Adelaide restaurants move toward set menus to combat cost of living crisis
Adelaide restaurants are making major changes to their menus to combat inflationary pressures.
With the cost-of-living crisis biting hard, restaurants in the city of churches are moving away from a la carte dining and toward set menus for small groups of diners.
Some restaurants are reducing the cut off for a la carte to tables of five or six.
Groups of six are now asked to commit to weekend set menus at popular McLaren Vale restaurant The Salopian Inn
“For us, it was due to significant pay hikes within 12 months – nearly 15 per cent, and all the fixed costs (going up),” chef/owner Karena Armstrong said. “If we have a table of seven and they only pay $40 per head, we’ve just lost a lot of money.
“I’m battling against the fact we are one-owner operated restaurant, we don’t have another restaurant to offset costs; we’re not part of a group.”
The Salopian Inn has a $75 and $90 adaptable “feed me” menu.
“If there’s a 90-year-old lady on the table who can’t eat that much food, they can have a piece of fish – it’s still hospitality,” Armstrong said.
Fugazzi and Shobosho, and Nido in Hyde Park have followed suit. Aldinga restaurant The Little Rickshaw sets its set menu for a group number to five, for all weekend tables.
The trend began during the pandemic, with Africola in the city setting the trend with an $85 fixed-price meal.
“For us it’s great, because we’ve got a locked-in number; locked-in price, but also we can offer the value … you get to try pretty much every dish, you’re going to be super fed and it’s super value for money,” owner Duncan Welgemoed said.
“There’s been no blowback, especially the way our menu is – it’s not like you come in and it’s so dogmatic that if you don’t like it, p*ss off. People can add extra dishes or take out dishes.”
Another reason for set pricing is the skills shortage.
Restaurant & Catering Industry Association CEO Suresh Manickam said, “Some of the people employed in restaurants (pre-pandemic) were overseas students, they were people working on 457 visas, they were backpackers. We haven’t had a return of those types of workers to take up the slack.
“That means restaurants are having to look at different ways of servicing customers and if they don’t have sufficient staff, they either have to set menus or reduce opening hours or sitting times.”
Jonathan Jackson, 12th June 2023
