Resource: Restaurant Associations Around the World

As a restaurant owner, you can never tell where you might find useful advice. Here are some resources provided by restaurant associations around the world:

Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association

sample article titles:
Top 20 factors for success in the restaurant business
Choosing an effective accounting or cost management software for your restaurant
Estimating the value or worth of your business
Controlling alcohol spillage and shrinkage

link: Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association

Restaurant & Catering Australia

sample article summaries:
March/April 2005 - SALE AWAY - A POS system is a valuable tool to keep orders charged, stock counted and customers satisfied

May/June 2005 - CALL TO ORDER - The must have accessory by the wait staff is electronic order pads but are these handheld units as functional as mounted terminals?

May/June 2005 - UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE - An Auckland restaurant has found that an out-of-date website can be very expensive.

link: Restaurant & Catering Australia’s Technology Update

related link: Restaurant.org’s list of international restaurant associations

Resource: Restaurant & Catering Australia’s Technology Update

This section of Australia’s Restaurant & Catering association web site offers free restaurant technology articles and a free 70 page technology roadmap report.

Report: Technology Roadmap for the Restaurant & Catering Industry:

Restaurant & Catering Australia has, with funding support from Ausindustry, has developed a TECHNOLOGY Roadmap for the restaurant and catering industry. This Roadmap has considered, through consultations throughout Australia, the needs of restaurateurs and caterers and has arrived at eleven recommendations as to the way forward to achieve greater take up of technology.

Sample Summaries of Articles:

March/April 2005 - SALE AWAY - A POS system is a valuable tool to keep orders charged, stock counted and customers satisfied

May/June 2005 - CALL TO ORDER - The must have accessory by the wait staff is electronic order pads but are these handheld units as functional as mounted terminals?

May/June 2005 - UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE - An Auckland restaurant has found that an out-of-date website can be very expensive.

link: Restaurant & Catering Australia’s Technology Update (scroll down for articles and report)

Web Site: Springwise - Food & Beverage ideas

excerpt:
“Springwise scans the globe for the most promising business ventures, ideas and concepts ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation. Ferociously tracking more than 400 global offline and online business resources, as well as taking to the streets of world cities, digital cameras at hand.”

link: Springwise - Food & Beverage ideas

sample posts:
Happy Healthy Meals
Dessert-only Restaurants
Indian Fast Food

Article: “You won’t need utensils to dig into Ethiopian food” (Jun.2006)

excerpt:
“In some restaurants, it’s OK to share a plate of food and eat with your fingers.

It’s the tradition you’ll experience when you go out for Ethiopian food, where meals are served on a communal platter and food is scooped up with bits of injera, a delicious, spongy flatbread.

Ethiopian food includes tastes and aromas we don’t typically encounter. But if you’re willing to venture out of your comfort zone and try something new, you’ll find some of the best-tasting and most healthful foods you’ll ever eat.”

source: “You won’t need utensils to dig into Ethiopian food” by Suzanne Havala Hobbs (Charlotte Observer,Jun.22,2006)

Related:
“First Time Eating…Ethiopian Food” (Food Virgin)

“Washington Is a Center for Ethiopian Cooking and Culture. Here’s How to Find the Area’s Best Ethiopian Restaurants” (The Washingtonian, 2002)

Ethiopian Cuisine (Senior Spin)

Article: “The waiting game” (June 2006)

excerpt:
"If there is one thing that Melbourne restaurateurs can agree on, it's that a good waiter is hard to find. And if a group as notoriously diverse and feisty as this is speaking with one voice, you know there is a problem.

Describing the current shortage of experienced waiters as anything from difficult to chronic, industry professionals cite wide-ranging reasons why so many of them can't find staff: a glut of restaurants; out-of-touch training institutions; low wages; lifestyle choices; lack of government support; even the work ethic of generation Y."

source: "The waiting game" by Michael Harden (The Age, Jun. 6, 2006)

WaiterBell Angle: More than ever, it is difficult to find, train, and keep good service workers. Due to turnover, you might find that you need to devote more time, energy, and money towards waitstaff training. This article covers the situation in Australia.

For restaurant customer service, the waitstaff is the critical piece of the puzzle. How does your restaurant proactively support your waitstaff?

Advice: Korean Food

Empowered dining can include knowledge of the general guidelines for eating a specific cuisine. This entry will focus on Korean food. We will focus on other cuisines in the future.

The links below will include information on eating, ordering, and restaurant etiquette with regards to Korean food. Please remember that these are only suggested guidelines.

Korean BBQ:
Guide to Korean Barbeque
Korean Barbeque Do's and Don'ts

General Korean Food Info:
Art of Eating Korean Food
Korean Menu (click on links for pictures and more info)
Korean Cuisine (Wiki)

If you have other links or resources to add to this, please let us know here or at our forums.

Happy Eating.

Article: “Japan’s Restaurant Giants are California Dreaming” (Mar.2004)

excerpt:
Global-Dining, with US operations based in West Hollywood, has been testing the waters for years with its restaurants in fashionable areas of Los Angeles. It has operated a Monsoon Cafe for several years on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, a beachside area featuring several blocks of bars and restaurants. Meanwhile, it has also operated a La Boheme Cafe in West Hollywood.

These earlier forays have not fared as well as hoped. Global-Dining has struggled to export its brand of quality service. "The service is very good in Japan. Over here, it's not. We want to bring a whole team effort concept over," says Nile Park, chief operating officer of Global-Dining Inc. USA.

In 2000, a restaurant reviewer at the Los Angeles Times newspaper criticized the "too attentive" service at La Boheme Cafe. "Someone wanted to pour more water into untouched water glasses every few minutes. Our wine was assiduously topped up in half-inch increments," the reviewer wrote. "And we must have been asked a dozen times how we liked the meal, or if everything was prepared to our liking." The restaurant's disappointing performance, the reviewer suggested, had more to do with overzealous service and its frequent changes in chefs.

source: "Japan's Restaurant Giants are California Dreaming" by Michael Thuresson (J@panInc, Mar.2004)

WaiterBell Angle: The article goes on to detail how these Japanese companies will deal with the service culture challenges in their U.S. expansion. Differences in restaurant culture can be effectively handled by being able to adapt to customer's expectation. WaiterBell helps your waitstaff adapt and provide the right amount of attention to the customer.

If the waitstaff is "too attentive", then customers can ask for more privacy and opt to use WaiterBell to signal for assistance. If the waitstaff provides the customers with too much space, then WaiterBell is used to alert the waitstaff. WaiterBell helps make communication between the customer and waitstaff easier.

Resource: International Tipping Etiquette

Empowered dining includes knowing the tipping etiquette for restaurants in other parts of the world. Below are articles and web sites to provide some guidance:

- BBC's International Tipping Etiquette
- Magellan's Worldwide Tipping Guide
- A few tips on handling gratuities worldwide (SFGate.com)
- Quinwell's International Rules of Tipping
- The Original Tipping Page
- Tipper! (Denton Software Group) - Free Palm program with tipping tools and guidelines.

Happy Eating.

Article: “Knives are out for the waiting game” (Apr.2006)

excerpt:
"TASMANIAN restaurants took a battering recently when Tourism Tasmania chairman Bob Annells slammed service at a five-star establishment in Hobart as "appalling".

While tourism operators and restaurant owners were quick to defend themselves, many backed his claim that service in Tasmania is often less than adequate and could be damaging the entire tourism industry.

…Noted Tasmanian food writer Roger McShane said better service was the sole responsibility of restaurant owners and managers — to train staff in the composition of the menu, the best dishes to order, products used in dishes and which wines to match.

"Poor service is the single most common factor in people not returning to a restaurant," he said."

source: "Knives are out for the waiting game" by Genevieve Read (The Mercury, Apr.23, 2006)

WaiterBell Angle: This article implies that restaurant customer service not only affects the restaurant's bottom line, but can affect the bottom line of a country. Similar to Tasmania, Singapore has also recently begun taking action to improve restaurant customer service fearing that it is affecting their tourism industry (click here).

We have created an "international" category in the right sidebar for those interested in information about restaurant customer service in other countries.

Article: “Senior dining rooms rival top restaurants” (Apr.2006)

excerpt:
"Forget that old image of retirement homes serving Jell-O and soup. Today's healthier and wealthier retirees demand better, even gourmet, food. There's a growing trend toward a new class of high-end retirement communitiesDinner serves a social function at these communities.

"They look forward to it all day,'' says Mary Quinlan, sales and marketing director for the Peninsula Regent, a 10-story retirement complex in San Mateo. "It's their primary source of nutrition, but it's also a time for socialization. It's a real form of entertainment.''

Joe Tanton, the director of dining services/executive chef for Los Gatos Meadows, just finished an afternoon wine tasting for residents. "It's a lot of their social life,'' he says. "We want to make sure their dining experience is as if they were going out to a fine restaurant and paying for it.''

"Your food service can make or break a community. Good-quality food is very important,'' says Sara Staton, director of resident services at Tryon Estates in Columbus, N.C. Like other upscale retirement communities, it constantly updates its food. As Staton talks, her chef is off training at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y."

source: "Senior dining rooms rival top restaurants" by Mark Whittington (Apr.19,2006)

WaiterBell Angle: Dining rooms in senior communities are another example of full-service restaurant style venues found in non-traditional settings. The WaiterBell system provides a service safety net for diners and waitstaff in any dining experience with full table service.

One more example of full table service in a non-traditional setting are railroad dining cars.

excerpt:
"The restaurant service provided by rail operator 'one” has been rated the best on the UK network in a new survey.

“We have worked consistently to deliver a high-quality, but good value service, always looking for ways to improve our standards. We have the best breakfast selection of any UK train operator, as well as offering excellent choices throughout the day, for lunch, afternoon tea and dinner,” he said."

source: "Number one nosh from 'one'" (Eastern Daily Press, Apr.13, 2006)