Give the customers what they want say struggling restaurants
Vegetarian restaurant Monster Kitchen and Bar will revert its menu to include meat ahead of the Christmas season.
The Canberra restaurant has made the move to satisfy its meat-eating customers, many of whom stay at the attached Ovolo Hotel.
"We're hoping to go basically back to what Monster used to be, which was a fine dining restaurant that was edgy and fun," Monster's executive chef David Wykes told The Canberra Times.
"Vegetarian worked well for a little while, and then it got to a point where we started losing people because of the vegetarianism.
"So we're not necessarily taking the vegetarian meals off, we're just putting protein back on. We're just trying to be more accessible to everyone involved, especially because we have a lot of corporate people and a lot of hotel guests who come in who want protein and that's where we were losing a bit of business."
Wykes said current tough conditions are forcing a lot of venues to respond to customers’ wants.
"We're changing a very core concept so whether or not it's received well or not is still to be seen," Wykes said.
"There will always be complaints. We know there will be people who are upset at the fact we're not strictly vegetarian anymore, but we're just hoping we just need to see how the market plays out because we don't really know.
"We don't know if we're going to be busy for the next two months or if we are going to be busy until halfway through December. We have no idea."
OpenTable table stats show 2025 could see a rebound for hospitality, with more than 58 per cent of
Australians planning to dine out more next year and 59 per cent saying they'll spend more on dining out next year.
OpenTable's Drew Bowering said, "Eating out is not just this functional thing, where I need to have some food today, so let's get our job done at a restaurant.
"People are actually treating restaurants for what restaurants want, which is life experience, not just the consumption of food. And that's why people are looking for these unique dining experiences as well. And that's why they're happy to be more because it's essentially entertainment."
OpenTable reported a 9% surge in experience bookings for 2024. Their consumer research indicates that 41% of Australians plan to prioritise experiential dining in 2025. Popular experiences include tasting menus (39%), special deals (32%), bottomless brunch (31%).
"Meals at local eateries are still the core dining experience that people want - supporting and eating locally is something actually that's been on the rise a lot over the last 12 months, anecdotally," Bowering told The Canberra Times.
"But when people do choose to go out for an experience ... they're like 'Let's look at this place and look at the options they have. Is there a chef's table? Is there a set menu?'
"And depending on what demographic you're talking about, this is where restaurants are very smart to play so keenly into how important social media is in dining these days as well.
"If you've got something that's an experience that, let's be frank, is more Instagrammable than just standard a la carte choice, then people are very drawn to that kind of thing."
With paper thin margins, restaurants are upping their experience game.
"What restaurants prefer to be able to do is to entice people, or attract people into the restaurants through the value that they add. So, it's more a case of come along and it's champagne on arrival, or come along this time, and then the loyalty bonus for returning. There's an email marketing element to that as well.
"That's where we see a lot of collabs as well. You get a lot of restaurants saying we've got this chef from this other restaurant from down the road or in another city or country, and they're coming in and cooking for a week."
Jonathan Jackson, 9th December 204
