Real data about restaurant performance is hard to come by. Irrespective of whether the restaurant is making a profit or loss, I see people invariably lie about figures.
So, here is something that might help - the past six month figures of an actual non-veg restaurant, which would go unnamed :)
It is amazing the amount of money you can make by just cutting wastage. Follow a few simple principles and you can dramatically increase profits.
1. Track all expenses every day.
2. Check stock every day
3. Get an item by item report printed at the end of each day and calculate the amount of stock that should have been consumed. Compare it with actual stock consumption. Charge the difference back to the kitchen.
4. If the customer has a complaint, never argue. Replace or refund.
5. Dramatically reduce gas usage by
a. Cooking covered
b. Presoaking
c. Pressure cooking
d. Regular cleaning of burners.
5. 'Taste' is a myth. It differs from person to person. Follow general cooking principles ( use fresh ingredients, do not use too much salt/ spices, do not burn stuff ) and you should be fine. On top of this remember the key characteristics for recipes - an Idli should be white and spongy, a parota whould be flaky and crumbly, a dosa should be crispy. Focus on these as you'll never be able to track the elusive taste. If you shoot for 'good' taste, you are dealing with a quantity you'll never measure or compare - and that is really frustrating !
6. Instead of focussing on the elusive taste, focus on standardisation. Standardise techniques and recipes so that you get an uniform result every time. Put the quality into equipment and techniques, rather than depending on the chef. Chef dependancy is the bane of many small restaurants ! Remember, standardisation beats taste anytime, as Mcdonald's demonstrates !
These principles were put in place during April and you can see the result by comparing March figureswith August figures. Sales goes up by around Rs.240,000 but production expenses rise by just Rs.60,000.
To put things in perspective, this restaurant does around Rs. 30,000 / day, whereas the Vadalapani Saravanabhavan, one of the top restaurants in Chennai, does around Rs.450,000 a day !
As a thumb rule, each 4 seater table in a restaurant generates around Rs.1000 a day. For reasonably well managed restaurants, it goes up to 2000 a day/ table. For popular restaurants, it can reach 4000 a day/ table.
If you are planning to open your own restaurant, remember it is easy to make money, if you put the right systems in place at the very beginning !
it's a great post
ReplyDeletebut it's not easy to do a successful restaurant
now there are alot of great restaurants in every place
Points 5 and 6, where you talk about standardization and taste being a myth, I have to partially disagree.
ReplyDeleteYes, general cooking principle are very important, and most important is teaching the kitchen staff how to follow the cooking principles and recipes with standardization, whether it be a chef or trainer or other staff members creating the original recipes for the first time.
But the quality of the recipes the staff follow are what brings in the different tastes, and this difference can definitely be appreciated by a customer, and can make the difference between a 30,000/day and 450,000 / day restaurant, even with the same number of seats; I go to somewhere like McDonald's when I want a particular standardized price/value
for my food, and a different type of restaurant when I want to sit down and enjoy another quality (also standardized) matched with a certain ambiance, flavour, and atmosphere.
Whatever standard I'm looking for, I like to know that the kitchen is capable of providing it at a consistent level, and at a consistent speed (which is usually not the case in Africa, for example, where you can wait 40 minutes for the simplest of requests).
Standardization does not beat taste any time: one of my favourite restaurants, also cheaper than going to almost any standardized menu restaurant in the same town (for lunch), has the chef creating different dishes out of local ingredients each day. You make a reservation (or show up) not knowing what will be available, only that there will be three courses to choose from (starter, main dish, and dessert), with a veg, meat, and fish option available for the main dish, all of them written in hand on a chalk board. The place is in a house converted into a restaurant, full of ambiance and charm. Waiters serve with a smile and personalized attention. Food comes out fast, but there is no rush to eat. You stay for an hour or so, enjoying one course after another over conversation with friends, and everything is portioned to ensure you don't eat too much, but are left satisfied yet still wanting to come back another time for more.
The service is always of a great standard, the quality of the food is always a great standard, but it does depend on the chef, as the menu items are not standardized at all. The place makes a lot of money, with a high return on expenses. Sales and repeat business are based on quality and atmosphere, not quantity, which is a different model than yours. Both work in different ways, and should be recognized as such (and again, I think you are underplaying the value of your standardized recipes: if everyone made the same horrible standardized food everyday in India, even if they had the marketing power of McDonald's (which, coincidentally, takes on a different atmosphere there than in other countries), people would likely go to the next restaurant around the corner making tasty standardized food for the same price range. You are fortunate in your country to have good, affordable food whether in small restaurants, on trains, in school cafeterias, etc; this isn't the case in many other countries).
When opening a small restaurant, it's important to understand clearly before opening the doors, what type of restaurant you plan to run, who are your target clientele, and what do they need in terms of service and quality in order to keep coming back or spreading positive words. You figure that out, you get the right people working for you together as a team (which is also critical), and then employing the cost control measurements you've talked about should give a business a great chance at success!!
Points 5 and 6, where you talk about standardization and taste being a myth, I have to partially disagree.
ReplyDeleteYes, general cooking principle are very important, and most important is teaching the kitchen staff how to follow the cooking principles and recipes with standardization, whether it be a chef or trainer or other staff members creating the original recipes for the first time.
But the quality of the recipes the staff follow are what brings in the different tastes, and this difference can definitely be appreciated by a customer, and can make the difference between a 30,000/day and 450,000 / day restaurant, even with the same number of seats; I go to somewhere like McDonald's when I want a particular standardized price/value
for my food, and a different type of restaurant when I want to sit down and enjoy another quality (also standardized) matched with a certain ambiance, flavour, and atmosphere.
Whatever standard I'm looking for, I like to know that the kitchen is capable of providing it at a consistent level, and at a consistent speed (which is usually not the case in Africa, for example, where you can wait 40 minutes for the simplest of requests).
Standardization does not beat taste any time: one of my favourite restaurants, also cheaper than going to almost any standardized menu restaurant in the same town (for lunch), has the chef creating different dishes out of local ingredients each day. You make a reservation (or show up) not knowing what will be available, only that there will be three courses to choose from (starter, main dish, and dessert), with a veg, meat, and fish option available for the main dish, all of them written in hand on a chalk board. The place is in a house converted into a restaurant, full of ambiance and charm. Waiters serve with a smile and personalized attention. Food comes out fast, but there is no rush to eat. You stay for an hour or so, enjoying one course after another over conversation with friends, and everything is portioned to ensure you don't eat too much, but are left satisfied yet still wanting to come back another time for more.( contd...)
(…contd…) The service is always of a great standard, the quality of the food is always a great standard, but it does depend on the chef, as the menu items are not standardized at all. The place makes a lot of money, with a high return on expenses. Sales and repeat business are based on quality and atmosphere, not quantity, which is a different model than yours. Both work in different ways, and should be recognized as such (and again, I think you are underplaying the value of your standardized recipes: if everyone made the same horrible standardized food everyday in India, even if they had the marketing power of McDonald's (which, coincidentally, takes on a different atmosphere there than in other countries), people would likely go to the next restaurant around the corner making tasty standardized food for the same price range. You are fortunate in your country to have good, affordable food whether in small restaurants, on trains, in school cafeterias, etc; this isn't the case in many other countries).
ReplyDeleteWhen opening a small restaurant, it's important to understand clearly before opening the doors, what type of restaurant you plan to run, who are your target clientele, and what do they need in terms of service and quality in order to keep coming back or spreading positive words. You figure that out, you get the right people working for you together as a team (which is also critical), and then employing the cost control measurements you've talked about should give a business a great chance at success!!
Brian
Great to disclose trade secrets
ReplyDelete