Recent Trends & Practices in Restaurant Business
- ms3304dealer
- Oct 29, 2017
- 3 min read
[Souce: http://trgrestaurantconsulting.com/restaurant-trends-2017/]
Restaurant business is an ever-changing industry with many new trends coming up from time to time. Let's see what are the trends and practices in recent days!
1. Food Truck
Food truck -- a large vehicle equipped with cook and sell food, has gained more attention recently associated with the pop-up restaurant phenomenon. With the advantages of low investments and minimal risks involved, food truck becomes an alternative option for owning a restaurant business, especially for those first-time restaurateurs. This practice also offers the truck restaurateurs an opportunity to seek investors and attention on an experimental basis. Hong Kong government has started to explore and promote food trucks in the city few year ago and now there are 13 food trucks on rotation at various tourist hotspots, offering a variety of cuisines like the local street food and innovative fusion dishes.
[Sources: https://streeteatscolumbus.com/2012/06/06/sweet-carrot-casual-cuisine/]
[Sources: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Book_Brothers_Food_Truck_in_Golden_Bauhinia_Square.jpg]
2. Online Meal Ordering and Delivery
In recent years, food delivery service have experienced a great change under the rising popularity of the online meal ordering and delivery platforms, such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Foodpanda which are the most popular ones in Hong Kong. These mobile application company offer a centralized platform for the restaurants to join and provide them with delivery workers to deliver the orders. Given that the ordering process is streamlined through online data transfer, the efficiency and accuracy of delivery is enhanced. Restaurants can outsource the food delivery service and this effectively increase their service capacities to serve a greater number of customers at the same time despite the limitation of the physical stores. For customers, they can also have more choices on restaurants and food styles when using the meal delivery service, thereby enjoying better customer service.
[Source: http://juiceonline.com/8-apps-malaysian-students-need-in-their-life/]
3. Theme-Based
Typically, restaurants aim towards long-term branding, so it has become common for them to incorporate a theme to attract the audience. For example, Modern Toilet Restaurant is a unique bathroom-themed restaurant chain based in Taiwan, with several branches throughout Asia. The decorations in the restaurant are basically the items which can be seen in a typical bathroom, while the meals are served in miniature toilet bowls. Charlie Brown Cafe, Hello Kitty Chinese Cuisine, Cat store and Ease Cafe is also a list of examples illustrating different themes restaurants can have. In those themed restaurants and cafes, people can enjoy not only food, but also the unique atmosphere.
[Source: http://hk.localiiz.com/top-10-themed-animal-character-cafes-hong-kong/#.WiGHcrZ7H-Y]
4. Food Festivals
Nowadays, food festivals are often used as a mean of marketing. Food festivals are typically not restricted to people of particular age or social class, but those from all over the world. This provides an great opportunity to promote restaurants, not only can the well-established brands reinforce their reputation, but also the new brands promote themselves to general public. For example, the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival is held every year to attract both the locals and the oversea visitors. Some famous restaurants such as Porterhouse, La Maison XXL Seafood & Grill and Jinjuu also took part in the festival this year.
[Source: https://hkwdf.discoverhongkong.com/online_app_form/booth_application]
Learning Reflection
After doing the online research on this week’s wiki topic, I realise that the restaurant business is ever-changing. From the food truck and food festival mentioned above, I learn that today’s restaurant business is no longer only limited to the physical stores but extended to a broader scope. I believe that it is a good idea to diversify the operation of restaurant business in different innovative ways because this can allow people to enjoy a variety of delicacies through different special experiences. On the other hand, the theme-based restaurant trend and online meal order and delivery reveal that the restaurant business has greatly affected by the online momentum. People now used to search for restaurants in websites like OpenRice or food blogger accounts in social media applications and post photos and share experiences online afterwards. All these practices change the ecosystem of the tradition restaurant business and install innovation into the industry.
Reference
[1] 7 Restaurant Trends to Watch Out in 2017. The Restaurant Times (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.posist.com/restaurant-times/features/7-restaurant-trends-watch-2017.html
[2] Food Trucks. Hong Kong Tourism Board. (2017). Retrieved from: http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/dine-drink/what-to-eat/food-experiences/food-trucks.jsp
[3] 5 Emerging Trends for Restaurant Technology in 2017. Cake. (2017, Jan 31).Retrieved from: https://www.trycake.com/2017-emerging-trends-restaurant-technology/
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