Three main types of restaurant dining services and their characteristics

¶ … services offered by restaurants for dining. The three main types of dine-out services are Fast Food, Buffet and Fine Dining. All the three would be segmented and analyzed discretely, with regard to their cuisine layout, public preferences and prices. It can be noticed how, the choice of either types define different preferences, lifestyles and tastes of people.

RESTAURANTS

In spite of the growing health consciousness, franchise chain and independent restaurants are both mushrooming nation wide, with a momentum never so conceited before. According to a survey published in the magazine, Entrepreneur, every week Americans consume 4.2 meals from restaurants; which amount to 218 meals per year (Lynn, 2003). The President of the Council of Independent Restaurants of America (CIRA), Don Luria points out that the rise in new restaurants, as recorded by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, is around 8,000 to 10,000 per annum. This growth is often contributed by chain restaurants and franchises. Analysts claim that by 2010 the restaurant industry will exceed 1 million units, with sales of $577 billion capturing 53 per cent of the food investments. Following is the classification of the types of services offered by restaurants.

FAST FOOD.

Fast food chains, despite being the major cause of obesity and general health issues, are ever thriving. According to Marcus and Millichap's latest retail research report, the transaction volume of fast food chains increased by 35%, while the total dollar volume rose to 45%, over the past year. To note a few examples, Starbucks and McDonald's are selling at a median price of $455 and $420 a square foot respectively. Today fast food menus are ever expanding their sales with greater affordability and diverse menus. These primarily include varying quantities of the principle fast foods: burgers, fries and cokes with low fat, vegetarian, non-vegetarian and meat options; also salads, ice creams, malts and shakes upgrade the meals in attractive and affordable deals. But this all as a hind side to it, as Liebman and Hurley point out in the Nutrition Action Health Letter:

Today, fast-food menus are crowed with large burgers, large fries, and large Cokes. And the U.S. is crowded with large people."

Most menus work like "calorie bombs" waiting to explode in the belly, causing rapid weight gain and deposits of saturated fat in the blood vessels. Although the fat can be avoided by opting for fish fillets, salads and grilled chicken sandwiches but sodium which is abundantly found in most fast food is unavoidable. Sodium salts if taken in excess can alter the blood pressure and cause a number of health problems.

Food and restaurant industries acknowledge obesity as a critically hiking problem in America and are convincing the federal and state governments to enact, "commonsense consumption" laws. However, there is a unanimously accepted opinion that the best way to curb this problem is through voluntary actions and consumer education.

Fine Dining

Fine dining an exuberant and sophisticated option is usually associated with rich and the famous. From treating a twosome as royalty, or four, or even aspiring to be accompanied by celebrities and super models fine dining is a score to bolt on by a very limited, highly urbane, refined and classy clients. Likewise the cuisine is a concoction of the finest platter carefully selected from all around the globe. The finest and best ingredients are picket for the items in the menu, often imported from the cuisine's place of origin. Islands and seaside restaurants enjoy the premium of providing freshest seafood and other entrepreneurs provide a wide variety of ethnic cuisines. Accordingly beverages: wines beers Champaign and lager are not compromised on any flaw in quality taste and authenticity. Executive and highly accomplished chefs supervise and sometimes create items for their clients. Therefore fine dining is rather a service that still preserves royalty or an aspiration of royalty among the highly privileged people in the world.

Reference:

Jacquelyn Lynn, Feb 2003, You Are What You Eat: A How-To For The Budding Restaurant, Entrepreneur, Pg 1.

Judith Potwara, July 2004, Breaking the chain: a declaration of independents against chain restaurants, Entrepreneur, pg 1.

Fast growing, fast food, August 1, 2005, Retail Traffic.

Jayne Hurley and Bonnie Liebman, March 2005, Fast food in '05, Nutrition Action Healthletter. Page 1.

Koe Edwards, July 20, 1987, Tropical tempest: island-themed restaurants thrive, drawing big crowds nationwide, Nation's Restaurant News.

Carolyn Walkup, March 1, 2004, Contemporary, fusion-style Indian eateries signal new Asian taste trend - News, Nation's Restaurant News.