One-dish wonder restaurants have remained popular among those looking for new and authentic dishes to satisfy their palates. The trend gained momentum a decade ago, although restaurants have focused on specialties ever since restaurants realized they could gain a following based on their favorites.. You can see this in the Hawker centers in Singapore and the traditional pizza parlors in Italy.
With the success of concepts that offers one-dish wonders like burgers and lobsters, food entrepreneurs are encouraged to ditch wide menus and adopt a niche concept focusing on a central dish or ingredient.
But is this trend for everyone, and how do you sustain such a concept? This post explores the benefits and risks of one-dish wonder restaurants and how you can successfully start one.
Benefits and Risks of One-Dish Wonder Restaurants
Starting a food business is never for the faint of heart. Various factors determine whether your restaurant makes it through the first year.
A niche restaurant is just as challenging as a full-menu diner, and there are certain advantages and disadvantages to starting one.
Benefits
There are several advantages to a single-dish restaurant, such as:
- Improved menu efficiency and increased productivity
Studies have shown that consumers fail to make choices when given too many options.With only one or two dishes on the menu, customers won’t have difficulty choosing which items to order, and the kitchen will be more efficient in preparing their orders. With a simple menu, they can quickly decide what to order, reducing the time it takes to serve them and increasing table turnovers.
When estimating food costs for a one-dish restaurant, you only need to consider a few ingredients and you can quickly make any price adjustments for inflation. Training your staff is also easier since they only need to know a few essential dishes, creating mastery among the front and backend staff.
- Lesser wastage and higher cost efficiency
With fewer ingredients, you can make accurate predictions when stock runs out. You can quickly determine a dish’s popularity and stock up on raw materials, especially during peak hours. Updating your inventory management system to track stock movements seamlessly would also be easier.
You can also maximize the use of kitchen equipment, making investments in top-notch brands worth it. Overall, a single-dish menu is more cost-efficient than a store serving multiple dishes.
- Product mastery and authenticity
By focusing on only a handful of products, you’ll develop the mastery required to make them stand out. Instead of serving several lackluster dishes, you have a one-dish wonder that has a great chance of delighting customers every time. You can also devote more resources to creating authentic dishes that stay true to their roots.
This laser-sharp focus is instrumental in catapulting your brand to heightened popularity as customers are attracted to novelty and become loyal to authenticity.
Xiao Lu Yang, the founder of Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice in China, narrowed the family restaurant’s menu to one popular item – braised chicken with rice. He used it to launch his global food chain which now has 6,000 locations globally. It continues to serve a single dish.
Risks
While there are many benefits, there are also certain risks to starting this kind of business.
- Boredom due to lack of variety
One of the most common arguments against single-dish restaurants is the lack of variety that leads to boredom, both for the customer and the chefs preparing the food. Critics even argue that chefs could have a harder time progressing in their careers if they are forced to master only a specific type of dish.
Restaurateurs can address this concern by offering seasonal specials that still remain true to the core concept but introduce something fresh for diners and challenge the skill of their chefs. They can also offer dish variations in the form of different sauces, toppings, and sides that make the experience different each time.
PBJ.LA in Los Angeles, California serves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but mixes and matches it with different spreads that are naturally-sourced and made from scratch. There are also weekly specials for regulars to look forward to.
- Intense competition
The restaurant scene is already highly competitive as it is. Dedicating your entire concept to a single dish or ingredient puts all your eggs on one basket increasing the risks and competition, especially if it’s a concept that can easily be copied.
Customers may not dine as frequently at your outlet if they aren’t looking for your one-dish offering. It can also be difficult to dine out as a group if everyone wants something different.
The only way to address this challenge is to master your dishes such that customers can’t resist going back to and recommending it to their peers.
- No room for compromise
Restaurants that offer a wide menu variety can get away with an out of stock dish due to unavailable or seasonal ingredients. Can you imagine if Eggslut somehow ran out of cage-free eggs – the primary ingredient for 90% of their menu? Imagine the lost sales!
When you open a single-dish restaurant, you must perfect everything – from menu preparation and inventory management, to purchase requisition and everything else in between. There’s no room for error. A single misstep, such as using the wrong ingredient, running out of an essential item, or forgetting to order eggs, can lead to catastrophic results.
Getting Started: Building Your Dream One-Dish Restaurant
Starting a one-dish restaurant is the same as starting any kind of restaurant. You need to develop a unique concept that you are passionate about.
You can also check out trends and ride on them. But this can be tricky, as some trends fade quickly and don’t become a sustainable business. (We’re looking at you, rainbow cakes and the activated charcoal trend.)
However, there are success factors that make any restaurant — single-dish or not— flourish.
1. Commit to Stellar Food and Service Quality
All businesses are dependent on the quality of their products and services. For single-dish restaurants, a high-quality dish is the bare minimum for success. As we’ve just said, you need to master your craft to beat the competition.
Yo! Sushi in London, which offers fresh sushi and Japanese comfort food, sources their ingredients from Japanese suppliers to stay true to their roots. They use the number one Japanese brand for soy sauce and get the miso straight from Japan.
When you specialize in one particular dish, you can’t cut corners. Staying true to your brand promise should be your top commitment.
2. Choose The Right Location
Single-dish restaurants flourish because they are located in densely-populated urban areas, where diners can choose from different concepts to satisfy their cravings. They may not work in rural areas, where dining out is perceived as a way for everyone in the family to get what they want.
When well-located, single-dish restaurants avoid the boredom and menu fatigue their customers may experience. Patrons can try different dishes from various establishments throughout the week maintaining their excitement for your restaurant’s specialty.
3. Create a Distinctive Ambience
One thing to keep customers coming back is to invest in a distinctive dining experience and Instagram-worthy food presentations. Dining at a one-dish wonder restaurant should be a cohesive experience that delights all senses. You are not just creating a dish to delight the palate, you’re also creating the ambiance to enjoy it.
Ichiran in New York became a global sensation by focusing on creating authentic and delicious Tonkotsu ramen – and improving the overall experience that comes with enjoying a big bowl of this warm comfort food. When you visit an outlet, every aspect of the service has been carefully planned – from the ramen focused booths, to the Kae-Dama ordering system.
4. Invest in the Right Tech Solutions
Having the right tech solutions is a non-negotiable for any thriving business today. A cloud-based restaurant POS system streamlines menu ordering and improves kitchen efficiency. A delivery management app consolidates online orders and helps your staff stay on top of deliveries. An inventory management app alerts you of critical low stock items.
For Plaza Dimsum, a Panamanian restaurant specializing in freshly-made dimsums available all-day, working with Sapaad POS has allowed them to grow their business despite the challenges of the pandemic lockdowns. Sapaad’s Online Ordering and Delivery Management feature helped them streamline online orders and deliveries resulting in more satisfied customers, lesser errors, and higher sales.
5. Keep Innovating
Just because you’ve decided on a narrow menu that customers have grown to love doesn’t mean you should stop innovating. Some restaurants like Le Relais de Venise in Paris, which has only served steak and fries for 60 years, can get away with it. For many others, it’s much more likely a path of constant innovation that helps them find that winning recipe.
The Avocado Show in Amsterdam didn’t stop at being just a restaurant offering dishes with avocado as a central ingredient. The founders went on to publish a cookbook, launch an online store, designed avocado-themed merchandise, and created an AR hologram app. Innovation can come from all angles. It can be a new take to your core dish or a venture to an entirely different – but related – direction.
Are Single-Dish Restaurants The Future?
When single-dish restaurants gained popularity in the early 2010s, everyone was asking if the trend was here to stay. More than a decade later, some concepts closed or morphed to something else, but there were a lot that went on to become global sensations.
With the decline of casual dining chains, aspiring food entrepreneurs are on the right track in coming up with single-dish concepts that appeal to the younger generation. But only time will tell if they continue to be a sustainable model or soon fade as a fad.
What’s important is that entrepreneurs don’t lose sight of the critical components of operating a successful food business. Commitment to quality, a desire to delight customers, and the right mix of essential tools will catapult your business to success.