restaurant. The other categories of restaurants can be seen as variations of these four categories. Thus, kiosks and street stalls are a more basic variation of the QSR category. Coffee shops and snack bars are a variation of the cafe. Fast casual restaurants may not give full service at the table but offer a better quality of cuisine.

Let us deal with these four categories in some more detail.

Quick Service Restaurant (QSR)

Quick service is a restaurant that focuses on speed of service at a price that is light on pocket. These restaurants offer minimum table services. Fast food restaurants or QSR cater to ‘meat-sweet diet’ and are known for their short food preparation time. They offer limited menu, which is readily available in take away, though seating is also an option. These are different from the traditional restaurants in the sense that they serve food in a disposable container/plate and do not use any cutlery.

Ambience

The traditional interior design of QSR includes hard surface, bright lighting and primary colours as they facilitate easy maintenance, fast turnover and upbeat energy. Provision is made for children as very often QSR serve the entire family. Play areas for children are also found in some of the restaurants. However, they need to be positioned well so that parents can eat while they can keep an eye on their kids.

Service

In a QSR format, speed of delivery and low cost are key considerations. Customers can be expected to eat the food served to them from the disposable containers in the interests of speed. Rarely is there any table service, customers are most often expected to pick up their food at the counter.

We will cover the remaining three categories in our subsequent posts. Write in to us for any queries, information on the categories of restaurants and the latest QSR trends in India.