The Value for Money Proposition
Posted: 10/02/2010 3:00:07 p.m.
I am always fascinated to observe how the restaurant operation is running. Is it busy or dead, clean or not, are the team fired up or damn lazy, who is the boss, are they leading and so on? Sometimes it is frustrating seeing poor service being executed or guests left hanging. I want to jump up and go and take their order! Other times its real pleasure to see a tight operation running like clockwork.
When it comes to the menu I just about always lose the plot. Almost every time I read the menu the same thing happens. I read the description, create the dish in my head imagining the quality and quantity of the ingredients, how they would combine, their flavours and textures. These images are a formed from a data base of experiences collated over many years of what I have cooked or have had cooked for me. So every now and again the outcome turns out to be a disappointment.
Often it is not the restaurants fault. If I was the one who got myself excited, for the wrong reasons, and built up my expectations of the dish to a standard that was different to standard that the restaurant has established, that is my fault. I appreciate individual restaurants have to work with their specific price points and food costs to cater for there target market. If their 250g sirloin steak is a bit chewy at $19.50 I have no case to complain because it is cheap and value for money for the pub bistro.
But sometimes it is the restaurants fault for talking up the dish in the description, overstating the ingredients and cooking method. Eg “todays freshly caught fish” and when you get it, it stinks.
So, I have got the dish ordered in front of me and my first emotions could be anything from extreme excitement to total dejection. If I am excited I eat with gusto, relishing the perfection, if I am unhappy I tend to pick poke and moan. In any case I always automatically do a value for money calculation. I can not stop myself no matter how much the dish met my expectations or pleased me. I calculate the food cost, add on the table settings, the expertise and hospitality values of the waiter, quality and range of the beverage list, comfort of the dining room, the restaurants location (mountains view, CBD, theatre district or suburban etc)
It all adds up to value for money or not. Its doesn`t matter how much I have spent or how much I have enjoyed the experience if it was value for money I will be happy.
At Logan Brown we always strive to provide value for money. On the rare occasion a guest will just see how much meat is on the plate and judge us as not value for money aka A RIP Off. It is not his fault he has just chosen the wrong restaurant. A friendly smile and a free bowl of truffle fries usually fixes him up. Thankfully most of our guests appreciate the trouble we go to, to provide great value for money.
Some things we do are not obvious; The amount of time and care Head chef Shaun Clouston, and wine buyer Dan Sharpe take to select unique, primo quality products, that Ma and Pa consumers can not, is a significant. The hours of careful recruitment to select the waiters with genuine hospitality blood flowing through their veins, and the thorough training of them truly raises the chance of our guests getting a special dining experience tailored to their individual reasons for dining with us. Having a historically rated and beautiful turn of the century dining room requires special attention to keep it in perfect condition and spotlessly clean. The result is, nearly all the time, our guests can taste and feel the value for money.
In the restaurant game the value for money proposition is complex because many things contribute to the equation and each are subjective, but being great value for money is a key to success.
In Wellington we have many great value for money restaurants. Some of my favourites who give great value for money are;
FLORIDITAS, for brunch.
RAMS, awesome South East Asian cafe, both on Cuba St.
Capitol on Kent Terrace.
Have any Foodies got any recommendations?