Last night we went out as a family to a Brazilian "Radizio" restaurant which is basically a barbecue feast of various meats. The experience was great, but in hindsight reflecting on what we ate it was really no different from what we can eat at home.
As a restaurant you have to stand out for all the right reasons if you are offering the same food as your competitors. If you are just the same then there is no reason for customers to support you.
In South Africa we are a meat eating culture that loves to braai or barbecue as it is more commonly known and an average barbecue will consist of many meats. I know in the UK when we had friends over they were amazed that we were not cooking burgers and sausages and that we had a selection of meats. A basic family barbecue would include steak, chicken and possibly one or two other meats and this is just the normal.
last night we had 4 various meats with many different cuts and on reflection what was served was not going to make me return anytime soon. This is not anew experience and why this niche type restaurant will not last and definitely has a set time period before it has no appeal left. Anything new will start off strong as people like to try all things new and this will slowly decrease as demand dries up.
Apparently there was two of these restaurants and this is the last one left as that second one has already closed down. The niche is not really a niche and whoever thought this was a good business idea doe snot know the local culture. The food has to be very different in order to make it and the food here is too similar to what we cook ourselves on a regular basis.
I noticed a few weeks ago we have a local charcoal chicken restaurant opening up and I am curious to see what they will be offering. Charcoal is again no different from barbecuing or braaiing using fire instead of gas. Obviously out of curiosity I have my concerns as I do not feel there is a market for this unless the food on offer is very different. What may sound like a great business idea can quickly turn sour and I do not think this has been thought through. Again most people I know cook on gas and they cook on coals as they offer such different flavors.
The food we experienced last night was all SQ which is normally on menu's for selective items and stands for subject to quotation depending on market prices. When the children's menu is SQ that to me is over kill and looking at the reasons for this allows the restaurant to over charge. Families who have a monthly entertainment budget would not be visiting this restaurant and limits their customer base. Again it was nice to experience this as a once off, but this is not a restaurant that you would be returning too and I would be a target client. Unfortunately I would give them maybe 12 months or possibly less before they close down and disappear as another good idea becomes an obvious bad idea.