VietNamNet Bridge – Restaurants clearly can bring fat profits to the investors. However, the restaurants need to be managed in a professional way. The model of “food court” is now dominating.

Restaurants compete with good chefs…

At Tao restaurant, the chef is from Hong Kong, while the manager is a Chinese and 60 percent of the workers here are also Chinese.

Truong Ngoc Anh, the owner of the chain, said the restaurant serves Chinese food in Hong Kong style; therefore, it would be better to have a chef from Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the Chinese manager and Chinese workers would not only help differentiate the restaurant with others, but also can communicate directly with the chef and cooks.

“This would be a special feature of Tao restaurant that customers would find out when enjoying the dishes at Tao,” Anh said, explaining that only Chinese can take notes and report exactly the orders from customers and convey the orders to the cooks.

“A minor mistake of the waiters would be enough to lead to big problems,” Anh said, explaining why she was very choosy when selecting workers for the restaurant.

Khoai restaurant serves Nha Trang-styled dishes. Therefore, the cooks and the managers of Khoai are all from Nha Trang.

“Only the professional cooks from Nha Trang can process “really Nha Trang” dishes that can satisfy the connoisseurs in HCM City,” said Ngoc Diep, the owner.

Also according to Diep, the restaurant serves more than 100 Nha Trang’s specialty dishes, and mostly uses the materials brought from Nha Trang in cooking.

Meanwhile, the restaurant 48, though situated on the disadvantageous position, still has been succeeding thanks to the professional services. Especially, the restaurant has been well known for its chef, Ly Anh Tu, who once worked as a chef for a five star hotel.

The 100 dishes served at the restaurants have been described by customers exactly the Italian or French ones, while the prices are just equal to 50 percent.

… and advantageous premises

While the real estate market remains frozen, but one of its market segment – the retail premises – always remains very hot. Investors have been hunting for the premises in the central areas in districts 1 and 3, accepting to pay the sky high rents to obtain the advantageous land plots.

The reports by real estate consultancy firms all showed that the shopping malls in the central districts such as Diamond, Parkson, Vincom, Tax, Zen Plaza all have been fully occupied, though the rents here are sky high.

The rental at Diamond, for example, is about $220-250 per square meter, not including fees. Meanwhile, investors would have to pay $160-190 per square meter for the premises at Vincom, and $80-160 at Parkson.

A real estate broker said that Dong Khoi, Le Loi, Nguyen Hue and Le Quy Don are the “most expensive roads in the planet”. The rent for a premises capable to contain 100 guests would be no less than $5,000.

However, even when investors have big money, they still find it difficult to obtain reasonable premises. Anh of “Tao” restaurant said it took her two years to look for the place to develop the restaurant.

When Anh began thinking of developing a restaurant, Vincom Center B had put into operation already, while the premises there had been fully occupied. Therefore, Anh had to be patient and waited until an investor gave back the premises.

Meanwhile, Ngoc Diep said she had to spend half a year to look for the premises for her Khoai.

DNSG