Introducing a new menu

[Freelancer015]

I work for an upscale fine dining restaurant that recently introduced an entirely new menu, after bringing in a new chef. The menu is more creative than before, more seasonally focused, and the new chef prepares everything fresh from scratch and spends a lot of time working with purveyors to source quality ingredients (unlike the former chef who took a lot of shortcuts). I also should add that our average price per cover has stayed the same.

What perplexes me is that while most of our diners have seemed pleased and excited about the new menu, others have been very vocal about how they miss the old menu and have even posted unkind reviews about the restaurant on certain online forums.

This is usually a slow time of year anyway, but business has definitely been slower than usual over the past few weeks. I'm guessing it will just take some time for the new stuff to "catch on"... but are there other things we should be doing to help ease the transition?

I'm curious to know if others have had similar experiences... any advice is much appreciated!

[Synergy]

I have many similar problems at our restaurant. Some people are just resistant to change. Even if the new menu is better, they will miss what they used to have. This is probably a bigger problem with regulars who have become accustomed to their routine.

You can never please everyone, no matter how hard you try.

[pennylane]

Well, I am still smarting from the disappearance of my favourite dish at my favourite restaurant, so my sympathies may lie more with the diners at the moment. I think it's only natural that they should miss their old favourites. But perhaps it is only a matter of time before they discover new ones which they like just as much or more. I don't know what kind of a menu you have but maybe you could find ways to encourage people to try more of the new stuff?

[DTBarton]

Perhaps during the transition you could offer one or two of the items from the old menu as specials.

[jackal10]

Its more complex than that.

Surprisingly for this forum, most people don't go to a restaurant, especially an "upscale fine dining" restaurant for the food. They go because its the best in town and they want to show off. They go for a celebration, or to take the boss out, or to discuss their engagement or divorce. Most don't have your palate or culinary experience. I bet not even 1% could tell between say fresh house prepared stock and demi glaze and Maggi packet, or between say fresh and frozen fish in a finished dish. Only a tiny proportion, maybe 10% actually go for the food, and those are not, in the main, big spenders, compared to someone impressing their girlfriend or their boss.

If you are aiming for the culinary heights and building a trade from food lovers, that is a long and difficult haul - maybe 5 years to get into the guides and stars, and then fickle as a few poor meals or rouge service kills your hard earned reputation. Even then you will never please the couple discussing their upcoming divorce.

Providing the food doesn't poison them, and looks nice, it may be better to stay with the familiar. Most feel comfortable with steak followed by something with chocolate, so give them it, and save your energy and fresh foods for perhaps a small gourmet daily menu for those who truly appreciate it.

That way you can maybe educate the palate of your regulars.

Edited March 1, 2008 by jackal10 (log)

[Jakea222]

Great topic - I work at a country club that these members don't read the menu much - they ask for specials and daily specials and still order the same old same old - we shook a few things up the last time but put a couple of new things that we knew were going to draw eyes and it worked, yes we still got complaints from the people that came in once in a blue moon, but the new stuff, well 2 things are not doing well, but the others, we added a sandwich that has just swamped us with trying to keep up with ordering the stocks to do it -

[Sabrosita]

We change our menu reasonably often and get a fair amount of people threating to storm out and throw a hissy fit. Here are the ways we deal, since a lot of our client base is regulars who come in daily/weekly:

1) If we have all the stuff in house, we will make it for them the first few times they come in and mention it--they usually lose interest within a month, especially if they come with a group and everyone gets annoyed with them begging for special treatment.

2) We offer to get them the recipe. We scale it down and hope they like it and that we have salvaged a relationship with the customer

3) Comp them a meal of something similar. Often they start to like the new version better.

[eipi10]

I wouldn't be as cynical as others. If you look at a non-foodie review site like Yelp, sure, many people don't really care that much about the food, but most clearly do. It isn't surprising that when you change menus you lose customers initially. Your return customers prior to the menu change evidently liked the old menu. Some proportion of them will not like the new menu, and you lose their business. It takes longer for word to circulate about the merits of the new menu. Thus, initially you lose business.

Edited April 21, 2008 by eipi10 (log)