Food. It's one of the thing (or topic) that all of us are talking and searching all the times.
Which hotel has the best buffet? Where are the place with 1-for-1 promotion? Where can I find bakery selling traditional cakes? How was the food at the 3-star Michelin restaurant?
And so I decided to give it a try one of these days.
As usual, sometimes when a place gets featured on the papers, it could mean troops of eager foodies descending at the restaurant.
To avoid even the slightest possibility of queueing up hours for a meal, I chose to go at 3pm on one of the weekday. And I was a little too late. The restaurant is closed between 3pm to 6pm. So I took a peep into the place.
The place was located on a shop unit below a flat. It's small with six to seven tables. The lights were turned off except for the open kitchen where a guy was preparing what looked like pizza crust. Outside the restaurant, there's a wooden menu stand with a two-page beige colored menu.
I looked through the menu and it's the usual things. Pasta, pizza, soups, mains, drinks and desserts. Nothing special that I can tell from the menu.
Yesterday, I went back again with my cousin.
The metal shuttle was halfway down covering the door. Looked in through the window and saw four persons. One was preparing the tables. This time, I'm too early. Another ten minutes before 6pm. So I took a look at the menu again when I saw the price for two buffalo wings is $12.
Wow! I was at a western restaurant in a shopping mall at Orchard Road last Saturday. They are selling 6 buffalo wings for only $15.80. I'm thinking this restaurant's buffalo wings must be damn good to command such a price. But there's no way of knowing until I order it. There's no description on the menu except the words "Buffalo Wings."
Prices of other items are rather expensive given their location and ambience. A dinner here with soup, starter, main, dessert and coffee can easily sets one back by $50.
Now we're thinking whether should we try this restaurant or go somewhere else. Since we were already there, we decided to adopt a wait and see approach.
We went around the estate before sitting down at a food court diagonally from the restaurant. From there, we could see if there's any customers going into the restaurant, how many and is there a queue to gauge if the restaurant is good.
After all, if this restaurant is doing a good business with the pricing at this less than ideal location, you can safely assume people go for the food.
Of course, this is a biased judgement. Places that are crowded do not mean the food is good. Likewise, few customers do not mean the food is bad. Pricing, location, ambience and the experience of dining at a place play a part. And different days can have an impact on how crowded a place is.
But that's the way most of us make decisions. We always find reasons to support our decisions.
I guess I needed a reason to pay $12 for two buffalo wings.
Just then, I noticed there's a stall in the food court selling chicken rice. It looked like a famous stall that has been in business for many years. There was a long queue too.
In the end, we settled our dinner at the food court, eating chicken rice.
You may say there's no way you can compare a western restaurant with a food court stall. But in many of our decision making process, we do not just compare apple to apple. We compare apple to orange to grape to coffee to a piece of cake. Many things can also affect our decision. The service, your real reason, your fear, your anticipation, the way you are treated, your past experiences and many more.
A young man on a first date with a girl will probably stick to his decision to dine at the western restaurant. But if the girl doesn't want to be seen as extravagant, she may sway his decision to dine at the food court instead.
If a customer cannot find a reason to convince himself or herself to choose you, they will just walk away even if they are already at your doorstep.
If you are the owner, what will you do to make me feel it's a MUST to eat at your restaurant? Share your comments below.