The Food & Beverage sector is India is constantly changing and evolving, and so are the restaurant trends. The Restaurant sector is so large in India that it accounts for 31% of the consumption basket in India. 2018 promises to be a year that brings about different food and restaurant trends. In a nutshell, we'll take restaurateurs through a journey of what's working for the food industry now. As per a report from NRAI, annual sales in the restaurant industry are $783 billion and annual food and beverage purchases are projected to be at $279 billion. We've seen it all, fine dining, casual dining, ice cream parlours, food trucks and cloud kitchen, sushi corners, food fests in 2017. Let's see what 2018 has in store for you.
RESTAURANT TRENDS
1. HOME COOKS & BAKERS
With technology-driven home delivery apps like swiggy, UberEats on the rise, this concent has been on a rise more than ever. Home cooks are basically people cooking in the comfort of their homes and delivering to the customer. This concept is more or less similar to a cloud kitchen, but in this concept, the home cook takes order directly from the customer and cooks everything himself or herself from their very own kitchen at home. The fixed costs of this idea is also much lower and people are appreciating this even more because of the idea that they don't have to invest alot and have their restaurant business constantly running. Hence, this idea is really being acknowledged by people in 2018.
2. REGIONAL CUISINE RESTAURANTS
According to Thomas Zacharias, executive chef and partner, The Bombay Canteen, this is the year for Regional Indian restaurants to come up. A lot more food from Kerela, Tamil Nadu, Kashmir will flood the Indian Restaurant Market. More and more restaurants will come up focusing on cuisines from North-East, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh. Yeti, in Gk-2 serves like the perfect example, a restaurant that has been serving authentic Himalayan cuisine for the longest time now. Another one would be Mahabelly in Saket presenting you with the delightful cuisine from Kerela.
3. QUICK SERVICE RESTAURANTS & MULTI-CUISINE RESTAURANTS
Diners are busier than ever, and food is so good that it takes so much time to prepare. So time, speed and convenience is going to matter more than ever and that is going to lead to quick-service restaurants facing cut-throat competition if that's even possible. The need for speed is going to rule more than ever. Multi-cuisine restaurants also have a higher potential of scaling up than speciality regional restaurants.
4. THEMED/EXPERIENCE BASED RESTAURANTS
With Social joining the bandwagon of creating the best themed restaurants in India, it has been an engine for thinking of the wildest concepts like school theme, amusement park theme, modern work space them. Recently Social opened it's new franchise in Pune (Phoenix Marketcity in Viman Nagar), where it has A tunnel-like entrance that is a transition from new Pune into the old market lanes of camps. It also has an off-beat trampoline work section. Lady Baga in CP is a beach-based cafe that let's you enjoy Goan vibes in New Delhi. There will be an outbreak of more and more such restaurants because now restaureurs have started focusing on experience as much as on the food they offer. Ambience, food presentation, and visually-satisfying meals are taking over the industry. There are restaurants also experimenting with providing board game options while customers wait for their delicious food to arrive.
FOOD TRENDS
Every year, we are hit with different food-trends that change the way we eat, it's vague enough that people are eating bubble waffles, chocolate momos and tandoori pancakes. Now we also have restaurants trying fusion cuisines, everything that makes them different from other restaurants in the industry and also attract customers, only through the vagueness of the menu they have curated. Majority of the population now is thinking about food more in terms of what keeps their waistline in check and what keeps their social media rollin'. Instagrammable and healthy food are two things that restaurants really need to focus on this year.
1. LIVING THE HEALTHY LIFE
People have come to the astounding realisation that everything they put in their stomach has a long-lasting impact on their bodies other than the short-term effect of tantilizing their taste buds. The need for healthy food and neuro-nutrition is on the rise. Neuro Nutrition is a concept that boasts of healthy eating as a way of life. With mental health issues being increasinly addressed, the right kind of eating will also gain preference over junk. Plant-based foods will flourish the market, with many restaurants and delivery chains offering an array of wheat & oat based products. Zucchini pasta and zoodles and other plant-based dishes are definitely taking over the market with health-conscious people on the rise. With more people dying of obesity than of starvation, this is a positive change we're expecting in the coming year. Salad Story and Pita-Pit are great examples of chains already practising this.
2. VEGAN-DOMINATION
For the love of the animal species, and for all those who have had the courage to leave dairy products and also those who haven't done it yet, 2018 looks like a promising year. You can finally give veganism a shot. There's a huge popiulation in India that has turned vegan and hence, if you want to harness this potential, more and more of restaureurs should opt for a vegan-based menu with dishes catering to everybody that is a hardcore vegan. A variant being plant-based sushis that are already a rage in the country. Tuna rolls are being alternated with tomatoes.
3. BECAUSE IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO EAT PANCAKES
Who doesn't like to eat pancakes, waffles, cheesy omlettes all day long? Changing preferences and craving breakfast dishes all day is making restaurants switch to providing breakfast options all day long. There are people craving waffles at 1 am at night and there are numerous options one can choose from while they take a drive around their house and look for waffles at this time of the night, very well knowing the fact that waffles are a breakfast menu dish. We are more than glad to meet the new dawn of all-day breakfast. Enjoy hot nutella pancakes at whenever 'oclock now when restaurants are finally serving to this noticeable shift in people's choices.
4. GO BACK TO YOUR ROOTS
Bio-hacking, farming, stopping food wastage just became a tad-bot more important. This year will witness people going all the way back to the roots and to grandma cooking. A lot of chefs are joining the bandwagon of old school recipes and heritage millets because of 1) food crisis has been intensifying and 2) people are looking for lifestyle changes. Millets like jowar and bajra will be used in cakes, cookies, muffins and crackers extensively this year. Fermentation will also take up a lot of space on the menus.
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
This industry like every other one has been hit by a wave of technological innovation. When customers are using apps to book tables, get food delivered, how can restaurant owners stay far behind. They need to get pile up everything together and sit in the same train if they have to win in this industry.
1. ONLINE TABLE BOOKING
Reserve a dining experience on-the-go? Why not? With so many new apps on the table facilitating booking your table on the click of a button, more and more Indian are preferring to reserve a table before heading to a new place to eat. Restaurants are more than willing to be placed and listed on such apps because they are evidently giving them more business. Just like easy food delivery with the help pf an app, digitalization and technology is also making complications like table reservations less time consuming and easier. So, we would recommend restaureurs to make use of this technology to engage existing and retain new customers.
2. POS SYSTEMS
POS Systems are restaurants management systems that a majority of restaurants are already making use of for the efficient and seamless functioning and management of their outlets. There are analytical tools out there that are enabling restaurants to utilize customer preferences, history and behaviour to send them personalized notifications and luring them into ordering from them. It's not a thing of the past when nothing used to rely on technology but word of mouth. Now discount codes, vouchers, schemes and coupons are sent through mobile-app notifications, e-mails and text messages to make sure restaurant customers are retained for as long as they want.
3. AUTOMATED MARKETING
There has been an upsurge in personalized discounts & offers depending on specific locations, demographics and demands for customer engagement and retention. Restaurants marketing campaigns are being tweaked according to local outlet and customer needs. Based on thier performances, restaurants are specially hiring softwares to determine where are their campaigns working and where are they getting a low response.
4. SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media has done nothing but help chefs to reach out to their followers, talk about their recipes, other cooking escapades and make business related announcements directly to people who would be frequently visiting their outlets. It has also helped restaurants create a buzz amongst the audience about their launches, newly curated menus, happening events among other things. This foothold on social media handles has been a source of great interaction and attraction worldwide for the F&B Industry.
The Restaurant and F&B Industry is ever-evolving and it's hard to keep up with the updates and trends if you want to keep your business alive. Magicpin as a platform is here to help you get through your whims and stresses about being in this business and come out with flying colours.
Everything Restaurant Owners Need To Know About GST.