Modern catering offers a wide choice not only of dishes, but also of different formats of restaurants. If your vocabulary contains only the words “canteen”, “cafe” and “bar”, it’s time to expand it! Let’s find out what is the difference between types of restaurants we are familiar with, and how unusual new concepts are gaining popularity.
Fast-casual
“Fast and democratic” explains the essence of this restaurant. In fact, this place is slightly higher level than fast food, but offers the same fast service level and a relatively small choice of dishes. At the same time fast-food restaurants can use products of high quality, for example, organic vegetables and fruits, self baked bread, etc. Prices in such places, of course, are higher. They often have an open kitchen so that visitors can see how the food is prepared. Fast-casual is a premium segment of fast food, which may replace it in the near future.
Pizzeria
This kind of restaurants has appeared a long time ago and still remains one of the favorite places in the whole world. Pizza, calzone, and, less often, other Mediterranean dishes (for example, cheese plates and pasta) are served there. Customers are served by waiters. As for prices, it all depends on the level of the pizzeria.
Trattoria
This is another Italian restaurant format, which is characterized by a simplified menu with a narrow selection of mostly homemade food. There is no special performances in serving dishes, but they are tasty and affordable. Trattoria is focused on a families who want to spend an evening in a very simple and cozy atmosphere.
Premium-class restaurants (fine dining)
Such restaurants are characterized by an excellent service, a rich elegant interior and same the dishes. It often includes all categories (main course, snacks, salads, desserts, drinks, etc.). Even if it is a chain of restaurants, each place has its own unique design. In addition, premium restaurants are characterized by:
· Polite and well-trained staff. Waiters know all items in the menu and the composition of the dishes, they can recommend something suitable for the guests.
· Dress code of the staff and guests.
· Most visitors of premium restaurants are regular guests. In this segment it is easier to keep loyal customers than to look for new ones.
· Romantic atmosphere.
· In such restaurants you can always listen to classical or live music, jazz and other calm genres.
· Reservations must be made in advance.
Canteen
One of the most budgetary types of restaurants. Canteen is the choice for lunch on weekdays. Usually canteens open near schools and universities. The choice of dishes here is not wide, but the menu can be changed every day. Inexpensive and fast: this is how you can characterize canteens.
Pub, bar, tavern
There are two distinctive features of such places: first, you have to pay immediately directly at the bar, and secondly, the attention is paid mostly on alcoholic beverages. In bars and similar establishments the staff is responsible only for cleaning the tables in the hall. Visitors find their own place and serve themselves. Often in the pubs sports events are broadcasted. It attracts crowds of visitors in the evenings and weekends. The choice of dishes is very limited, but almost always you can find booze you will like, besides the relatively low price compensates all inconveniences.
Fast food
Such fast food chains as McDonald’s and Burger King began to appear in the 1950s, and still stay on top of the popularity. This format of restaurants is easy to distinguish among others, it is characterized by:
· Speed, convenience and low prices. Prepack products are used, which are preheated or cooked in advance, as well as disposable dishes.
· Sometimes fast food is sold in kiosks for take-away. Sometimes it is situated inside the mall where people can sit down and eat. The format of food courts in shopping centers is actively developing.
· Simple furniture is used — tables and chairs. It is interesting to note that the accessories are especially uncomfortable, so that visitors spend less time in the restaurant. This increases flow of visitors.
· Loud music.
· The design is performed in bright colors, predominantly yellow and red (which evoke the appetite).
Buffet Restaurant
It turns out that the concept of buffets has existed since the Middle Ages, and today it is more or less developed in every country. The buffet is a restaurant where guests serve themselves and take their meals from a large serving table. The cost is charged for the weight of food, which is paid at the checkout. An excellent example is the world-wide chain Sbarro.
Snack Bar
In fact, a snack bar is a small bar where guests can take something to eat (sandwiches, salads, French fries, hot dogs and drinks). It’s fast and cheap. Snack bars can be located anywhere: in the middle of a busy street, on the beach, in universities, shopping centers, etc.
Cafes and Coffee Shops
These two formats have one thing in common: they serve coffee and tea, as well as sweets. But some cafes are places close to a classic restaurant (for example Coffeeshop, Almond, Chocolate Girl), where waiters serve the guests, and there is a fairly wide choice of dishes. The coffee house is a small place that can hold up to 20–40 people at a time and offers coffee drinks and a small assortment of snacks and desserts (examples: Starbucks, Coffee House, Blueberry). Of course, visitors make an order at the checkout and serve themselves.
Food-track
This type of restaurant is most common in the US, on the roads of every big city you can find similar cars. In vans you can buy ice cream, hot dogs, burgers and other simple dishes. It’s cheap and fast, but, of course, you need to be sure that it is safe to eat there. As you can see, a modern consumer can easily choose a place to spend an evening there. This is not a complete list of different types of places to eat, and in the near future restaurateurs promise to surprise us with revolutionary new formats.
No matter which place you choose, they all want to develop and impliment new technologies. Visitors are becoming more demanding and restaurateurs need to adjust to their wishes. The more loyal the restaurant is to the guest, the more likely it will gain popularity. Today, restaurants try to attract visitors directly from the screen of smartphones. There are hundreds of services to attract customers, but the more of them exist, the more difficult it is to understand them. The eWaiter service team decide to solve this problem and provide the visitors and the restaurant an application that solves many problems and makes visiting of the restaurant as comfortable as possible, and at the same time bonus system allows receiving pleasant bonuses. More information about the eWaiter project you can find at ewaiter.io
