I recently attended with my wife Agnes, a Thai Restaurant for dinner. This particular “Franchise chain” restaurant had received some favourable press (obviously paid for) so I thought we would check it out.
Fancy looking shop front, lots of people, big brand, big adverts, perception is it would be a good place right?
Wrong.
When I arrived we looked at the sign that said we were to wait to be seated, and I waited to be greeted. After a minute a young staffer asked me to take a seat pointing to one that we noticed was not wiped, and “sticky/ greasy”. As the staffer went away quick and pronto we decided to move to an adjacent less greasy table.
At that point, I noticed a general lack of cleanliness elsewhere in the restaurant. I was less than settled and had a grumble to my wife.
Guess I am spoilt with my regular Thai that I noticed the gap.
After what seemed like 5 minutes we were greeted and handed menus. Yet when we looked around there were plenty of staff on duty, 4 of them were congregated around one table watching one staffer trying to clean a table, not too well either, and giggling.
We ordered 5 minutes later, I asked for a soft drink and we ordered the food. It was a reasonable menu, good variety.
Agnes was served her entree, an oyster egg thingy that didn’t make sense at all. She said it tasted Ok. I didn’t get my entree till she was nearly finished hers. (That always annoys me). Then we noticed no Pepsi Max yet. How hard can it be to bring out a soft drink? (Ours took 20 minutes).
To cut to the chase, the food was pretty good. (Not great). Due to the poor first impressions it seemed slow, but I acknowledge it was probably there in ten to fifteen minutes; just the overall experience by now was not good.
Price, inexpensive given the brand perception, maybe half what I pay at my favourite Thai restaurant.
We finished the meals quickly as I wanted to leave.
I paid the bill with the young staffer who has not yet been trained in eye contact, warmth or how to make me feel like I even matter to this restaurant.
Q. Which is better value??? The more expensive one or the owner operated smaller one restaurant business.
The cheaper one is far more expensive.
Why?
At free, I would not go back to that place, ever. Too “production line”. No heart, no soul. A bunch of staffers that do not have the passion for the business like an owner will. I didn’t like the experience, didn’t love the food, and didn’t feel like I mattered. I felt like it was “fast food” Thai. I rather think they want to be taken serious as a restaurant, but sorry that didn’t happen to me.
I like to be treated well when dining out, like to feel like I am a valued customer.
By contrast, my favourite restaurant is a “one restaurant show”, owned and run by the owner, a highly credentialed and experienced operator.
But the difference is massive.
1. The owner greets you personally
2. You immediately get placed at a clean table
3. Water out to you instantly
4. The staff have what I call “hustle”
5. Food is outstanding
6. Your glass is never left empty more than a minute
7. If I arrive 5 minutes early before opening the owner opens and asks us to come in, he cares
8. We always get a special thank you at the end, sincere
9. Great ambiance, warm, clean
10. Even at twice the price, it is better value for basically the same food.
11. In short the smaller, hands on owner-operator outperforms the big franchise by 100 percent.
So it is in life. A passionate hands on owner operated business CAN compete and often does with the big boys, and in this tight market I feel there is a need and demand for personalised attentive service.
What do you think?