5.8: Types of Restaurants

Types of Restaurants

Fast food - Quick Service (QSR)

Fast food restaurants emphasize speed of service. Operations range from small-scale street vendors with food carts to multi-billion dollar corporations like Mc Donald's and Burger King. If table seating is available, ordering does not occur from the table but from a front counter. Diners typically then carry their own food from the counter to a table of their choosing, and afterward dispose of any waste from their trays. Drive-through and take-out service are generally also available. The accurate name for fast food restaurants in the restaurant industry is ‘QSRs’ or quick-service restaurants.

Fast casual

‘Fast casual’ restaurants are primarily chain restaurants, such as Chipotles Mexican Grill, and Panera Bread. More of the food is prepared at the restaurant than is the case at fast food chains. Fast casual restaurants usually do not offer full table service, but may offer non-disposable plates and cutlery. The quality of food and prices tend to be higher than those of a conventional fast food restaurant are but may be lower than casual dining.

Casual dining

A casual dining restaurant is a restaurant that serves moderately priced food in a casual atmosphere. Except for buffet-style restaurants, casual dining restaurants typically provide table service. Chain examples include TGI Friday's and Applebee's in the U.S. and Harvester in the U.K. Casual dining comprises a market segment between fast food establishments and fine dining restaurants. Casual dining restaurants often have a full bar with separate bar staff, a larger beer menu, and a limited wine menu. They are frequently, but not necessarily, part of a wider chain, particularly in the United States.

Theme Restaurants

Theme restaurants offer a dining experience that evokes special times, places, or events, such as English pubs, restaurants owned by sports celebrities, and re-creations of diners from the 1950's.

Ethnic Restaurants

Ethnic restaurants tie closely to the cultures or food ways from which they originated. They include Mexican, French, German, Thai, and Japanese, Chinese, or Indian restaurants to name a few.

Fine dining

Fine dining restaurants are full service restaurants with specific dedicated meal courses. Décor of such restaurants features higher-quality materials, with an eye towards the "atmosphere" desired by the restaurateur. The wait staff is usually has higher skill levels and often wear attire that is more formal. Fine-dining restaurants are usually small businesses and are generally single-location operations or have just a few locations. Food portions are visually appealing. Fine dining restaurants have certain rules of dining which visitors must follow often including a dress code.

Similarly, location is crucial to quick-service restaurants because their clients depend on convenient access. Nevertheless, for some fine dining and theme restaurants, location is less critical than to other types of concepts. As such, there are a many factors involved in a positioning scheme. Additional themes or attributes are comparable in terms of your operation and that of the competition and appear in Figure 5.11.

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Figure 5.11 Positioning Comparisons By Industry Attributes

Price vs. Quality	Food Quality vs. Atmosphere
Service Quality vs. Food Quality	Menu Diversity vs. Price Diversity
Price vs. Convenience	Good Consistency vs. Price Value
Take Home Convenience vs. Atmosphere	Cyclical Menu vs. Static Menu
Customized Catering Menu vs. Static Menu	Price Value vs. Food Quality

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The following establishments are subtypes of fast casual drinking restaurants or casual dining restaurants.

Each of these categories of foodservice concepts involves differences in menu, decor, mode of service, and price. However, not all of these factors are equally important within a given concept. Price is a critical factor in the success of quick service, family, and casual dining restaurants where customers are value conscious. However, price may not be as important in fine dining restaurants where customers expect to pay top dollar.

Brasserie or Bistro

A brasserie in the US has evolved from the original French idea to a type of restaurant serving moderately priced hearty meals - French-inspired "comfort foods"—in an unpretentious setting. Bistros in the US usually have more refined decor, fewer tables, finer foods and higher prices.

Buffet

Buffet restaurants offer patrons a selection of food at a fixed price. Food service occurs on trays around bars, from which customers with plates serve themselves. The selection can be modest or very extensive, with the more elaborate menus divided into categories such as salad, soup, appetizers, hot entrées, cold entrées, and dessert and fruit. Often the range of cuisine can be eclectic, while other restaurants focus on a specific type, such as home cooking, Chinese, Indian, or Swedish. The role of the waiter staff in this case relegates to removal of finished plates, and sometimes the ordering and refill of drinks.

Dress Code

Casual

Blue jeans and a T-shirt best describe the "casual uniform". With the popularity of 'spectator sports' in the late 20th century, a good deal of athletic gear has influenced casual wear. Clothing worn for manual labor also falls into casual wear although an exact determination of what is acceptable and what is not does not really exist.

Smart Casual

Personal judgment is required to interpret the ill-defined term smart casual based on its context, theme, people, location, weather and spirit. Many state that Smart casual is not an issue of inventory or classification but rather knowledge and good taste to understand the environment; Smart casual is the dress code most open to interpretation and the one least understood. Some suggest wearing fresher colors, lighter, softer materials, patterned, relaxed, thoughtful, less structured, clean and not confrontational apparel with fabrics like linen, cashmere, fine wool and cotton that launder easily. From a different perspective, an example of smart casual attire could include the use of: (a) a dress shirt, or a dress shirt with French cuffs and cufflinks (formal); (b) a herringbone or navy jacket (casual); (c) jeans (casual); and (d) dress/business shoes. The Smart casual scene assumes the position of ‘flexibility’.

An individual's personality and pleasure of clothing choice should define this dress code assuming that the attire is a multi-purpose outfit that is acceptable for formal occasions, dating, or casual gatherings. Typically, smart casual involves casual and formal clothing pieces mixed and matched. Thus, a smart casual outfit can include a mixture of jeans, blazers, sweaters, necktie, dress shirts, business shoes, or an appropriate pair of sports shoes.

Business Casual

There is no generally agreed definition of 'business casual'. One line of thinking about business casual states that it includes khaki pants, slacks and skirts, and as well as short-sleeved polo shirts and long-sleeved shirts, but excludes jeans, tennis shoes, tight or short skirts, t-shirts, and sweatshirts. To others, business casual consist of neutral colors more towards the dark shades of black, grey, navy, but can include white and off white, and the clothing should be pressed and have clean, crisp seams. Still, there are those who feel that business casual is a pair of chinos, a blazer and a good shirt with a collar but no tie.