The Dining Experience

How do restaurants can satisfy their guests one after the other and other are left to close their doors after few months of operations? Restaurants have played an essential role in our lives since the first restaurant of the opened at the corner of Rue Bailleul & Rue Jean-Tison (Now rue du Louvre) in Paris in 1765. It was founded by a Mr Boulanger. Yet his forename remain unknown. Mr Boulanger was a revolutionary. Caterer and Baker he was the first one to allow customers to eat directly on the spot the delicious food he was preparing.

251 years later, how do we explain that the restaurant industry has evolved to what it is nowadays? We will try to explain why here.

As in any business venture the restaurant to be successful must respond to some customer’s needs:

The above model of recipe for success for any business but with a special attention to the Customer’s needs. Those needs can be translated into a whole range of emotions & stimulations that are expected to be “Aroused” as they can be subdivided in 4 different categories:

THE PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS

This one is the primarily need, Just as Sex, warming up and Drinking, eating is a need to feed and satisfy our hunger.

THE SOCIAL NEEDS

Are based generally on the groups we belong such as work, association we belong to, circle of friends, neighborhoods, etc…where we look to improve our standing in the society throughout those groups.

The status we hold in those social groups, plays a vital role in the restaurants we will choose as they will allow us to maintain the standing. The habits of the North American consumer can be tricky sometimes as they can deviate from that general pattern by under-dining where they only look to satisfy their primarily needs or over-dining in order to increase, shall it be only temporarily their status in society (Its called vanity). Both habits of consumption can be dangerous for the establishments they give their business to.

THE INTELLECTUAL NEEDS

Those are the needs for the intellectual stimulation through your dining experience such as entertainment (comedy, music, visual arts, literature, sport events, gambling etc…). The desire for restauranteur to respond to this consumer’s needs is mostly responsible for the ever growing theme restaurants and venues.

THE SENSORIAL NEEDS

This is the most complex one to fill and mostly responsible for the WOW! Factor in a dining experience. a restaurant is not only to stimulate the tastebuds to create that wow factor, nowadays consumers require all of their senses to be filled by :

• Flavor of the food 

• Aroma of the food 

• Texture of the food 

• Presentation of the dish 

• Sometimes the sound of the Food.

The experience a guest will have in our restaurants is depending on the fulfillment of our needs that can be translated those factors.  The restauranteur is normally responsible for all those factors even the company when the guest shall show up by himself. Even if the main reason why restauranteurs are what they are, is normally that they love to cook and they love the food, this is not the main reason to make a restaurant successful.  Here are the different criteria and see how they matter to the restaurant consumer and be taken into consideration at the moment of opening a restaurant :

     • the lighting 

     • the decor, 

     • the temperature of the room, 

     • the scent of the whole restaurant, 

     • the seat’s comfort 

     • size of table 

     • the ambience of the music 

     • The cleanliness

The SERVICE is the main reason, controlled directly by the restauranteur for people to likely return to an establishment and to have an awesome dining experience and will directly responsible of the “Other Guests Factor”. Nevertheless it is believed none of them shall be neglected as they all contribute to the WOW FACTOR of a Great DINING EXPERIENCE.

Consulting based on the DINING EXPERIENCE available to restauranteurs and Hoteliers.

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(1)(2) Lenai Mossberg, University of Gothenburg, December 2004, The dining Experience