It never ceases to amaze me why some restauranters never seem to get it.  They appear to believe that once they open their doors and print their menus, prosperity will auttomatically follow,  or so they believe.  They don’t ask clients what they want, what they would like or prefer.  They stand back in wonder at how others are doing so much better than they are, but never ask why.

Here in Andalucia, where we run Dinner4two members club we sometimes  get a restaurant owner say, “We haven’t had a customer.”   When we ask them if they plan to make a special offer or have a special menu the usual reply is “No.”

How is it possible that these owners of restaurants don’t think outside their front door?  It totally defeats my imagination that someone can spend a large amount of money in furnishing and stocking a restaurant, then some time marketing and promoting themselves, and wonder why they haven’t enjoyed the level of success that others are enjoying.

If one takes the other side of the coin, many restaurants enjoy a comfortable level of success by providing what people eating out crave: such as the basics of good, well-cooked food, good presentation, a nice wine and a pleasant ambience.   On top of this they will change their menu and perhaps announce a specialty that they intend to offer on a particular evening.  El Salmon in Torre del Mar announced the they intended to have a ‘mussels evening’ ( I mistakenly thought it might be a male stripper evening until I noticed the spelling.)  They announced it to their customers, they told us about it and we were able to send text messages to all of our members so that they had a very good number of people turn out for their special event.  Well done to them.   Contrast this behaviour with the restaurant that should remain nameless, that had no plans, no special menu, no special event and no imagination.  I know which restaurant I would want to visit.

I do believe that we who enjoy eating out on a regular basis should make our voices heard and let a restaurant know what we would like and what we expect, but the way in which we do it will vary according to our style.

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