Different Types Of Dining
Are you looking for the best type of dining before you can dine out? Restaurants are categorized by the types of dining they offer. If you are running or seeking to rebrand a restaurant or you are out with friends searching for perfect places to eat, then this article is for you.
Moreover, dining styles depend on location, the number of people and the general setting of a restaurant. This article highlights different types of dining and the services you should expect.
1. Family Style Dining
Family dining is the most unadorned but rarest styles in most restaurants. It is popular in traditional Chinese and Korean restaurants.
Family dining style develops ethical values, such as sharing, amongst the diners.
Eating together encourages good eating habits and table manners. The method is suitable for children below 13 years of age. As they serve themselves, they learn to consider others first.
How is it done?
In family dining, there is a central food storage container on the table, mostly serving dishes or large bowls from where the members at the table take turns to help themselves.
The Menu
Family dining, as the name suggests, features child-friendly menus. The meals are easy to consume without the need to use forks and knives. As a family restaurant owner, ensure that you have a balance diet combos on your family dining menu.
Adult meals are different from what is on the kids' menu.
Etiquette and Pricing
General table etiquette applies in family dining style. The style doesn't call for any dress code. Family dining meals are a sit-in; hence family dining restaurants have large tables for customers.
Grown-ups help the kids serve themselves and observe perfect table etiquette. You can have family style dining themes on weekends; this is the perfect time when customers treat their families to dinner.
2. Fast Casual Dining
Fast food services are famous for their to-go food, speed, and convenience. Fast-casual dining employs both the quick services from fast foods with a casual sit-down meal from fine dining.
One advantage of fast casual restaurants over fast food is that the food is fresh and not preassembled. Wouldn't you love a restaurant that serves fresh, quality food?
Menu
Fast casual diners consist of Pizza, Salads, vegan Sofritas, Italian sandwiches, burgers, chicken, and soft drinks.
Etiquette and Pricing
As the food is fresh and of high-quality, customers would not mind slightly higher prices than in fast food restaurants. The environment for fast casual dining, as the name suggests, is informal. Make sure your clients feel comfortable in whatever dress they come in on.
If your restaurant can afford low light booths for privacy, be sure to secure some regulars. Arrange your tables in a free form rather than a grid arrangement.
Fast casual dining is gaining popularity at an incredible rate. If you are starting a restaurant or rebranding, then a fast casual dining restaurant is something to consider.
3. Fine Dining
The white tablecloth restaurants provide fine dining services. It features high-quality meals and serves mainly upscales clientele. Fine dining restaurants are fancier and more exotic than regular eateries, cafes, and restaurants.
Menu
Fine dining features an official atmosphere. Its sumptuous menu offers exotic meals such as escargot (snails) and beef carpaccio (raw beef).
As a fine dining restaurant owner, ensure that you provide wine lists together with the sommeliers to aid in the wine-food pairing. You can also serve three-course meals with cocktails as an escort.
Etiquette and Pricing
Another essential characteristic of fine dining is the official dress code. Jeans is a big no for men. Men's dress code is a collared shirt and formal pants; a tie will go a long way but is not compulsory.
For women, a dress or skirt solves the hassle. However, dressing against the dress code will make you feel out of place; but no one will chase you away.
Fine dining is the most expensive style of dining. For customers, it is vital to decide on who is paying before settling on the menu; it reduces that "bill is on me" show when presented with the cheque.
4. Fast Food Dining
Which fast food restaurant comes to mind when someone mentions fast food dining? McDonalds? KFC? Fast food restaurants are on a steady rise each new day.
Fast food service provision is improving daily through innovations and new technology. Drive-throughs and online deliveries are some of the game-changing innovations in this sector.
Well, fast food dining serves customers food as they arrive. There is no particular sitting arrangement, and anyone can sit on any table. Fast foods, unlike fine dining, provides for takeaway services.
Compared to other types of dining, fast food dining is the cheapest and easy to manage.
A fast-food restaurant prepares food early in anticipation for the customers' arrival. McDonalds and KFC are some of the most successful fast food chain restaurants globally. Yours can be next on the list!
Lastly, fast food dining features self-service, and customers put their orders and wait to collect their food from the counter. Therefore, as a restaurant, employ enough staff to prevent long hectic queues. It is also advisable to have a separate waiting area to reduce crowding.
5. Buffet Dining
Buffet dining is a self -service mode of dining. It serves large crowds of people and is common in parties and meetings groups. Many restaurateurs praise its efficiency since it only requires a couple of waiters.
How is it done?
In a buffet dining, large pots, warmers, and bowls store a variety of food for the guests to help themselves. The arrangement of serving dishes varies from restaurant to restaurant. Caterers arrange the food according to either nutritional classes or from warm to cold with distinctive boundaries.
The guests pass around the buffet arrangement and serve themselves. You are free to pick whatever you wish to have.
The freedom in buffets calls for a severe etiquette level from guests.
The restaurant clearly labels all the food available. Labeling prevents unnecessary waste due to leftovers, and it also reduces the risk of allergic attacks.
Dress code and Pricing
Buffets do not have a specific dress code. Since buffets can fit in any setting; weddings, conference meetings to ordinary restaurant dining, customers have the freedom to dress to the occasion.
For restaurants, pricing buffet foods can be a daunting challenge. However, the easiest way of doing it is by setting a fixed price per meal. Second helpings are highly discouraged.
As evident from the dining styles above, your style of dining determines the type of your restaurant. For a consumer, it determines your dressing code and the amount you will spend. Different occasions call for different dining styles.