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Eating out at a restaurant is a treat for some and a daily expense for others. It is a great way to sample local delicacies and hospitality when in a foreign city. Whether eating out in a new city or your home town there are certain aspects of a restaurant which all need to be just right in order to satisfy a restaurant customer. Having high standards in one thing and not across the board is not good enough. An important area where a Restaurant differs to a Cafe is the customers expectations. It is more likely that a customer will give a Cafe another try if something wasn't just right on their last visit. The same is not normally said for restaurant customers. The menu is crucial to the success of a restaurant and I don't mean the physical thing that you browse through to decide what to eat. The menu is more than that. The menu is the heart of the restaurant. Within it is displayed all that the restaurant has to offer. It contains the creativity of the chef and the proprietor and can relay to a customer instantly that they have found what they were looking for. The menu needs to be interesting but also needs to cater to the clientele the restaurant is looking to attract. There is not much point in setting up an extravagant restaurant in an area that is not affluent or has little interest in foie gras. A menu is only so good as the kitchen behind it. The food has to be every bit as good as it is made to sound from the menu. If it isn't then it will be more difficult to make a good impression. Dissapointed customers will not be eager to tell their friends anything positive if they had a less than impressive meal. One small mistake however and be sure that word will spread. Price is crucial to the success of a restaurant. Both in terms of balancing the books and balancing the customers expectations. Price can turn away customers instantly if the prices are too steep but too low and they can fail to convey the impression of quality that the restaurant aspires to. The menu can be impressive and the food may deliver but if the service is not up to scratch it can leave a customer dissapointed with the experience and bring down the overall impression made by the restaurant. Impressions which will turn into opinions and be spread through word of mouth. Staff need to be attentive but not overbearing. They should be knowledgable about the menu and polite. The way the staff interact with customers can have a big impact on repeat custom. The Decor of the restaurant needs to reflect the type of food being served, the prices of the menu and in some cases the type of food being served. For a Thai restaurant it would be beneficial to create Thai themed surroundings as it would be suitable for a Hebrides restaurant to focus on promoting their ties to local produce from the sea. Where a restaurant is located can determine how easy or difficult its success will be. A lot of passing custom can help a restaurant develop a strong reputation if all of the above points have been taken care of. If the restaurant does not have a strong location which has the opportunity of benefitting from passing trade they will need to carry out some marketing in order to drum up interest. All of the above points need to be addressed and monitored constantly to give a restaurant the best possible chance to succeed. A truly successful restaurant constantly strives to maintain the standards that they set for themselves. Calum Macleod writes for Thai Orchid a Royal Mile Restaurant in Edinburgh
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