Restaurant Recommendation Thread - Anyone for seconds?

Yes, I'll buy less often probably, but there could also be people who swap their weekly night out in a restaurant to a weekly take-away as belts tighten. That's more customers.

Not specific to the fish wife, because they made the decision that suited them. but in general, just because a business never opened at certain hours before, doesn't mean they can't change when circumstances change. There are options for food businesses to explore before closing, if they have the ability to try it before being defeated. Yes, it's a risk, if they want to take it and have the financial buffer to try things. There are a few things I can think of off the top of my head could be considered.

• Put up the prices again and see how the customers react
• Reduce portion sizes
• Reduce, extend or change the opening hours for staff efficiencies. You might have 1 shift doing prep in the mornings for example, and 1 shift coming on later to do the cooking and serving now. Reduce that to 1 shift a day only. One shift does the prep, opens for shorter hours and closes.
• Reduce the menu to reduce the stock overhead and storage. Drop equipment like fridges /freezers / fryers / toasters /peelers / ovens that use power and space if there are multiple.
• If you've got a large unit with floor space , add an entrance, split the space and rent that space out to another small business.
• Rent time or space in your kitchen out to another business while it's idle. Bakeries or doughnut shops run overnight usually, on the opposite times to chippers.
• Start a doughnut business yourself to use the space, and get someone else to sell them at a market
• Move to a smaller unit or change location to catch a different crowd.
• Change prep process. If you're buying ready-made or frozen, is it cheaper to do that prep yourself. Or the other way around, if you're prepping, is it cheaper to buy peeled spuds than pay people to run a peeling machine. Could you drop some prep completely, batter to order instead of blanching.
• Aim for a market, customers who are less cost sensitive. I dunno, might be people who want giant burgers, or maybe the late night crowd I mentioned before. Are builders making some money at the moment? They might go for a breakfast butty.
• Product differentiation. Is there any particular culture already on your staff who might have ideas to make your product stand out from the others, adding argentinian/polish/thai/aussie/indian influence.
• Add delivery.
• Look at waste. Buy fewer fish or chickens, and when you're sold out they're gone, instead buying more to meet all demand and binning excess. Create that perceived customer shortage , where people know things run out. When they get more eager about snagging that last fish, price is less important.

We've had inflation before here, we've have very tough recessions. Chippers can be long running successful businesses. Golden fry does that shortage thing with fish, they cross the fish off the list when it's done. KC's are expensive, but still massive q's. The kings of chipper adaptation there! They survived the 80's, floods in douglas, changing tastes. They did loads of those things over the 60+ years they've been around, I remember when they were only a few days a week, for a few hours. They change all the time, taking risks and adapting. Changing menu beyond the traditional chippy, changing hours, changing prices, adding IT, adding delivery.

It's a fairly short menu tbh. The dishes we ordered were beef strips, smokey sausage & some chicken thing. All came with rice, a small bowl of beans, chips & a bit of salad. I saw two people share the bbq for one meal which looked like it had a bit of everything.

Nice call on the mimosa with it too! 😋

@leahyl we went to Gabriel House today for brekkie - wow - thank you soo much for your post about it here... we are both from farming b'grounds... but been living in the city for years.. so it really reminded us of our fab childhoods.. we (our folks) both had hens, home grown veg, home made bread, dogs etc.. food & service wer fantastic.. the grounds are wonderful too and staff invite you to walk around and enjoy - the set up for the hens/ducks and fruit/veg is inspiring.. and in the heart of the city - just wonderful - a big solar panel system too.. loved the wholesome/earthy/environmentally friendly ethos.. I might add pics tomorrow..

In any event - I would highly recommend.. esp to people who are living in the city but originally from the country/farming backgrounds/who appreciate home grown/reared food.. delightful - what a treat..

And, full continental and hot breakfast of your choice for €12.50 - wow

Tis funny - we could see The Dean Hotel in the distance; GH more our cuppa for sure

yeah I was really amazed at the price..

i think our hot dishes wer bigger than yours?

gee the toasted sourdough with butter and pesto wer friggin delicious - my mouths watering at the thought of it - what a treat

we just had fruit for starters.. and homemade brown bread... yum... didn't touch the cakes etc... was more than satisfied with what I had

lots of tea for me and proper coffee x 2 for himself

part of me doesn't wanna tell people about it in case it gets too busy lol

fab setting too - I just adored it

Much prefer Parma ham to bacon for eggs Benedict, but I can’t get on with toast at all. The consistency is all wrong for it. The texture of the toast crust is just too harsh and just doesn’t work. It just fights against the dish, a problem you don’t have with toasted English muffins.

Went to BrewDog for the all you can eat wings on Wednesday. I actually like the venue and love how dog friendly they are. The wings were really awful, they weren't actually wings but processed meat shaped in to wing shape. Didn't realise that you could go wrong with wings but there you go. I managed to eat 2 maximum. The really young staff member waiting on us didn't pass any comment when we told him we couldn't eat them. Having said that, the table of young men next to us got second portions and ate the lot so I guess they have their market.

OMG thats so bad its almost funny

That's a pesky trick on the menu!

Seitan is processed gluten gloop, it's absolutely mank.

I find it hard to reconcile the meat substitute products in my brain. If you want something that looks and tastes like meat, it already exists locally in a natural form, without hyper-processing imported raw materials. If you want to avoid meat and be vegan, there are loads of natural foods to do that with.

Went to Moody at the bottom of Summer Hill on Saturday night - really nice! Tapas I thought were good value and the menu was extensive. Staff very friendly, great atmosphere there, place was packed inside and outside. The food was delicious! Bill came to 130e between 4 of us for a number of different tapas, bottle of red wine and glass of rosé. The pics just show a few of the dishes.

Tried a filo vegan mince pie in Coffee Scape on Pope's Quay.

Very tasty, I thought.

Coffee is really good if you enjoy a more old school Italian style rather than the more contemporary styles that seem to dominate now.

It's a Croatian couple running it. They're a very pleasant pair.

Homemade cakes seems to be their thing - fairly big selection. They serve sandwiches and these filo pies. Very good coffee and ice-cream, I think. Plenty of outdoor seats.

They seem to be feeling their way somewhat at the moment - perhaps they will offer more food options in the future.

Yeah, that space has hosted El Gaucho, Hardwood, Bierhalle, Charcoal Grill/Uncle Pete's, Thali, Mirch Massala.

(I think that's it, anyone have anything to add?)